Tell me more. 
surely. i spent since the first of the year designing my own tree pots. mostly for my persimmon and pawpaw seedlings but my citrus seedlings will probably end up there as well. as with anything theres a balance between features, quality and cost. i should open a dedicated thread as to not derail this one. i also made some cell inserts for 1020 trays that i posted about here:
3 Likes
Please do.
1 Like
Iâm waitinggggg⌠lol I have all sorts of questions about your pot making project.
1 Like
Pawpaw seeds exhibit this behavior when the seeds have not completed cold stratification. When properly cold stratified, nearly 100% will sprout in warm, humid conditions. The reason they might take an extra year to sprout is because the cold stratification. was incomplete. The âpots hanging aroundâ is the seeds undergoing cold stratification. But yes, do not always ditch âno showsâ they could just need more hibernation time.
2 Likes
I had a small bag of seeds I forgot about in the fridge one summer and just left them in there for another winter. The following spring most of them germinated. So no one should give up on seeds they forgot about eitherâŚas long as they stayed moist and mold free.
2 Likes
AIâs explanation for why some seed take a second year to sprout.
Pawpaw seeds (Asimina triloba) often take more than one year to germinate due to deep physiological dormancy, requiring a long, 70- to 120-day period of cold-moist stratification to mature the embryo. If conditions arenât ideal, seeds may wait for a second winter to break dormancy.
Kentucky State University +4
Key factors causing slow or multi-year germination include:
-
Deep Dormancy: The embryo is immature when the fruit falls and requires a specific cold period .
-
Impermeable Seed Coat: The seed coat is tough and slowly permeable, requiring moisture to break down, a process that can be slow.
-
Improper Storage: Seeds dried out for even a few days can lose viability or go into deeper dormancy.
-
Environmental Conditions: If sown too late or if conditions are too dry/unfavorable, the seed will not germinate in the first spring
-
1 Like
Has anyone tried rootgrafting pawpaws?
No reason why it wouldnât work, it should work for any eudicot. By root grafting Iâm assuming you mean taking a root piece and grafting a scion to it.
1 Like
Yeah, just because some of my rootstock have thicker root caliper than trunk. I would imagine it would work too, but pawpaws are weird
I spoke with Woody Walker on the phone today regarding BSD / Vascular Wilt. He seems to know more about it than most growers. He shared some very interesting information:
- Pawpaws can recover from BSD infection if they are vigorous and can âoutgrowâ the disease.
- Non-vigorous cultivars seem more susceptible to dying from the disease. Examples include Susquehanna and KSU Benson, as well as Sunflower and Overleese.
- Adding Azomite at a rate of 5 lbs per tree can provide the necessary minerals and calcium to combat stress and make trees less susceptible.
- Itâs important to take into consideration the minerals mined from the soil by pawpaw trees each season (especially heavy bearing cultivars), and replenish said minerals each year, such as through azomite.
- Drought and stress make trees more susceptible to BSD, as well as excess moisture in the soil.
8 Likes
is this for mature trees specifically or is it for all tree ages do you know
I would do some testing/know your soil before putting this down. Itâs got K, Ca, Mg, Cl, and Na. These are things my soil has plenty of so it would be silly for me to put something like that down.
You get a LOT of K back if you have well mulched trees.
I wonder if anyone has done pawpaw leaf nutrient analysis - that seems like a relatively inexpensive thing that would be pretty informative.
I also have found it interesting that there isnât a lot of information on how pawpaw actually grow in the wild. I sometimes wonder how many of the issues with pawpaw trees are actually just due to the way they grow naturally. I donât think the median lifespan of individual pawpaw ramets within a colony is very long.
2 Likes
There are a lot of differences between wild pawpaws and cultivated. One of the main differences is the extremely heavy yield of fruit on cultivated trees compared to meager yields on wild trees. That heavy yielding requires lots of minerals from the soil that need replenishment.
Woodyâs recommendations are for mature trees bearing heavily in an orchard setting in the Eastern USA, with an emphasis on soils depleted of minerals like Ca, Manganese, Copper, etc. It may not be a good recommendation for soils already rich in those minerals currently.
For young non-bearing trees Iâm planning on adding 2-3 lbs of azomite per tree as a preventative. Our soils here tend to be low in Ca. As for soil tests, no lab can give accurate recommendations for pawpaws, they would just be guessing. Some people like to utilize soil testing, I never have gained anything useful from it. Leaf analysis could be more useful.
Individual trees lifespan either grafted or within a colony is around 20 years. There are exceptions with wild trees sometimes living longer.
4 Likes
might not be alive long enough to see a benefit from azomite:
