Let’s see how it goes.
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Id let it wake up and gauge vigor from there
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@Blake and other long time pawpaw growers: what’s the deepest wood chip mulch you would use on pawpaws in sandy soil? 6-8-10-12 inches?
I try to create fertility, organic matter (missing in the sandy soil) on top of root zone with deep, deep wood chips/oak leaves, about a foot thick, and let worms go to work. This possible Blue Stem Disease on one of six trees is first such problem in 15 years.
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You have the oposite of my soil. Mine is pure gray clay, so it never truely dries out. I wonder if its draining too well. I’ve found that grass clippings work well as mulch that breaks down quickly into the ground and kills the grass around the trees.
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What size pot does everyone start paw paw seeds in? 1 gallon or larger? Would you get native soil to fill it or some other bagged soil?
A lot of people use some form of tree pots…either Stuewe, Anderson, or something equivalent so you can grow out a deeper tap root. You don’t want it hitting the bottom and circling though.
I have a bunch of Stuewe TP414s (14” tall…4”x4” square) that I’m finishing off now that I bought last year. I’ve done some in deeper airpots too, but you need to be careful about them drying out.
I have an old 40” tree pot leftover from a hickory that I may grow a pawpaw seedling in. I wonder how far the taproot would go if I let it.
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To the bottom would be my guess. Taproots exist to anchor the tree.
@zaroo1 Direct seeding is great if you have a good spot for them. Big fabric pots work too 20+ gallons for batch grown seedlings. Tree pots work… really good for shipping a tree.
Direct seeded in June last year, put down 20 seeds and these two were the strongest. I’ll let them grow another year before grafting. My guess is fruit in 2-3 years if they continue growing this fast.
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Yeah the taproot anchoring is mostly early on with the lateral roots handling the brunt of it later. I definitely expect it to reach the bottom, but I’m more curious about how deep it could theoretically get before the tree says enough is enough. I’m sure in a really deep pot with a quality potting mix it could grow a lot longer versus in the field where limited deep oxygen in the soil starts to become an issue.
Planting a 40” pawpaw tap from a skinny pot would be quite a challenge without damaging it.
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I direct seeded some KSU R3T10 seeds in the field, and they have been super slow to grow. I think it’s just the genetics because a few other random seeds I stuck in the ground at the edge of the yard have done better.
I think James Dingus uses these 15” tall, 8” diam root trapper fabric pots?
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I’m having quite a lot of pawpaw thoughts tonight. So I’m recording them here!
On 4/9 I made a bunch of grafts to potted pawpaw and just today, the leaves are finally emerging! We’ve had two hard frosts. These pawpaw have been outside. I wasn’t sure if the grafts didn’t take or the leaves died or it was just taking time. We are supposed to have another frost tonight and I’m not moving them in… we’ll see how much I regret that tomorrow.
Here is how the pawpaw trees looked a few days after the last frost on 4/22. They had actually set a bunch of fruit which was frozen off too. Now they have regrown a few leaves and there are some green flowers on one of them again, so I might be able to pollinate those if they make it - I saved some pollen in the fridge.
After seeing how these trees grow in the wild, I do wonder if many of the grafted ones die after some years (15? 20? 25?) because in the wild, the ramets would be replacing themselves after that time. I know many live longer than 20 years, but if they live 20 years on average, that means some will live longer and some will live shorter lives.
When I last found a patch, I did notice vertical cracks on some trunks near the base. However, mine had not yet died so I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to those. When I have time in a few weeks, I’ll go back to that patch (about 1.5 hours away) and do some investigation.
Like @treefrogtim my pawpaw are in really cruddy clay soil. They seem happy enough there. I’m sure they’d grow better if they had nicer conditions. I don’t think they like sand very much though either based on where I’ve seen them growing in the forest - but if you’ve kept them alive 15 years something must be going right.
This is only my 3rd year with the pawpaw in pots but here’s my thoughts.
Mine are mostly seedlings and not seeds but there are a couple from seeds. The first year, they don’t need much space at all. A gallon is fine. Just don’t let them dry out. The main reason I don’t use gallons or the skinny deep containers is in case I can’t water them often enough. They seem to grow very slowly, so I have second year plants still in small containers.
However, pawpaw don’t like to be transplanted - moving them basically seems to stop them growing at all for a year. Any pawpaw I move, even seed grown from pot to ground, in the summer after, they grow leaves and the tiniest bit of shoots and that is it. The next summer, they have seemed to start growing again. So if you can avoid it, don’t move them too many times.
I was super cheap and just reused old plastic pots that other things came in. I used dirt I dug up in my yard. I don’t think pawpaw would be happy in cheap potting mix that dries out insanely fast (I have some houseplants in that stuff).
This year, I bought some promix HP and also tried mixing my own potting mix with peat moss and floor dry and some bark chips - I put some pawpaw seedlings in those. It does a better job of not drying out than the cheap stuff. I do not know if the pawpaw will like it better than the dirt from the yard, but will report after this summer. I’m guessing they’ll do better in the promix/homemade mix than the yard dirt - nearly everything does.
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i have those tall soft sided tree pots i think they’re 4” by 12” deep. i been putting them in square trays meant for sink or cat litter, caterer trays, with water always in the bottom, once a seed germinates I’ll put the entire pot they started in (usually a small 4” or 2” regular pot) and try to put the whole clump of soil in, on top of the filped pot, then fill around it a bit more
having the water always at the bottom but not up high in the pot helped at least my 2 that succeeded from seed get going. the tap root of one was almost to the bottom of the tree pot by the fall when i put them all in the ground. (4 survived this, then 2 survived over winter in ground)
i did have all the seed i got last year without a single one germinating though even after a good long time in the fridge, they never dried out. so my results have in general not been really good
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There’s a certain point where mulch creates anerobic conditions and holds excess moisture. I would say 6 to maybe 8 inches is plenty.
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Dutchess County NY Z6A…..33F this morning on my thermometer / 34F at nearby airport…….have not checked yet…but between today and a hard frost (25F) 12 days ago, I‘d guess the worst..… capricious weather this spring has severely screwed up things here…..lost all cherry and pear blossoms……only positives are the blueberries and the jujubes…. the jujubes leaf out late and blossom even later…expect good many fruits this year…..plus I like them (got one fruit the second year in the ground)…..crunchy like an apple and super sweet….…..with two warm days ahead, think May 6 will be full bloom for what ever remains of the pawpaw flowers…. GDD 50F would be about 253…long range forecast is for a very cool first two weeks in May…….hope not a totally wasted year…only got about 30 fruits last year and don’t have many years left… I do see some blossoms with the binoculars from my driveway….my walking is now severely limited and have not yet tried out the electric tricycle I bought……..got to wait till my lawn guy comes in case something goes wrong ……..Beemster
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Good luck. Hopefully you get some fruit this year. That early warm stretch did more harm than good down there. Things are just starting to wake up here.
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I have two Pawpaw trees,an Overleese and a seedling Kentucky Champion,which has more flowers than in previous years.The Overleese starts to bloom a little earlier than the other one,but there is enough of an overlap for pollination.
A garden shepherd’s hook is hung between them,with a mesh bag of a few chicken drumsticks inside.I may also try some transfer of pollen by hand.
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Dutchess County NY Z6A…………OK…my lawn guy took these pictures for me…..I think now worse case……..likely every potential blossom that showed even a hint of the bud beginning to open was killed on April 21 after 3+ hours at 25F…..recall, we had a hot spell culminating with 90F on April 16 here just 5 days before …… which forced all the cherries and pears into full bloom and likely just cracked a hair open the pawpaw blossom buds……..the very few pawpaw blossoms (probably not even 5% of normal) that are opening now must be from a second bloom and should be fully open by tomorrow or Wednesday May 6……..so, I think likely a total bust for the year on the pawpaws / pears / cherries……still hopeful for the rest……them jujubes are looking like a pretty good bet about now……ideas anyone?…….Beemster
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Dutchess County NY Z6A….…just got a note from Charles West in Branchburg NJ….he said he lost 99+% of the flowers except for two trees that were in partial shade……hit 27F the same day it was 25F here…says he is now seeing some secondary bloom as well…….widespread bummer…….Beemster
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Hopefully you all get a good enough rebloom for at least a partial crop. Across the range I think its important for growers to try to plant in spots that get shade in the winter depending on your region, climate, and topography. Try to keep the trees cold in the winter in a way that still allows most of the summer sun to ripen fruit.
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gotta see which varieties get the secondary bloom. oculd be a worthy trait
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