None of them should be considered precocious. KYSU did study many times. It’s luck of the draw based on rootstock seedling. There were some slight indicators that sunflower seedlings might help precociousness but that’s like for the first year only. You’re still waiting 6-8 years for fruit no matter what. There are no shortcuts with pawpaws.
6 Likes
GRB I’m pretty sure originated from Jim Nolan at Nolan Nursery, who is sadly no longer with us. I just checked my old notes that I had written after cross checking my observations and tastes with Cliff, and GRB is a heavily flavored pawpaw to both of us. Are you absolutely sure you grafted GRB and its not a mislabel?
1 Like
@GoodFriendMike i think got flowers year 3 from seed. we should be using his as rootstock lol
Good to see you!
Just for the record I believe it was John Brittain and Nolin River Nursery. Definitely sad loss. He was well respected.
I got to try GRB last year thanks to @Vid but was not impressed. However the drought was bad and neither of us I think had much good fruit.
1 Like
Yes, thank you for correcting me. It was John Brittain. Great guy. He was mostly a nut specialist, but dabbled in pawpaw and persimmon if I recall correctly.
His larger transplants were pricing but worth every penny. He had a big tree space machine to get the root with all the soil.
1 Like
It’s not uncommon to get flowers on young pawpaws. What ends up happening is that you either set fruit and then delay full maturity of the tree just to get that one or two fruits or the fruit aborts. A lot of people have seen and experienced this.
It has a more elongated shape which I think is true to type. I bought the twigs from peaceful heritage. I guess I trust their ID but mistakes can happen.
Blake Cothron’s book says it came from Carol Friedman in Hart County, KY.
Blake collated much of the information of the book from Cliff, and like all things human, there can be errors. It could be that John collected it from Carol. I would have to check with Cliff again, but I was under the impression that greenriverbelle was John’s. Two of the entries of Lehman’s pawpaws have an error in the book, but I don’t know if this was corrected in later printings. Cliff and Ron are the authorative source of knowledge when it comes to these things.
There are several stories in the nursery trade about how one trade started a cascade effect where all other subsequent trades were traced back to one specific mislabel. Cliff and Buzz have several stories where that has occurred.
I believe in the pawpaw world, Wells is the best example of this.
What’s the story with wells?
1 Like
I checked my records and turns out I bought the GRB scion from Cliff. So I’d guess it’s not a mislabel, but who knows.
Cliff has had mislabels before. It happens with every nursery.
I planted grafted trees in 2020, and they started fruiting in 3 growing seasons. Now most of the trees are taller than me and make more fruit than I have time to eat by myself. I think a lot of it comes down to growing conditions, you can have the most precocious genetics, but if the soil and climate is not condusive to precosity youll never see that expression. In ground trees that I topworked made fruit in three years. I have some more trees I am reworking and three years of good growth is what I expect before making more fruit.
I may have misunderstood your reply, maybe you meant 6-8 years from seed to fruit.
2 Likes
Yep that is what I meant. Sometimes occasionally there is someone who says 3 years from seed to fruit (i mean reliably not just one single random fruit that came while it was a whip).
2 Likes
No, I didn’t. The information in my book was collected from hours of talks and emails with Neal Peterson, KSU, Jerry Lehman, Cliff England, Ron Powell, Charles West and others, as well as my own extensive trials, experiments, exhaustive research, and cultivation of pawpaw trees which began around 2010 (I was foraging for them in the wild/parks since 2003).
There was a small error made with 1 or 2 of the numbered Lehman selections in the varieties section.
2 Likes
Actually GRB supposedly has some cinnamon flavor according to reports. Nyomi’s Delicious is a large, mild flavored, early ripening fruit with zero cinnamon like flavor.
1 Like
Yes. I don’t see how my statement conflicts with yours. I said much. I didn’t say exclusively. My apologies if it was interpreted as Cliff being sole resource. I never said that.
My bad, flipped them
I have not noticed a cinnamon flavor in my GRB. Its very sweet and mellow kind of like Shenandoah but on flavor alone I think it might be little better. It has an elongated shape and is medium sized and seedy compared with my Peterson varieties. Could be a mislabel from England’s I guess but it does check out in terms of size, shape, and being seedy.