Paw paw wound seems to have healed. No more fluid. For those interested in how long are OUR pawpaws taking to produce, we planted the first potted paw paw in 2018. As of this morning (2024) it is 10 feet tall. Last year, it produced the first buds…resulting in a large paw paw fruit. Only one. As of this morning, there are about 50-100 buds so we are hoping for maybe 20-30 fruit. We bought the original 3 potted paw paws from a local garden center. The tag said it was from Hollybrook Orchards but there was no classification (no type of paw paw) so we assume they are native or wild. We have since bought 3 more…but these are Sunflower and Prolific potted paw paws bought at the local paw paw festival. The latest 3 were planted in 2022…and are still only about 30 inches high. Photos attached.
How big was the potted pawpaw? It had to be either a one year or two year. If it wasn’t grafted, it could have been a 1 year.
Last I checked they sell native seedlings sourced from wild seed stock.
Hand pollinate if you can. Pawpaws usually do a good job of self-aborting flowers to self-regulate the amount of fruit they can handle ripening. If they overcrop and you don’t thin, you’ll just end up with small fruit. Remember that seed size doesn’t change. So no matter what its big seed. It’s either small fruit with big seed or big fruit and big seed.
Somewhere Cliff England wrote: “I just don’t have words to describe how good Chappelle tastes.” That’s all I needed to know. And… he’s right.
I think Cliff evaluates pawpaws very fairly, even those he would not necessarily choose himself. (Also I could have sworn that’s a Woody Walker quote not a Cliff England one. I know there is no quote from either in the book under the Chappelle entry.)
Lately he seems to be on an Al Horn binge these past couple of years.
I know that if you give him a call and chat with him he will tell you he prefers lighter flavor pawpaws for eating himself. That doesn’t disqualify mid to heavier flavored pawpaws and he will still give them high marks when he feels it’s merited, even if they would not be his personal eating choice.
All of KSU stuff imo is better than their Peterson equivalents, but they are a generation ahead in breeding, so I don’t think that should come as a surprise.
I just bought a KSU Chappell and Susquehanna from Restoring Eden, looks like one didn’t ship well.
Hope it makes it.
I see it leafing below the break. Should be ok. I would send an email to RE just so you have some documentation in case it goes belly up.
Yes, already sent an Email. Troy was nice and told us to keep him posted.
I seem to recall Cliff had a cultivar that he had a whole section of that he preferred for fruit sales. Was that Nyomi Del?
Sheesh.
FWIW, I planted Allegheny and Tropical Treat in 2018. Both trees are now roughly 7’ tall. I’d say my trunks are not as thick as yours. Last year one of the trees had some blossoms but obviously we got no fruit without a pollinator. This year both trees seem to have flower buds. I didn’t count – I thought I’d let them get bigger first – but it seems more like a dozen each, definitely not 50-100.
Well considering they are in cali and can probably grow avocados given their user name (unless they just really like avocados), I would expect their trees to be much farther ahead.
My bareroot trees from DW (CA) always come in much larger caliper than the ones from ACN ( PA) or Cummins (NY). Any jujube from DW almost comes in at double or triple the caliper than those I have purchased from anywhere else.
The only pawpaw I have seen to grow ridiculously fast on the east coast are those where you cut down main tree and let a nearby sucker live. Those put on serious growth in a single year.
I think you’re right. In his catalog Cliff says I can’t say enough good things about Chappelle. That’s what I was thinking of.
If you really want them to callus nicely, next time I would hold off pruning any large limb if you can avoid it till probably 70-80s. Pawpaws grafting temp is much like nuts and stone fruit in that they like it warm.
Derek it might be good to add that both (Kirk Pomper & Blake Cothron) claim to have Susquehanna seedlings with these traits of extra sweet with very dense flesh.
Blake’s is Vishnu or Sri Vishnu or Sri Gold.
Pomper’s is a (Susquehanna x Sunflower) which isn’t named yet, as it’s a very young tree just starting to yield.
Susquehanna holds good promise for new cultivars.
Tom Wahl has 8 rare Susquehanna crosses.
Jim Davis also has new Susquehanna & Allegheny crosses.
Timothy Lane has plans to do one of his meet the cultivar videos from Jim’s farm later this year.
Update on the pawpaw saga:
At some point before we picked up the pawpaws, the other plant partly broke at the graft line but was still buding out on the semi-broken part. The other (mentioned above) lost the bud in the picture and just looked like a dead stick.
We ordered another Susquehanna in hopes the one broken at the graft point would survive and be Chappell. The new one came intact and they were both planted in ground.
Since then, of the two planted in ground, the broken one (with sun protection) burned up and died but the Susquehanna (without sun protection) is still growing happily. Somehow, it liked our 109°F weather we got on May 16th.
The interesting thing is the other “dead stick” was left in the greenhouse and has since come back to life:
Should I simply let everything grow out for a while or should I knock off the buds below the graft line?
I’d leave it alone for now. Once the grafted bud has grown a couple nodes rub the rootstock ones off.
I would force all growth through the graft.
Agreed, I do this with everything. Any below graft sucker I scratch off instantly year round
I don’t see how the rootstock tree could affect the qualities of the fruit from the scion. Genetically, they are two separate varieties. The scion variety should not be affected so far as I understand this issue. I do not think that the sap contains these toxins but rather they are produced by the fruit itself as it forms, according to variety.
Again FWIW, an update – my Allegheny and Tropical Treat, both planted in 2018, both seem to have tiny fruit this year for the first time.
Edit: Update a/o 6/11/24: Roughly 20 blossoms per tree were whittled down to 2-3 fruit clusters per tree. Then evidently these clusters dropped off. At this point I see no fruit on one tree and one cluster of 3 fruits on the other.
I assume it’s just a process of the trees maturing.