Not too early unless they’re leafed out.
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Not too early
They’re tough and want to get that taproot established as long as the ground is sufficiently warm enough to dig appropriately
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Anyone ever had a young flower eaten? Birds/caterpillar?
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Yes, that has been an issue for some of us on here. Likely the most problematic pest to suspect is the pawpaw peduncle borer. Other pests that may feed on pawpaw blossoms are slugs and earwigs. My issue was with earwigs, but if you are in an area where wild pawpaws are common then I would look up the pawpaw peduncle borer. I started using Surround on the trunks and branches to discourage the earwigs last year and will continue trying that this year to see if it makes a difference.
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Yeah I have some of that every year. Just happened to notice several the other day. Annoying but for mature trees has not been an issue overall. I recall a post here a while ago where someone seemed to pinpoint the culprit….
Indeed I figured it probably isn’t a huge deal overall but does feel a little bad for some of your first flowers.(so far only one out of ~12 or so affected on a single tree, other tree is still okay.
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I think it depends on if you think the “sap” is starting to flow. A short bout of 28° may be okay, but with the pattern in the extended for the eastern US looking cooler, if you still have the potential for mid 20s or colder I’d be thinking twice about it.
Some of the buds on the seedlings in my basement are starting to have that “look”, so I’m definitely waiting to avoid cambium damage. But we can still do single digits here too.
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Looks like the deer nibbled off the top of a few of my 2 year old, 2 foot tall trees. Hope for them?
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I once had a pawpaw that in one year:
- rabbits girdled about 1/2" above the ground during winter, but it re-sprouted from the rootstock
- then my dad drove over it with a lawnmower, but it re-sprouted
- Then I tried to protect it with a coffee can, but didn’t consider it was summer, and the coffee can created a little oven that scorched the new growth. This finally killed it permanently.
That was all in one growing season. So that’s to say, they’re tough plants. I think you’ll be fine. Unless they browsed to below the graft (if there was a graft)
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They should be fine. Pawpaws can grow back easily, even if cut to the ground. A bit of deer pruning while still dormant is nothing. The only issue that this causes is in the way that it grows back. It may try to send out several vertical-growing branches to replace the nipped central leader, so you would want to thin those out at some point this year to keep the tree in good form. It may also grow back 1 central leader and send out branches. At less then 2 ft tall, I’d recommend pruning most branches it tries to put out until it gets taller, unless you want a bushier tree with low branches.
And like RedRam said, if it was browsed below the graft on a grafted tree, then that is obviously bad as you won’t have a grafted tree anymore.
I just fed out alpaca poop onto the leaf litter and scratched it in, all around the pawpaws. they aren’t budding out yet here but I figure the rains will soak the stuff down in for a good start
that lil tree you sent me is alive and I’m excited to see it wake up this year. thanks again friend
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You are welcome.
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I emailed Sheri Crabtree about this specifically awhile back and she gave me the go-ahead to use Chapell as an interstem. As long as I am not using it to sell fruiting trees she didn’t seem concerned about patent or copyright issues.
I’m planning trials of Chapell x Mango for rootstock too. That should yield fairly vigorous offspring.
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Timothy Lane concurred on the late ripening and from many reports I’ve read on this one, it’s excellent and worth the risk in marginal areas.
To me, the very late pawpaws are like the opposite challenge of growing apricots with extremely early blooms wiping out a crop. Sometimes you’ll ripen a harvest, sometimes the frost will take them out.
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Checked on my seeds after two weeks (moist vermiculite, heating pad, dark because of a towel over them to keep them warmer in cold basement). No root activity (wouldn’t necessarily expect any at 2 weeks), but some mold on some seeds. Anything I can/should do at this point?
I always let mine “breathe” with the cover loose. If you have supplemental heat underneath I would think they’re plenty warm enough in a basement. If yours is anything like my unfinished basement, any moisture down there is a recipe for mold to begin with. But I’ve never had mold on my seeds on the pellet stove top…only later in the season on late stragglers that I move into the garage once the weather starts getting hot. Those ones almost always never germinate. So that may not be a good sign.
Is it just a few molding? I’d probably separate those into their own place to germinate after cleaning them back up a little. Good luck.
I still haven’t started mine yet. I should get on that later today.
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I haven’t been letting mine breathe, wanted to keep them warm and wet.
The basement is around 50F, and the table has slats, so with the supplemental heat and no towel it was only around 65F, which I thought might be too cold.
Some of these seeds had mold incidents in the ziploc bags during stratification, despite me cleaning and peroxiding them in October. When I noticed, I changed out the paper towels, but I’m not totally surprised.
I also had an incident where most of my seeds froze in the fridge for some reason, so I don’t know if many of them died anyway.
I have so many seeds that I remain hopeful some will sprout healthily…but last year, I was the kiss of death to seeds, and already it feels like I’ll be the same thing through a different method for mysterious inadequacies of my own…
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I doubt it got cold enough in your fridge to freeze them. It gets pretty cold in the winter in their northern native range.
Do you have the seeds somewhat covered with moist vermiculite (or whatever you’re germinating them in)? If so, I don’t think you need to worry about covering them that much. I usually firmly push mine in a bit and then smooth out the displaced vermiculite over them to create a layer covering them.
My living room is fairly dry, I keep the ceiling fan on reverse, and there’s indirect sunlight as well. So there’s plenty of dry air movement around the containers…but if the seeds are covered and the vermiculite is kept moist (not soaking) the seeds will be kept moist regardless of how dry the room is…just keep an eye on the surface moisture and if it starts getting dry give them some mist.
But if those few seeds had mold from the beginning they could be unviable duds to begin with.
Hopefully it works out. If not I will probably have more seedlings than what I know what to do with and can spare some.
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It was very weird because nothing else was frozen in the fridge. But the paper towels were definitely frozen solid, even if the seeds inside weren’t.
They’re completely covered in originally-soaked-now-moist vermiculite. I can unbury them a bit, which would also help keep an eye on.
If this works out I’ll have more seedlings than i know what to do with…and if I somehow killed them all, and you have extras from Tim’s yard, I’ll certainly take you up on that.
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Sorry…I meant to say I doubt a little bit below freezing damaged them. I wasn’t doubting you had some ice in there. 
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