Pawpaws in 2022

If you are giving Epsom salt as recommended by KSU it increases the possibility of sap coming up too early, resulting in damage from late frosts!
Paint trunk & provide winter protection.

Iā€™m on a northern hillside and avoid late frosts. This is the first season Iā€™ve hit them hard with fertilizer and the results have been drastically different from the previous two years. I think most of my losses have been from root rot. A wet early spring combined with excessive snow melt can sometimes lead to oversaturated soils in April. None of my trees leaf out until a week into May, and the solar and winter warmth isnā€™t too much of a problem here at 43.5N. If we hit 40F at all in DJF itā€™s a shorts day. :smile:

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Hi, Cliff England named ā€˜Windstarā€™. Avatar is a caramel-type pawpaw, very sweet and good, similar in flavor and texture to ā€˜Sunflowerā€™ but no bitterness detected so far.

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From my research Asimina triloba are very Chloride sensitive.
Hope that the Potassium wasnā€™t Potassium Chloride.
They are yeast symbiosis plants & Potassium kills yeast & mycorrhizae.
Excess nitrogen & Phosphate stimulate E.Coli, Aspergillus Niger & the fungi that cause black spot.
The conditions you described just complicate things further. Hope you find a mentor with experience with similar environments.

Luisā€¦

Iā€™d definietly contact the nursery from which you purchased the plant.

Barring that I might (were I in your situation) cut back to within 2-3 buds from the graft and see if it spurs the plant into pushing new, and hopefully better, growth.

Good luch with it.

Scott

Iā€™m using diluted urine which apparently many people have had success with with pawpaws. I follow a paleo type diet and take no pills whatsoever so Iā€™m not worried about the condition of my urine (salt content). Iā€™m planning to have UNH test my soil though.

Iā€™m doing my best, but this isnā€™t a life or death project for meā€¦itā€™s a hobby of mine and Iā€™m fascinated with the tree and Iā€™m growing it out of its native range. Iā€™m always learning, but as Drago said, ā€œif it dies, it dies.ā€

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Depends on what you eat.
Can be very high in Sodium Chloride, which will kill a young pawpaw!

A paleo diet typically includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Meats & fish very high in protein & Sodium Chloride.
It can scorch pawpaw.
Nuts very high in zinc.
I had problems with Zinc triggering apoptosis in my cloning research experiments.

Are there any known ways to increase healthy yeast populations in the soil for Asimina triloba? Compost I am guessing would help, but anything else within reach of a non-scientist like myself?

The answer is increasing symbiotic microbes quorum sensing functions, not necessarily populations.
Alabama A&M agriculture research is doing it by GMO mycorrhizae.
My research focuses on wild yeast & symbiotic behavior nutrient supplements.
In both cases, currently being researched.
Alabama A&M actually got 8% take on clones, however, their GMO mycorrhizae caused dwarfism in pawpaw.
So follow & hope for the best that discoveries happen soon.

Symbiotic Bacteria using FeMo-Cofactor enzyme nitrogen fixation resulted in death.
Asimina triloba uses (mycorrhizae & wild yeast symbiosis).

Fermenting fruit & mycorrhizae very good for soil with Asimina triloba

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Thanks, but I think Iā€™m good. My sodium intake is way lower than USDA guidelines. Like I said before, this spring is the first time Iā€™ve really fertilized them or used urine and this is the best theyā€™ve looked. Before that it was a little pelletized chicken manure that would make it in with them while I was fertilizing the lawn a couple times per year. So I guess weā€™ll see how it goes over the next couple months. I definitely appreciate the input though and will keep your points in mind when I finallly get my soil tested.

Anyone here growing the freestones (honeydew, cantaloupe, marshmallow) or tropical treat in northern zones and having success with them?

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Thank you, I did buy some mycorrhizae that is dissolvable in water for easy application but I really donā€™t know if the product itself is any good. Too soon to say if there is any notable difference, since I just started using it this spring.

Fermenting fruit, on the other hand, is something I have not tried. Will look into this.
Thanks!

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Welcome!

Whenever buying mycorrhizal products you always need to look for lab results that prove the product has viable micro organisms. Iā€™d go with specialty companies that specialize in these kinds of products and not Amazon.

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Thanks Blake, do you have any recommendations?

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Appreciate the recommendation! A third party seller has this on Amazon (of course, lol). I guess that prompts another concern. I think I need to do some more research on how long these propagules are even viable. If it is relatively short, then any fresh product that tests high at manufacture may be very low by the time I buy it. I am probably just sprinkling snake oil on my plantsā€¦ but Iā€™ve done worse :rofl:

Iā€™ve had all three ā€œfreestoneā€ pawpaws. They are good. I would grow others first but I am growing about 40 different varieties including them. They have more of a melon flavor which some people prefer. I usually prefer more tropical flavored pawpaws. Tropical Treat is a late season pawpaw. It may not be the best depending on how far north you are. A friend of mine still gets fruit from his in Massachusetts but I believe they donā€™t all ripen.

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