Sunflower
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Q: how old/tall/mature do pawpaws need to be to be able to do well without shade cloth? I am thinking of buying some seedlings from @Blake when they go on sale next week (I paid for the VIP access) and Iām unsure if I can put them straight in the ground in an area that gets ~6hrs of sun or if I need to figure out some shading first.
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I only shade them for their first growing season, and full sun after that(Southern IN near the OH river). An accidental experiment I did this year, I had kept some young pawpaw seedlings in the basement and left them down there too long. They grew in almost complete darkness, and they had about a foot of completely white growth.
Right now they are in full sun with small green leaves. Parts of the stem turned black but they are all growing despite my neglect.
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I was grafting some seedlings in a forested area of my property earlier and was surprised to see a small tree, less than 3ā tall and 1/4" diameter, with a small fruit hanging on it:
Close up view:
Iāve seen younger plants put out flowers, but not hold on to fruit this long. Is this normal?
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That was my thought as well. It looks more like a parviflora, which would make sense with the fruiting at a small size, since they donāt get as big. Did it have very small flowers?
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Thanks for the tip! After further research does seem to indeed be A. parviflora. I had spread a bunch of triloba seeds here a couple winters ago, so didnāt even cross my mind.
Iāll have to grow out a couple seedlings for my orchard now. Will be interesting to see how the ones I grafted get on.
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I mentioned A. Parvaflora because I though you might be in its range, your description of plant size fruiting habit fit.
Bonap lists 10 species of Asimina in N . America.
Most in the deep south Florida, or coastal plain.
Here in Western West Virginia there is supposedly only one species. A .triloba . But I am starting to suspect hybrids.
When I started growing named varieties , The first thing I noticed was how large some of the cultivars flowers were compared to the local native ones. Some named varieties the flowers, are twice the size of the natives here . A. parviflora I believe has smaller flowers. It is not supposed to occur here. Nor its hybrids .
āA.piedmontanaā
Additionally, some native patchās I thinned overstory off of 20 yrs ago . Still seem short to me,~10 ft.
Other groves are 30+ ft.
So I have to wonder if there are more hybrids around than is recognized ?
Or farther range than is recorded.?
The plants donāt read / or write our books,itās up to us to sort out.
.lots of diversity in pawpaw genetics out there!
Asimina Ć piedmontana - Wikipedia.
.
,
http://www.namethatplant.net/PDFs/Castanea_Asimina_Horn2016_15-067.pdf
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We have our first Paw Paws developing on one of our trees. The tags disappeared long ago - and I donāt know what varieties I bought. One is a Shenandoah . . . the other???
Only one is producing fruit so far. Kind of exciting.
The second tree is not as full - or vigorous. It flowered . . . but no fruit. Just for fun I took scions from each tree and grafted them to the other! Hereās the second tree.
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Any good fruit protection bags for pawpaws?
Id maybe need them for clusters of 3 fruit (maybe individual bags for all 3?).
Last couple years i used giant ziplocks and surround the whole fruit around end of season like 2 weeks be4 they become ripe (and close the ziplock up until the middle where only the stem is open). I was hoping the ziplock hides the smell as ripening. Think raccoons still tore into them and got a few.
Maybe id like to try individual protection bags if anyone has an amazon recommendation.
I assume using a ziplock over the whole season would introduce unwanted mold/moisture, so thinking these bags might be nice to use now for 2-3 months to prevent animals clawing at them
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My guess is Shenandoah & Susquehanna.
Shenandoah being the one fruiting.
Shenandoah is fast growing in both cold & hot environments.
Sets fruit heavy at a young age.
And is early ripening.
Susquehanna is much slower growing & has rippled quilted leaves.
At least in our Susquehanna shows nutrient imbalance in the leaves far more Shenandoah.
My best guess via pics.
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Protection from what?
Birds, insects, fungi, dry air & wind, sun, chupacabra, racoons, possum?
Here in the desert we use mylar emergency blanket cuttings &or aluminum foil.
Protection from sun, wind, dry air, birds, most insects.
Doesnāt help with voles or disease.
Unless disease vectors is the issue, rather than something airborne.
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Hereās a question: these seedings were planted from seeds that came from fruit of what I suspect was the same tree (unsure if it was the same literal piece of fruit since I had a few). However, since itās an open question how they were pollinated, are these two seedlings likely to be able to pollinate each other? Does it depend if it is the same piece of fruit?
My understanding is clones canāt pollinate clones, and cultivars canāt pollinate cultivars, but I donāt know about seedlings.
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I think protection from mammals clawing at the fruit before they even get to the ripe stage.
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They will be able to. My understanding is that pawpaws have a perfect flower, but natural timers and inhibitors between flowers on the same tree make it so that they are very rarely self-fertile.
Allegheny was one of 12 seedlings from a single Davis cultivar fruit.
It was the only one of the 12 with superior fruit, per Neal Peterson.
Kirk Pomper of KSU has proven that some cultivars are up to 16% self fertile, while others are 0%
Another laboratory claims that soil micronutrients play a role in Allele rejection.
The topic is very complicated & requires a lot more research!
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Talk to Timothy Lane.
He has a YouTube channel & is on many FB pawpaw sites
He has a major problem with that & has been troubleshooting it.
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I have a lot of climbing predators myself. Donāt waste your time covering the fruit. Itās easier to make it where they canāt climb the tree at all. Here they climb my trees breaking branches all the way and then steal the fruit. So far my one foot fence rings have kept them off as well as buck rubs. I may later switch to stove pipe to defeat tree rats as well.
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May eventually need giant chicken wire or welded wire cages around the entire tree?
Iām using farm fence from TS now in one foot rings. Has worked well for deer rubs and larger mammals. Tree rats are still able to climb them though.
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