Yes, moist. It might be too cold; although these are on a heating mat, it’s heating mat → muffin tin -?> peat pot with soil, and the room is at 60F most of the time. So the heating mat may not be enough to heat the soil. I know @weatherandtrees tends to see faster growth but I may not be providing that heat.
@FarmGirl-Z6A — great idea for both moisture and heat, let me see if I can grab some of those cheaply.
Here’s some seedlings that I grew out in 32-cell rootmaker trays spring 2022 and planted in the fall:
I took these pictures today. 16 of the seedlings were planted in this orchard. I protected them with corrugated black plastic.
I also have a bunch of seeds that I got from fruit that I just stuck in a bag and labeled with the variety and put them in the fridge. I wanted to see if I could skip the damp “pro-mix in a bag” step for stratification. The seeds look great! I planted one and put the rest in a bag with damp pro-mix, lol. I am planning to start those directly in ground.
These pictures are all from today:
For inquiring minds, I’m propagating figs in the rootmakers and elderberry and blackberries are pictured here too. Finally, that bag on the right contains heartnuts. Three have germinated so far, two of which are planted in the tree pots behind the bag. I planted the other one, but it died for some reason.
Oh and there is a NA paw paw in a tree pot that has not leafed out that I got from an acquaintance.
I started a new project today. I had my son use our post hole digger to dig 2 - 2.5 foot holes with a 8 inch bit.
I filled the holes with a mixture of chicken waste, sand and pea shoot bottoms grown in organic pro-mix.
I put some of the native soil on top and added two seeds from either Shanadoah, Tollgate, or Atwood.
Covered the seeds and now we wait until June for them to emerge! I will probably mulch these tomorrow as well.
This is basically the Miyawaki way of preping the soil when planting a fast growing forest. I’m not planting a forest, but I am interested in getting these seed to grow into trees fast.
I run a high school gardening club and each spring I do a grafting demonstration and let a student try it themselves. The administration would lose their minds if I handed a student my own grafting knife, so I use an omega tool to do the demonstration with them…
They have their uses, but they are not my own personal choice for a choice variety in my own yard.
Yes, that is a major problem teaching people to graft .
Have frequently had blood flowing from people I was teaching.
Really should get people to sign a waiver of liability ?
Or something?
Lately ,I have just been demonstrating knife technique myself.
Let them go home to practice.With their own knives and band-Aids . I think it’s important to teach grafting with a knife.
Chain glove or something similar?
After a deep cut on my finger last year to resulted in a trip to urgent care (so embarrassing after almost a decade of grafting experience)
i been using these:
https://a.co/d/2qmgZH9
I just bought these for oyster shucking and they might work out as well
https://a.co/d/fAQGzei
Nothing is as “sticky” as human fingers but its better than nothing. Lose some dexturity at the price of safety. Id also wear goggles nowadays sometimes. After a long grafting day you sometimes forget you have a knife in your hands hehe. And also if you in a ladder bending down branches to graft , they are like spring loaded weapons that can fly up n poke your eye 
I use regular nitrile gloves. They have excellent feel. As long as you use a gentle rocking motion, there is absolutely no danger of cutting yourself. If you try and force it, you could still get injured.
April 1, still no seed growth…wish it was April Fools. Will give them a little longer (can’t hurt) but am wondering whether I soaked in bleach solution too long (or too strong) or if the brief freeze in my fridge (still not sure how that happened) killed them. Otherwise, they didn’t dry out, and definitely had enough time.
e: possible soil is still too cold, with a wimpy heating mat under a metal muffin tin…have a heat dome I just got I’m going to put over it now, but at least the soil shouldn’t have ever dried out.
Q: do we have any real updated “science” yet on which pawpaws are safest for zone-pushers (I hope to plant some seedlings in zone 5) and which cross-pollinate early enough? I’ve read through @Blake’s book and tried to piece everything together as best I can, but I don’t know what is the best data, and even if I can get my hands on (say) Halvin’s and Nyomi’s, will they cross-pollinate or does the timing not work out?
cc @weatherandtrees and @disc4tw
As far as I understand it, going with early ripening is still your best bet.
As far as pollination, pawpaw flowers transition from female to male over the course of a few days so I imagine you would have a reasonable amount of cross pollination with whichever varieties you trial. They do not all flower at once so if you miss an early window for example, the later ones should work out.
And you run a double edged sword in marginal areas, because you want them to remain dormant past final frost or they will be nuked, but also need enough days to ripen.
my seedlings are all alive, there are 5 of them right now. they are bendy but not budding yet.
nods
Thanks Ryan. I had my eye on Halvin’s for that reported hardiness and early ripening, and that + Nyomi’s delicious (also reputed early ripening).
I read some promising things about other varieties, e.g. Blake describes Balarama producing despite frost (but perhaps just because it is so late season it ducked it?). Shenandoah (gotta grow at least one Peterson pawpaw given it’s also my last name), Summer Delight, Kentucky Legend (yes I know) all also on my shortlist as things to consider right now…
I tried to piece through possible Zone5b pawpaws (early ripening and put these down to plant at my friend’s NY farm).
If anyone has any disagreements, let me know.
Allegheny
Summer Delight
VE-21
Maria’sJoy
Halvin/Halvin’s Siderwinder
Nyomi’s Delicious
NC1
PA-Golden
KentuckyChampion
Overleese (maybe i heard its later fruiting but its opens its flowers early to pollinate KentuckyChampion’s early flowers… but someone said the flowers on pawpaws are open for so long that may not be needed)
Shenandoah
KentuckyLegend (maybe early?)
Update: Buzz from Perfect Circle farms says to add:
TAYTWO and Tallahatchee
Not sure about below, Cliff’s site says they are early:
KSU Atwood/KSU Benson
Yepper that’s a pawpaw elbowing up.
inch-resting. This one is definitely breaking through. However, I’m not seeing any others, and when I had to remove a few of these to make way for other seeds I’m starting, the other 4 seeds were inert.
I’m kicking myself for using old and evidently hydrophobic soil to start these. I bought a new bag, but it was from last season, and from the moment I planted them I could see the water not sticking. The humidity dome helps with that up top but not in the bottom.
After searching and reading different pawpaw threads for about an hour, I still can’t seem to find any solid advise on how to use Urea (46-0-0) in powdered form. I just bought a 50# bag for 39 dollars and some change. I’d really like to see some major growth on the pawpaws that I have planted.
Would anyone like to tell me how they are using it?
