@TrilobaTracker Perhaps it’s due to the unusually long warm season in the UK this year. I’m in Hertfordshire, and my Wabash has already started dropping some leaves, while the Susquehanna is still green.
I see! Yes I have heard it’s been unusually warm and dry this summer here.
I’m glad to hear you’re growing pawpaws
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@weatherandtrees good one!!
@armyofda12mnkeys I have been scared to use plastic for fear of heat or ethylene buildup negatively affecting the fruit.
Similar to above, I use organza bags to catch falling fruit but they do zero to deter animals. They’ll tear right through them.
Not being a downer but at my place with my varmints, ziplocks would not stop them at all. They ate barely ripening fruit which tells me their olfactory senses are very sharp (not surprising).
What are you using for those bags? Looks like a combination of a sock and cheesecloth.
So my trees are mostly in a shaded area under pine trees, so i guess the heat buildup isn’t an issue. Last year i mostly didn’t use ziplocks and lost almost all the fruit to the animals (I pollinated manually last year and had maybe twice as much fruit but lost so much).
The year before that I did use ziplocks and was dismayed they tored into the ziplocks, but realized that i still got more fruit to actually eat.
So this year I brought back that technique and i’ve lost none so far which seems promising. I may stick to it for now. I also didn’t pollinate manually this year and have less fruit load overall but still getting more fruit to actually eat. So next year ill pollinate manually so i get more fruit load and also use ziplocks.
i also been dumping the skins on the other side of the house in the compost area. i wonder if its messing with their senses… like they smell something strong in the area and they are checking out the compost area this year vs the less strong smell of fruit on the trees.
Theyre just mens socks from dollar tree, wrap them around the branch, and pin with a toothpick. I dont have a ton of critter pressure, they mainly go for ones on the ground.
do you think these could work for individual pawpaws?..supposedly heavy duty 4mils thick…I want to have something ready
…
Spartan Industrial - 200 Count - 5” X 7” (4 Mil Heavy Duty) Thick Durable Clear Plastic Reclosable Zip Poly Bags with Resealable Lock Seal Zipper
I personally would not want something like a plastic bag holding in heat and humidity right next to the fruit
Mine were 7" x 7.5" so it fits well around larger fruit (not including the top part which you may want to cut off anyway to fit around clusters better). I could see humidity/moisture in bag but didn’t mess up the fruit (I cut tiny holes in the bottom edges for bag to release water from rain at least). But I wasn’t in direct sun, experiment on a few fruit to see if helps or not.
I picked up 7 more fruit today off ground, bags protected them all.
OK, I’ll go with 7x7…will cut holes in bottom…the leaves well shade the fruit and it will only get to the low 70s by late Sept here … I got a bad feeling about the critters…I’ve waited 7 years and don’t want to lose the fruit now…will put them on as soon as they come…I’m now predicting 9/21 for my first ripe fruit …6A Poughkeepsie NY…we’ll see how it goes…no critter ever tasted a pawpaw around here…,…hope to keep it that way
Finally, I was able to forage some paw paw! Silly, I didn’t know the shake the tree trick…the one I tasted is so tropical- I get it now. No strong after taste as is talked about here with wild ones, but the very slightest hint of something maybe bitter or metallic on my tongue. Very, very slight. I’ll certainly be planting some seeds for fun.
found these little guys on my pawpaws. i havent ever seen zebra swallowtail but i hope it was them because they got squished:
My only edible fruit this year and first one from a Kentucky Champion seedling.It fell to the ground a couple days ago and the buggies had done their thing…
Fairly small,probably need to increase water volume,to the trees.
Nice smell,so it was cut open.Not the best one I’ve tried,but okay.Maybe will be better later.
There a stream of the KSU conference anywhere?
Hearing Neal announced the release of that white flowered hybrid…308.
Did we get names on the KSU ones yet?
Looks like Dunnigan and Pomper’s Choice. Not sure how I feel about breaking the alphabetized naming. ![]()
Hmm, when can we buy em
What was it hybridized with?
Tim posted about it a couple weeks ago in this thread.
While I can’t be for certain, I would hedge my bets with Asimina obovata, aka the Florida Pawpaw or Bigflower Pawpaw. Big white flowers compared to the other pawpaws, but not as cold tolerant as the common pawpaw.





