I’m not super impressed with the growth, but in all fairness, I haven’t really done a ton to promote faster growth and most of them are planted in an established orchard. There are 10 or 12 planted here, but I could only get a few in the photo.
I just started three 18 cell rootmaker trays of pawpaw seeds. The seeds weren’t stored in the best way, so I’m hoping they germinate. I have a heat mat under one of them. We’ll see. I’ll probably plant these in full sun without competition.
I wanted to come back and define “seeds weren’t stored in the best way”, lol. So, what had happened was that I got really busy at the end of the season and just set the pawpaws (whole fruit… yes, I know, what a waste) in my overflow refrigerator. They sat there from late Oct. until December, I think. I finally got them out and they didn’t actually look too bad. If I were a more adventureous person, I may have tried to eat some of the pulp.
Anyway, I cleaned the seeds up with cold water and put them in a plastic zip lock bag. I was a little concern about this because the seeds were still just a tiny bit wet, but that’s all I had time to do.
On Wednesday, I got them out of the fridge and thankfully they weren’t moldy. At this point they had been in the fridge for about 6 weeks. They had a slight fermented smell, but I think it’s because some of them still had a small amount of pulp on them. I cleaned them with cold water again, this time making sure to remove all the pulp.
I’m hoping and praying that they make it. At this point they seem fine. I dissected one to take a look inside. The inside was firm, no mold, chambers filled and seed coat not separated from the in tact endosperm. Looks ok, I think. Anyone else have an opinion?
Pawpaw tree’s woody tissues will blue and stain at point of injury, although it’s not always immediately noticed. It’s possible these wounds could also serve as entry points for BSD infection as well. BSD is a disease that damages the vascular tissue of pawpaw (which displays characteristic bluing in the xylem, phloem, and cambium of pawpaw in due course of time).
The pseudomonad that causes BSD would be a saprophytic species of rod-shaped bacteria, and fluorescent / bio luminescent, meaning it glows.
I mentioned last fall that my 2 trees that came down with BSD last year had trouble going dormant the previous autumn. That may mean nothing though because it could be a symptom rather than a cause.
My trees from PCF, NN, and OGW seemed more susceptible than anything from Blake. I think the only one I lost from Blake was due to a late May hard freeze.
I’ve also yet to experience BSD from any seedlings or grafts that I’ve done myself.
I vividly remember that day…..Rose Hill Farm ( a large mostly pick your own fruit farm 24 miles north of me) lost his entire sweet cherry crop that year…..on that note, I spoke to the orchard mgr. at length one year regarding growing sweet cherries in Dutchess County NY…….he’s an extremely knowledgeable fruit grower and has inspired me to not give up on sweet cherries ……..In passing, I suggested that he add both pawpaws and jujubes to his pick your own lineup……I thought I made a good case for both on multiple counts and he would certainly have the local market cornered …….plus, pawpaws and jujubes are relatively pest free and far easier to grow and yield than most of the fruit he currently offers (see reference)…Unfortunately, I did not sufficiently pique his interest although I did not yet have any fruit from either for him to sample….this coming year, I’ll have plenty of both (fate willing)……and I’ll give him several hundred seeds from named pawpaw varieties should he want to try…..(maybe 400 trees per acre on a 10x10 spacing ??)…..also will suggest Asian Pears……it’s worth a shot…..we will see…………Beemster
last summer i put all of my seeds that didnt germinate soon enough to be put into pots in the spring, into two separate containers, and they ended up germinating midsummer. getting a late start they only grew a few inches. i left them out to lose their leaves in the fall cold and put them into my fig chamber with the rest of my plants. i brought one of the containers in on feb 5 and let is thaw out in the basement for a few days and then it went into the grow tent for warmth and light:
here were the temps in the chamber from when they went in to feb 5th when they came out. you can see from jan 16th - feb 5th we spent the majority of time below freezing: they were never watered either:
Good to know. I will start grafting my pawpaw seedlings that got frozen very soon (once they start waking up). We have highs back in the 70s and 80s F now, so it shouldn’t take long.
I assume you are going to separate your seedlings and bump them up into larger individual pots.
ill catch them early enough where its just the taproot coming out so when i plant them they will still be buried ~0.5". im going to put them into the 3x9" tree pots ive designed and made:
That’s what I’ve used in the past…except in old Gladware containers. My germination was abnormally poor last year although strangely (maybe not strangely?) the seeds from Prima and Sunflower fruit germinated the best.
I did get them on the top of my pellet stove a little later than usual so maybe the other seeds needs more time with bottom heat. I tried wrapping the containers in a heating pad, but it didn’t result in much success. I think I’m going to get them on the stove in the next couple of weeks. Last year I was closer to April.
As for the tree pots…I had a shipment of Stuewe 414s come in 2 years ago that reeked of outgassing VOCs. I know they must be using cheap reprocessed resin for those.
I’ve scrubbed them and set them in the sun, but they’re still pretty bad. Anyone have any tips for speeding up that process? I thought about soaking them in buckets of water with dish soap and/or baking soda.
For those starting from seed. Pawpaw can take more than one year to sprout. I’ve seen plenty of them sprout the following year after I just left the pots hanging around. So don’t be so quick to ditch the no shows.
For those questioning pawpaw water tolerance. The river by my house severely floods every couple years. Many of the wild pawpaw will be completely submerged for days at a time and most come out just fine afterward. My guess is the super long taproots enable that. Pawpaw love water and most of your wilds will be along riverbanks.
