Here’s some of the 1L airpot seedlings. Almost all of these get full sun.
Seedlings from fruit from justpeachy. These all germinated this spring. 3 on the left came from either Shenandoah or Allegheny I believe. Next 3 were from Garage West. The 6 on the right were from Central.
This batch is of select seeds from Blake at Peaceful Heritage. This is year 2 for them and they really need to be repotted or planted in ground because the roots keep coming out of the bottom into the water in the bin and then dying back when it dries out (or when I siphon). I gave them a little 46-0-0 a couple weeks ago and may have done a little too much as some of the leaves started to take a hit. There is one germinating seed in there from Blake which came from a KSU 3-10 fruit. It got a little sunburn so I put it in with the older seedlings for shade.
These 3 were from justpeachy as well. I believe they were NC-1 seeds (only garage west and central were labeled). They get midday shade on the north side of the house.
And proof not to give up on seedlings even if the seed breaks off before it even puts out a leaf. This is another 3-10 seedling that is starting to sucker at the base after the seed broke off over a month ago. The growth above stayed fresh and green so I let it stay. Hopefully it can put some growth on and harden off before winter. I will probably have to mulch it heavily, but it was direct seeded so that tap root is way down there.
Wow, great work!! Lot of great looking pawpaws at different stages! And thanks for the advice, I’ll sure be less hesitant to put min in the open/exposed to sun.
Btw, you probably know, but the bottom of the 1L airpots are to be set two levels up to keep ventilation good. When doing the stacking method, the bottom pot wall has the “no hole dimples” end at the bottom, and if you just insert the bottom at level 2, there will be virtually no ventilation of the bottom of the pot. You will have even worse rooting through the bottom. You could just use a pruning scissor to cut off dimples to let air through. If you don’t want to “damage” the pot/dimples, you may want to set the pots on something perforated. A less optimal solution would be to put the bottoms at level 4 - but then you start losing a lot of the volume in the pot…
I planted a couple of the airpotted seedlings today to replace some dead trees. My sucker from the dead Nyomi D died for some reason too so I dug the whole thing out and transplanted it in the woods. My dying JBG was suckering at the bottom of the stock, but I said screw it and transplanted it into the woods as well. I never like to completely get rid of a rootstock or rootmass. I consider all of them valuable in this short life of ours.
Anyway, some pics of one of the planted seedlings and the roots. The taproot hit the bottom before the lateral rooting could really fill out completely around the pot. I’m going to go with the double stacked 1L airports from now on as shown above (thanks @Henrik ) so maybe that will help the lateral rooting catch up while the taproot has twice as far to go. We’ll see. I’ll find out from Henrik first. But even with the single 1L pot it’s a fibrous rootball. The biggest problem is not damaging the escaping taproot out of the bottom plate. The little bit of new white growth emerging in the pic broke off while trying to gently slip that plate off. But it shouldn’t be a big deal long term.
Happy to share the double-decker air-pot tip! … just remember the thing about ventilation of the bottom of the pot! I was thinking I should photograph how I cut the dimples to give better circulation at the bottom of the pot. I have one doble-height pot that has been sitting on a perforated shelving in my greenhouse - that one will join the 16 others outside in the coming days. Then I’ll trim the bottom rows of dimples - I’ll try to remember taking photo.
Also, last year 17 seeds germinated and started growing - but two of them died, either by drought during winter storage or just before winter set in and I brought them inside. Well, when I opened those pots, there weren’t many roots to speak of … Also, the main root was really fragile!!! … That might also have been a result of the plants being dead, maybe the roots were rotting.
Those I’ve brought outside this year, have really started to grow!!! The tip of exposing them to direct sunlight worked like a charm! Thanks! … Hopefully, that is also a sign of good root development.
I keep them in a tub of shallow rainwater and permanently keep them wicking upward so I don’t worry too much about the air circulation and pruning at the bottom. During dry stretches the tub will sometimes dry out before I refill it and they usually desiccate then. I think next year I’ll try both methods, and I’ll be sure to keep in mind your circulation tip. I could just use a drill or hot iron and make new holes in the bottom row too.
Here’s a question: I am thinking ahead to planting some pawpaw next year, and I want to try some flavors this year to see what I like (I’ve never tried one).
PawPaw Fruit | Rocky Point Blueberry Farm is the only place I found (I think via Neal’s site) that sells pawpaw near me (Boston area). I would be willing to drive an hour or two to sample some cultivars. Anyone have any suggestions on how to find farms or amateur growers with a variety of cultivars I could sample?
Thanks. I found the farm (linked above). Looks like pawpaw lady’s crop was killed by the late frost (Pawpaws). Neal Himself recommended a farm in NY on the facebook group. I’d love to eventually make it to Ohio but can’t this year.
Glad you plan to eat the fruit before planting the tree. Pawpaws are not for everyone. I cannot eat more than a couple fruit at a time. Some carry off-taste to it, too.
I am in 6a while the Pawpaw Lady is in 5b. So, her trees got more damage than mine during the Feb freeze. This spring I noticed that many pawpaws flowers turned black, wilt and fell off. Some bloomed but set no fruit. Only a few have survived.
Like other fruit trees such as peaches, nectarines, the trees may survive deep freeze or fluctuating temperature but flower buds often do not.
my pawpaw patch has an extra growing. I tossed the remaining seed that hadn’t germinated down in April or May and I’ve now got a tiny extra seedling coming up
all are doing well and I decided to put my potted seedling in ground. it had a 13" tap root. it’s got new leaves already.
This little guys parents live near London, Ontario. It is the first pawpaw seedling I have had emerge. It took two years. Last year in a pot it sent down a large taproot. I planted it outside in mid spring, and it finally emerged about a week ago.
My KSU seedlings in the air pruning bed continue to grow well. The tallest ones are probably hitting 8 inches and we have at least a couple months left before frost. There are some others that only emerged a few weeks ago so hopefully they’ll have time to harden off for winter.
First fruit fell yesterday. Here’s 3 of the 6 from my most productive tree, with a 50 cent coin for size comparison. No pests or disease, excellent size, strong fruity smell, mushy texture, melon the primary flavor, not as intensely flavored as last year, perhaps because of the four inches of rain we’ve had in the past two weeks.
I found out my neighbor is growing pawpaw treees in his yard on a walk yesterday. Haven’t figured out what cultivar but I plan to leave a note and ask.
Been spending a lot of the summer looking into cultivars for when I plant next spring. Well and also to prioritize which ones I taste this fall.
Hardest thing for me has been figuring out research on the annonacin content that I want to reduce as much as possible. I’ve seen the KSU slides but many of the cultivars don’t seem to have much info on it.
plants!..
… just remember the thing about ventilation of the bottom of the pot! I was thinking I should photograph how I cut the dimples to give better circulation at the bottom of the pot. I have one doble-height pot that has been sitting on a perforated shelving in my greenhouse - that one will join the 16 others outside in the coming days. Then I’ll trim the bottom rows of dimples - I’ll try to remember taking photo.
… Also, the main root was really fragile!!! 
… That might also have been a result of the plants being dead, maybe the roots were rotting.
