I posted them here. I get why people want to post in this thread, but when it comes to discussing specific cultivars, I always post in the other thread, because it’s not a discussion limited by the goings-on of this particular year.
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weatherandtrees
Anything can be used that would attract flies. Banana peels, rotting fruit, vinegar, etc. You can go vegan with it. Chicken manure would likely work as well.
Good info. I have a warning though. I put a remnant of a piece of chicken in my pawpaws one year. A cat jumped up into the tree and broke several branches. Use Blake’s methods instead.
JOhn S
PDX OR
Last year my young Allegheny pawpaw tree produced 1 fruit, a first. No doubt it was pollinated by a nearby Tropical Treat, which had flowered but did not hold fruit. I harvested 6 seeds, which I decided to try to grow. I cleaned the seeds, stored them all winter in the fridge, and then stored them at ~68-70 F in a pantry for what seems like 2 months. While stored at room temp, the seeds were kept in moist paper towel. I had to remove green mold a few times, but they seem OK nevertheless.
Now it seems (?) that the seeds are starting to split. I’m gonna plant them in individual pots later today.
Any suggestions would be welcome. I really that I should have asked months ago. As I once said to a friend who asked me to assess his pruning work, “The medical intern usually consults the surgical resident BEFORE cutting the patient!”
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Unfortunately those seeds look dead in my opinion. Hope I’m wrong.
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Thanks. What are the signs?
p.s. After seeing your message, I sacrificed one of the seeds, opening it to examine it. I have to agree with you – no signs of life.
Well, next time I’ll be more careful.
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Did you keep them moist at all times? They look a little dry. But I like warmer than 65-70° for germination…like 80s.
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I believe so. But maybe they dried briefly at some point. It’s been more than 6 months since I harvested them.
Has anyone attempted interstem grafting with ksu Chappell? I’m interested to see if that would help Susquehanna or other cultivars that are slow growers become more vigorous… I’m gonna give it a try next year on some of my seedlings and see how it plays out. I know with apples I use bud 9 as an interstem to keep the trees small without having to stake the tree… just got into grafting the last few years and it seems like the possibility is endless!!!
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I haven’t but I would think that having a good vigorous rootstock would be more important than a vigorous interstem. Susquehanna has not been a slow grower for me. I have two Susquehannas, one was a larger bare root grafted tree(planted in heavy sticky clay-barely grown much each year, no pruning) and another grafted potted tree(smaller at time of planting) in decent clay loam, and pruned annually for scion. The second tree has produced fruit for two seasons now and is easily twice as large.
Soil quality and nursery stock quality has a bigger impact than you might think.
We’re really just now stratching the surface of rootstock influence with pawpaw, since there are no clonal rootstock options for controlling tree size, precosity, or any enhancements in disease resistance.
This year I am starting a trial run of Prima seedlings to be used as rootstock. The seeds themselves are heavier than average pawpaw cultivar seeds(hopefully more first year growth). Prima is also self fertile so hopefully the seedlings have a better than average chance of being precocious and vigorous like the mother tree. We’ll see what happens, but I have heard anecdotal evidence to support that Prima seedlings make good rootstock.
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I did last year as a same-year interstem graft (2 grafts at one time) but killed them accidentally with a fertilizer incident so i couldn’t tell you if it helped them grow faster.
I’ll try it again this year but with some plants I bought so i can just graft 1 thing instead of 2 things, so it’ll be a bit easier
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Thank you for the info! That definitely makes sense as far as soil quality and looking forward to seeing what’s to come as far as rootstocks for pawpaws!
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Keep us all posted on how that goes!
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I believe there’s a few people trying Chappell interstems now.
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I’ve heard it said many times by the experts that pawpaw grafts tend to dieback in about 15 years.
I wonder what impact interstem grafting would have on the lifespan….
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Today was chopping day. I cut down 5 trees that were either unhealthy or produced meh fruit.
These were large trees, over 10 feet tall and several years old.
If any suckers come up, I’ll graft em over.
If not, I may plant the grafted seedlings shown in my recent posts.
Check out the interesting coloration in the first stump. It was cracking around the root flare and already was sending up a weak sucker last year.
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Looks like you had some big growth years 6-8 years ago. Wet years?
Maybe blue stem disease in that top image? Especially with the cracking base.
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Checked some of my seeds yesterday. Several moldy, none showing signs of growth among those tupperware I checked.
I’m clearly doing something wrong — just not sure what, since the method I tried last year and this year clearly work for other folks!
Think I’m going to take them out of the vermiculture and sow them in some 5 gallon buckets of soil and leave them outside to see if they sprout, just to clear the space in the basement.
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The seeds I tried saving in those “breathable” seed ziplock bags also grew a lot of mold for me, but when I saved them in a normal mason jar they were fine. I think next year I’ll try to save them in the fridge packed in some moist soil.
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Yeah so cool to see the varied ring thickness! We have had a couple wet years in there for sure (hard to imagine after last year’s brutality).
I need to read that paper about blue stem in pawpaws in OR. I’ve never heard of it!
Quick summary?
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Some type of fungus that kills trees. Maybe something similar, probably a good idea to burn the wood from that tree.