Maybe just put chicken manure in bucket lol
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Before trying any attractant I would go out on a nice night with a flashlight and have a look. I don’t see much during the day, but I see a ton of small flying insects on my flowers at night. If the flowers are barren at night its probably time to try an attractant.
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I think having a dog is one of the best ways to make sure there are ample pollinator populations. I am lucky to be in the heart of the range, so that could be a factor as well. I have not found it neccessary at all to attract flies for heavy fruit set. I like thinning each cluster to single fruits, and avoiding june drop completely. Why wait for seemingly random fruit thinning, when you can pick and choose how many singles you have?
They usually get slightly bigger, and keep longer. Once its close to harvest time ill use a brand new clean cotton sock to cover the fruit and catch it when its perfectly ripe. A toothpick pins the sock in place around the branch. I understand this is labor intensive for orchard scale, but at a dozen trees focusing on growing the highest Quality makes more sense than producing the highest Quantity.
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Where did y’all get your first paw paw? And any suggestions for what variety to grow in the heart of Missouri?
That variety as huge peduncles - what is it?
They look larger in the photo vs in person. Definitely good sized though, it’s Barrets Best. I didnt officially measure bloom, but id say it had a similar bloom density to the larger Susquehanna next to it. They both have a tendency to grow short branches with mostly flower branches(like a spur)
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I grow Amorphophallus Konjac (aka corpse flowers, aka voodoo bulbs, etc.) and they are hardy here in Arlington, VA 7B. If left in the ground, they flower too late to do much good for pawpaws, but if I dig them up and bring them inside, they’ll usually flower early, apparently pretty much at the pawpaw flower time. When they flower, the corms don’t put out any roots yet, so I can just rest it right on the ground next to my experimental little pawpaw patch. After it’s done flowering I’ll go plant it back in the ground. This corm was about 5-6 pounds I think and the flower is 15 inches tall and about 4 feet off tall from bottom of the corm to top of the flower.
Having grown them for years, I know the smell certainly brings the flies!
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Hello, Blake.
You have a lot of experience in Azimina.
I want to ask for advice.
In your opinion, can Azimina trees tolerate transplantation under the conditions that I wrote below?
Life has turned out so that perhaps in the summer or at the end of the year I will have to sell my own house along with the Azimina garden around it.
4 Azimina trees were planted in the garden in 2022, they are about 1.8-2 meters in size. I think I will dig them up with a lump of earth. As much as I can by hand, with a shovel.
Will they take root in a new place?
Several trees that are 1 year old, I planted last spring.
12 trees that I planted only last fall, they have not yet had time to take root. I think that in one season their roots will not grow much deeper? They should be transplanted, I think, okay.
Do I understand correctly that all trees can only be transplanted from October to April, when there are no leaves in the fall and the buds have not yet swollen in the spring?
I will try to preserve as much of the earthen lump around the roots as possible.
What are the chances that the plants will survive in the new place if I can persuade the new owner of the plot to allow me to transplant the trees in the fall or winter?
The new place is about 1 km away. That is, it will not take long to transport.
I cannot speak about trees over 1 meter, perhaps @Blake can. How big is the trunk diameter of your 2 meter trees? The largest trunks I’ve moved in pawpaw are about 2.5cm. A two meter tree is pretty big for moving I’d think…
When I’ve dug up pawpaw, I’ve never found their root system to be fibrous - so it’s not like a big ball of roots that you want to take like with some other trees. It’s just really deep. So the digging is a lot but you may not have to haul around a big ball of dirt.
I did not have good luck trying to move pawpaw trees in Fall or early winter. If you can move them now or wait till after Dec or Jan I think it would give you better luck.
I have had 90%+ success with pawpaw trees under 1 meter, moving them in late winter/early spring before they start to get leaves. I tried to dig up as much root as possible. I moved some to my SILs house and they were out of the ground for a couple days in a bucket of woodchips and they all made it.
One year, I was late in doing this and they all had leaves 1-3" long (which is about now in my location). Most were fine in the first year but about 25% didn’t make it through winter and I don’t know if it was the time I moved them or the location or just bad luck.
They don’t really grow for a year or so after being moved. I think they are establishing roots afterwards. And I definitely irrigate and protect them for the first year.
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I will but once 50 trees start producing I’m not going to want to do that anymore. I just wanted to find another way to attract the flies.
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It honestly doesn’t smell that much (to me anyway). The occasional cecal ones do, but those are infrequent and dry out pretty quickly.
I see the carrion flies here beginning around June, but not much during bloom period.
I looked at some pictures of pawpaws that’d I’d freshly dug up vs. after a year in a pot. They aren’t the same plants. Mostly when I dig them up they’re 1-3 feet tall. The one on the left in the picture has a lot of roots the one on the right is more typical of how much root I feel like they have when I dug them out.
Freshly dug 2026:
Planted in pots Spring 2025, being repotted spring 2026:
Last year, was the first time I moved some into pots. The pots were full of dirt from the same area where I dug them up, it is a very sticky, heavy, clay soil. I moved them into larger pots this year and rinsed off some roots to see how they looked. They’d probably have done even better if I’d put them in something nicer, but I am shocked at how much root mass they developed. Or maybe they liked the horrible clay soil and will dislike the fancy promix I got them… who knows.
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Poughkeepsie NY Dutchess County Z6A……..no blossoms in sight around here….at this rate, at least a month away…around 250-260 GDD 50F….24F this (4/08) morning…..will stay cold till the weekend….Beemster
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My large fruited wild tree is just opening its blossoms. My 2 other “improved” 8 YO trees opened their blossoms about a week ago.
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why 50 base and why start at march 1st?
….well, for this far north, March 15 would probably be OK…..but maybe not for more southern sites……so, to be able to compare, I arbitrarily chose March 1…..as for GDD 50F, I think GDD 60F might be more appropriate since blooming date seems to be close to when the average temp reaches about 60F…….but GDD 60F is not offered at the NEWA site although GDD 14.3C (57.7F) is……seems it has been abnormally warm in the midwest this spring but not so in the northeast……so, it looks like blooming dates are as much as two weeks ahead of normal in the midwest but might be even a bit behind normal in the northeast…….what is needed most for anyone interested in this stuff is accurate data……there are more than enough hobbyists on this site from multiple areas keeping a good number of varieties….for those that live close to an airport listed on the NEWA site with good temperature data, all they need to do is report the location, variety, and blooming date….painless enough…. right? ……then, anyone can piece it all together and make reasonable predictions…..similarly for ripening dates……I’m only one guy at one location with (in time) at most a dozen varieties……..I see others here obsessing about every single minutiae of pawpaw husbandry with not enough said about site location / selection….there is a reason why pawpaws are known to grow easily / unattended under limited conditions
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from Gemini:
The short answer is yes, but with a significant “flip” in the last week. The Midwest experienced a historic, record-shattering heat wave in March, followed by a sudden plunge into below-average temperatures for the start of April.
The Record-Breaking March
March 2026 was historically warm across the entire central U.S. In fact, it was the first time any month on record averaged more than 9°F above the 20th-century baseline.
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Regional Peaks: States like Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa saw temperatures climb into the mid-90s during a massive “heat dome” late in the month.
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The “April in March” Effect: In the Upper Midwest, cities like the Twin Cities and La Crosse, WI, recorded temperatures roughly 5°F to 6°F warmer than normal. For many areas, the average temperature in March actually exceeded the typical long-term average for April.
+1
The April Cool-Down
Since the calendar turned to April, the script has flipped.
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The “Reluctant Spring”: The first week of April has been roughly 5°F below normal for much of the Upper Midwest .
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Current Outlook: While the north is seeing a mix of snow and highs in the 40s today, a warm front is expected to push through this coming weekend (April 11–12), potentially bringing 70s back to the southern Midwest and 60s to the north.
did you have accumulation before the 15th because we had a few hours in feb. this has data closer to me than NEWA:
have this one booked as well:
I’m a big proponent of fall fertilization, after they’re already heading towards dormancy (Late Aug - Early Oct). I put down a relatively heavy N dose (in the form of blood meal, so still not too crazy). Nitrogen is much more readily taken up in the fall than when the soil is cool in spring, and the tree stores it away for later use. They start winding down growth for the year a lot earlier than most people realize. Under a fall fertilization regime, trees take off so much faster and put on more growth in the spring.
If you’re still not convinced, do an A&B test on some potted trees this fall and look at the results in spring.
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