I have some rootstocks I did not graft onto because they looked dried out and in bad condition. I planted them temporarily almost horizontally and they have begun sprouting many shoots, indicating your suggestion may be viable.
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disc4tw, Impossible there is nothing hahahaha.
I have had experiences in non-sexual multiplication of varieties very reluctant to their multiplication by rooting or other systems (even in vitro) since nowadays the Murashige & Skoog culture media are for sale in any country and it is not so complicated, It is only a matter of asepsis, temperature and light.
For example in pistachio or persimmon, and with knowledge and patience some positive results are obtained.
But it is necessary to evaluate if all that effort is worth it for the result obtained, when the rootstock of any variety is at a low price in the nurseries, and multiplication by grafting is the most fun in the world.
Furthermore, a well-performed graft technique becomes “an art”.
Regards
Jose
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have you done successful tissue culture at home?
How did you keep everything sterile? did you use a HEPA filter/fan/cabinet combination?
Or a glovebox/alchol spray?
Where did you get the needed media and growth regulators?
I want to try out DIY home tissue culture some day.
But some of the materials only can be bought at “special” stores. That require papers or a company.
So far however, I’m root grafting hard to propagate stuff. that seems like a viable DIY alternative. (basically digging up the plant i want to multiply, cut of some thicker roots, cut of some cuttings. And graft those together.
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for those side shoots to successfully make roots, you usually want to bury them 4+" deep. (i usually go 4-8" )
It seems like the fresh growth growing trough a dark but damp growing medium promotes a different “structure” of the shoot that more easily forms roots. Still it can take a couple of months. So usually you don’t dig them up, until dormant season.
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The problem with pawpaws, is that the roots stop growing in the dormant season so to have any success they need to be worked with in the growing season. I think that is one of the factors that presents a large challenge versus some other fruit trees.
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The process you and @oscar are describing is called etiolation. Basically the shoot growing in darkness helps it revert to a juvenile state and be more flexible in whether it makes root or shoot type growth. It’s something I want to try out with persimmons, so I’d love to see your results with pawpaws.
I had collected some of the basic information and variations on the technique in be the thread below.
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Funny you bring that up Was just reading about how White asparagus is made burying the Stalks to be growing without sunlight called etiolation which is twice as expensive.
I know others know this here,
I do not know it so well (or can explain )so let them explain better
What about the process of re grafting which you would have to do for this technique
#1 getting a root stock that is poor fruit quality
#2 re grafting your desired scion
#3 let grow, but then Girdle below the graft hoping to form roots on graft union.
#4 cut, and re use the rootstock , and plant out Scion that grew roots on the graft union.
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Anyone who successfully clones a pawpaw by rooting a cutting will be instantly world-famous!
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I’m sure it’s possible (and maybe has already been done). It’s just a matter of whether it’s worth the effort.
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I always espouse the idea that nothing is absolute or “impossible” in the world of plants, so I am with you there.
However, from what I know of the international-scale research being done on pawpaws, it has not been accomplished or at minimum replicated in a sustainable way.
I am not omniscient by any means - I’m basing this on publications of KSU and presentations on the topic at the last International Pawpaw Conference in 2016.
Many commercially significant plants are propagated by cuttings but to date pawpaw is not one of them, I believe for a reason, sadly.
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also keep in mind when a uni study is done on such a thing, they test if the commercially viable technique’s in use now, work with pawpaw.
If 5% root after misting them for 3 months, that’s not commercially competitive with tissue culture. So there is no need to test out if they will root at all. It’s only useful to test if they root within a time-frame and method that’s commercially competitive to the alternative (in this case tissue culture)
So that’s what they test for.
since pawpaw suckers root, and can be transplanted. I’d be amazed if the stoolbed would not produce viable rootstocks. Although they probably need more time, or would produce les than an MM111 stoolbed for example.
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No you and @jcguarneri make a good point about commercial viability.
Maybe some hermit in the mountains has rooted pawpaws and no one knows 
But my understanding is the pawpaw growing community has no knowledge of anyone doing it at all.
I could be way off 
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are you talking about
-hardwood cutting
-softwood cuttings
-rooting suckers
-or just cloning (same genetics for roots as the top growth)
depending on how you define it, “cuttings” can be seen as many things.
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I have some neglected pawpaw seedlings around. This one had been haphazardly growing in a pot with multiple other seedlings. It had slumped over and grew laying on the soil. I probably didn’t even provide it very regular water in my arid climate. When I separated the seedlings and potted them up, I noticed this one had layered itself while lying sideways on the soil.
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@AaronN that is exactly the type of thing I would like to have going for a grafted cultivar. Unlike apples, cherries, pears, etc there is no “go-to” rootstock for pawpaws which helps to dwarf /provides disease resistance etc and as such, I expect any cultivar would be just as likely to do well on its own roots. Having a “stool bed” setup of suckers from a known cultivar would be beneficial for multiple purposes.
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That’s pretty darn cool. I do think the fact that it is a seedling helps a lot. Rooting or layering a named variety may be more difficult, though. If it’s matured enough to produce fruit, it may not be able to revert well enough for its tissues to be sufficiently flexible in what they become.
To compare with persimmons, Japanese researchers had best success rooting kaki cuttings that were taken from root suckers, which are in a more juvenile state. They got an own-rooted tree that produced suckers by tissue culture, which I believe took 72 iterations before it regained its juvenility to set roots!
So I think once you manage to get that first tree on its own roots, you should be able to root suckers from there. But getting that first own root tree might be a one in a thousand (or more) chance. Alternatively, if you have your own fantastic new seedling variety, that would by default be on its own roots.
Long story short, I hope people keep trying just because it’s intellectually satisfying. However, I think long term, grafting will remain the dominant means of propagation. It’s good enough, even with a relatively short lifespan.
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I am referring to hard or softwood cuttings, active or dormant.
That is, an above-ground piece of a branch or main trunk. not a sucker that has been dug up or a root section etc.
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4-8 years is a long time to wait for a tree that may only live to 15 though… I guess that is part of my motivation. If I knew I was getting a tree that had a vastly longer life span, I would even be ok with spending more on it.
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The hard part is getting the named variety on its own roots to begin with.
The example above from @AaronN is really cool but those roots are connected to an existing root system, whereas a cutting from a grafted portion of a named variety of course is not.
Agreed. I wonder if grafting lower, onto the root system itself instead of the trunk, is a method that has been explored with any degree of success. I guess with all things considered, there is also the challenge with a tap root growth habit too.
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