Perhaps then, the ripening temperatures for pawpaws are lower than what GDD measures. The limitation for the grower I posted above is their frosts. He experiences frost until May sometimes and can get frosts in late September, but usually in October. In the west coast, the frost free days are likely much higher. Apples can ripen in a refrigerator, I wonder what the minimum temps pawpaws need to ripen is.
I think someone had also theorized that minerals in the soil could affect ripening. Not sure about that.
I got my pawpaw from Perry’s pawpaws and planted it this past weekend. a good sized little tree. the one I got from peaceful heritage over the summer lost 75% of its leaves in shipping and I might have only lost a few leaves in shipping on this one from Perry’s pawpaws. I’m guessing the fewer lost leaves can be mostly attributed to shipping it in cooler weather, as the one from peaceful heritage was much larger and of higher quality.
The only thing I didn’t like about the tree from Perry’s pawpaws was the pot it came in. the roots seemed decent but I feel more confident in the tree when they are shipped in the tall tree pots that peaceful heritage uses and when I get them the rots reach down to the bottom of those long pots. these little pots perry’s uses with the x on the bottom aren’t even worth keeping to use for something else. they barely hold the soil. just my 2 cents.
Nyomi’s Delicious from Perry’s pawpas planted
Needs some mulch
Tiny pot it came in
X on the bottom barely holds soil. I usually keep pots for rooting figs but this one is going right in the recycle bin.
These pots are called “bands” and are common in the nursery industry but as you noted, not as common with pawpaws.
I believe the primary intent of these pots is to air prune the roots. Seems they also would aid in drainage.
You may actually find better results with this air pruned tree. Many are proponents of truncated taproots on pawpaw and argue they create stronger/more vigorous trees.
I tend to agree.
See my posts way above about seedlings started in root pruning pots which exhibited great vigor.
I also tend to prefet a smaller tree to start. Imo your options tend to be small tree that starts growing right away and is more likely to survie or large tree that stalls for 3 years while the small tree would have caught up and does worse with transplanting
In my experience the truth is somewhere in the middle. I now believe GDD is inaccurate for figs.
But simply using a cumulative count is also incorrect because heat effects are real.
I posted in a different thread that my VdB started ripening on Sep 10th this year. Ahead of Hardy Chicago and most early-mid varieties. Only 2 weeks after RDB.
I’ve picked 100s from this tree.
It also turns out that many people in my area here aren’t able to ripen VdB until late September!
I suspect a very good micro climate (hot) also helps my tree.
I’m not sure what you’re saying. On one hand, you have a VdB tree that ripens fruit unusually early for your climate, maybe due to idiosyncratic microclimate. On the other hand, you note that many people there ripen VdB typically late.
It seems that your single VdB tree is behaving anomalously. Why does that one observation shift the truth to “somewhere in the middle”? Especially if you can explain the anomaly by microclimate.
Would it satisfy you if I restate my conclusion like this: Figs need a certain number of days >65F (or thereabouts). This warmth may be achieved by weather and/or by other sources of heat such as greenhouse heating, reflection from nearby structures, absorption of infra-red by absorbant plastic / mulches, etc.?
Yeah my thoughts are perhaps paw paw dont grow based on gdd, but instead number of days within some undeterred temp range. Heat can stall fruit as well in some plants
Where do you guys stand on planting small treess in shade or not? I see a lot of mixed stuff. Charlie west said they dont reallt need it if theyre grafted and seedlings only need it for a bout a year or so
It depends on where you are for sure, since intense sun can fry any new transplant. Small trees will have limited traspirstion ability because their roots are not established yet and can fry the leaves. Additionally, the full sun might dry out the soil around the tree faster.
Ideally, deep mulch will help the roots stay cool and moist enough for efficient movement of water. I put trees out in full sun with no detriment, but it only takes a day of dried roots to fry a small plant.
Those are Anderson band pots and they work really well for pawpaws, but I don’t think I’ve seen the short ones used for them before…usually it’s the 9” tall ones. I usually pack a small layer of soil into the bottom of those to limit the spillage over time.
…good discussion…I think we could sort much of this out if enough growers would keep accurate records…especially if they live close to an airport that maintains good temp. records…so, let’s see data next year for different varieties from different locations on peak bloom / first and peak ripening and the associated nearby airport temp data… in my case for this year…for my guess of May 9 for peak bloom, it was Sept 26 (141 days) for first ripeness (2670 GDD) of Allegheny and Sept 29 (144 days) for first ripeness (2733 GDD) of Chappell…fwiw, the average temp for the week surrounding May 9 was 60F…also, there was total of approx. 250 GDD (50F) up to the flowering date of May 9
got a pathetic 1/4 inch of rain out of the passing cold front… .terrible suffering by the flora around here …less than 3/4 inch rain since Aug 20…normal is 5.5 inches.
… hard frost predicted now for Friday morning…and then …this!
…I like Bernie though…has great passion for his craft
This is good but we have to figure out how many of these days had a peak temperature of 65 / 70 / 75/ 80 / 85 F. So you’d have to check the temperature for each day. It’s a little tedious.
