This is my pawpaw planting I started last June. Not a whole lot to show, but I expected them to be slow. How long can I expect to wait for fruit production?
Potomac
Shenandoah
Wabash
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Pawpaws require constant moisture but must have very well drained soil at the same time. ‘Wet feet’ usually implies poor drainage and constant wetness. Pawpaws won’t thrive like that.
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How long to fruit production? 4-5 years with good care, fertilizer, etc. Looks good and excellent varieties!
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For those interested, my trees will be ready in about 5-6 weeks. They’re big this year and looking very solid.
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A neighbor here has 3 fruiting pawpaw trees of about 8 feet each all right next to each other. One in full blossom; another barely showing signs of leafing. I am assuming this is a seasonal variation. Didn’t realize it could be that intense, if so.
I’m hoping my Florence White from Blake made it through the winter. It’s still showing absolutely now signs of green, while my Titan is aggressively leafing. I know Woody has reported the Titan leafs and blooms early so I am hoping the Florence white is just lagging, though it could have easily died based on my own mishandling.
The others I got last year are all up north at my folks’ place; I’ll get to check them in ~2 weeks (and maybe see how @weatherandtrees is doing).
None of my seeds are showing any activity still, but of the 10 kentucky nursury seedlings, 8 are now leafing out, which isn’t bad; let’s see if they survive being put in the ground, of course. If so, I’ll have a few years to learn to graft and sample more fruit before I put some premium scion on them.
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I knew it couldn’t just be the fruit and scale bug I found/popped the size of a marble. XD
I have Groundwork All Purpose fertilizer (10-10-10). How much should I put on 2 year old pawpaw trees? I have never fertilized them before
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I’ve seen optimal grafting temps for pawpaw that are all over the place. Some say need 85F to callus, some say optimal 65-75F, etc.
I’m glad to hear people had success at lower temps on this thread because I made a wild guess and grafted in early May here - the highs were mostly around 75F. A couple days didn’t get above 65F. I’ll see how they do. It’s my first time grafting pawpaw.
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Here is KSU’s take on this: Kentucky State University | Fertilization and Irrigation of Pawpaw
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I am strictly organic with everything I grow. I give every orchard pawpaw about 2 lbs of granulated chicken manure 2x per season and also a few liquid feeds of a water soluble such as fish emulsion.
I don’t fertilize until all chance of frost is over. One year I pushed more growth out via fertilizing early and a late frost burned it all off.
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That’s in Mass right?
My larger trees have about 1” leaves just emerging. Only the potted trees look like the first pic. That last pic is concerning to me considering how large some of those leaves on the bottom are while there’s little to no growth at the top.
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Yep — within 5 miles of Boston
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Have you had your soil tested?
10-10-10 is pretty high in K and P. In many situations it’s better to apply a high N fertilizer in spring- but you wouldn’t know unless your soil was tested.
I had enough K and P in my soil, so I was encouraged to apply 1/4lb 16-0-0 per year of tree age, in spring, 2x (eg. March and April).
Then, if the trees were growing too much I should only fertilize in March the following year. If they grew too little, add another round in May.
If your soil lacks K and P there is probably a recommendation on the 10-10-10 for how much to feed. One publication I saw said the same thing though: 1/4lb 10-10-10 per year of tree age, in spring, 2x (eg. March and April).
For spreading more broadly (not per tree) from Virginia Tech when you want “Nitrogen only”:
"one of the following amounts per 100 sq. ft. — 1.25 lbs (2 cups) of nitrate of soda (16-0-0) or 1.33 lbs (2 2/3 cups) of calcium nitrate (15-0-0) or 1.0 lb (2 1/2 cups) of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) or 0.4 lbs (1 cup) of urea (46-0-0). Do not over fertilize! These products will burn plants at high rates! If you are unable to find one of these fertilizers, apply a turf-type (lawn maintenance) fertilizer that is high in nitrogen with little or no phosphorus and potassium at a rate close to 0.2 lb of nitrogen per 100 sq. ft., such as applying two-thirds of a pound of either 26-0-2 or 32-0-4. "
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A bittersweet spring; I think this is the first year I’ve had such widespread pawpaw fruit set, and that the young fruits have gotten this large. They’ve previously set few clusters, and aborted them very soon, when smaller. I tried to hand-pollinate a handful of flowers, but the set has been much more widespread that those few, so I guess I have some busy insects around, which is good news!
The bitter news is that they unfortunately got hit by some pretty bad herbicide drift this year. Though they seem to be taking it better than the apricots, pears, and peaches…so far anyway. Is there a certain size at which the fruit become more likely to be kept by the tree? How many fruit should one allow a tree that is only 5-6 feet tall set? Given the herbicide damage, I’m leaning toward removing all but one cluster of fruit on both trees (trees are Chapelle and Maria’s Joy). But I’m also concerned that removing too many too early risks resulting in the last cluster being aborted…
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Should be fine thinning each cluster to single fruits, if the tree cant support them they will drop either way.
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With the damage to your trees, I would not be thinning the fruit right now. It’s too early to thin them anyway. Let the June drop do it’s thing and proceed from there.
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Took me awhile to find this but this is my soil test result. Im not sure how much NPK is needed to amend only the area around my trees
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Who knows? Soil tests aren’t very reliable. I base everything on how my trees are growing. Shoot length and leaf size will tell you all you need to know.
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