Pollinating Pawpaw flowers

I’ve had pawpaw flowers for years and never get any fruit. This year I am grafting multiple varieties to a lot of the shoots I have. I’m hoping one of these years I will see some fruit. Was thinking out loud above about finding some pawpaw pollen sent from other sources… Maybe one day I will understand the fish head photo : ) Other than not get any fruit stinks!!

I have 3 mature not grafted seedling trees but this one is now almost finished with flowering and pollination and other two trees have small flowers not ready for pollination :neutral_face:
Is it ok if i take pollen from male flowers on same tree and pollinate female flowers on that tree?.

3.04.2017

4.04.2017

5.04.2017

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That may work.I read that Sunflower Pawpaw is self fertile and so I tried that with mine,when the tree was young.Fruit formed,but aborted,probably because of the age.
The pollen can also be collected and froze,to be used on the others later. Brady

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I have collected pollen today from my first tree that bloomed and stored in freezer.
Is this pollen looks fine?, it falls from itself when i touch a bit with brush tip.

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All pawpaw flowers have both male and female parts.

The male pollen matures first-- it’s the flaky stuff that falls out of the flower when you poke around its insides with a Q-tip. Collect that in a small bowl.

Eventually, the flowers mature further. That’s when the small greenish “pad” in the middle of the flower swells and becomes sticky. That’s where you should brush the male pollen from a genetically different tree against.

People wonder why the male pollen matures before the female organ is ready to recieve, but it turns out this is a staggered process so inevitably there will still be male pollen around when the female pads come on.

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How the male pollen matures first?, isn’t flower in first stage female when the small greenish “pad” in the middle of the flower swells and becomes sticky (can be pollinated) and after that pollen matures on same flower and flower have ripe pollen for pollination.

On this picture you can see left (first flower) is female stage and right flower is stage later male flower stage with ripe pollen (right flower)

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From what I’ve read,that sounds right.I remember it as,girls mature earlier than boys. Brady

I had it backwards. Girls first. Boys last. What else is new?

See this link:

http://apiosinstitute.org/asimina-triloba-pawpaw

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Self-pollinating is unlikely to work (last I checked, we’re not even certain that Sunflower self-fertile), but it won’t hurt to try.

Attract Pollinator Flies with Bloodmeal:

Anybody use bloodmeal around pawpaw trees to attract pollinator flies? Not sure if I should scatter the bloodmeal on top of the mulch under tree??? Or rake into the mulch?

When I use bllodmeal and bone meal, some animals did a lot of digging around my plants and did some damage to the plants. I guess they were some night time hunters.

I will try using a soft paint brush to help with pollination instead. My trees are young and small so it will be very easy to do. Last year one of them bloomed. Hopefully this year both would bloom.

I just heard that cow manure attracts pollinator flies and is good fertilizer for pawpaws- from Neal Peterson, Mr. Pawpaw.

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Hoping someone here can help me out. I have a couple of Miller Nursery BT130 Cultivar Pawpaw’s, mature and plenty of blooms the last two years. Problem is I don’t have a source of pollen from another cultivar of pawpaw. The trees are in upstate New York, and I have contacted Cornell University to see how long collected pawpaw pollen would be good for pollinating, no word back yet. Assuming its more than a few hours, I’d be very interested in arranging a pollen swap by mail with some folks, or if someone here is around the Syracuse area it could be a pollen drop… Any interest?

Video how to hand pollinate paw paw :wink:.

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VIDEO ON HAND POLLINATING: Posted by Neal Peterson and by far the best I’ve seen- gives extremely helpful tips on what to look for in a blossom- from the outside appearance- to tell male vs female stage.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.petersonpawpaws.com%2Fpollination%2F&h=ATNg-2h5Nqgf2Lce6ZBgd7s0iuxM00JC85hs5G0nFOK9CQl80f2vYE5sPtnrE4ThIpWe_w74wRJdFY38XQl5WWo4BloKJEssQkyCwtzBMuWMJ5fJmkPNVSs

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Susquehana, Shenandoah, and Mango are loaded with flowers again this year. Hand pollination in a few weeks.

Tony

Susquehana

Shenandoah

Mango

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I’m going to try,with a young Overleese,using some frozen pollen from a few different varieties,to see what happens. Brady

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I experimented last year with our wild pawpaws and smeared catfish stinkbait around when they were flowering. We had our best harvest yet.

I manage an unknown variety of paw paw at one site and it bears without cross pollination. Odds are it is not Sunflower, but I haven’t been there when they are ripe so I’m not sure. Anyone else seen paw-paws that aren’t Sunflower bare fruit all by themselves?

Here are mine this year.

Last year I did not have a chance to hand-pollinate them. The year before, I did but they all fell off. We’ll see if these stay.

My NC-1 and Sunflower trees were planted in 2012 and are 8 -9 feet tall.

With cool Springs here in SW Washington state, they get a late start. We have dry summers, and this may is unusually hot and dry already. Still, I have a little hope.

The Sunflower fruit starts look a little better than NC-1 at the moment. This one is on Sunflower. I pollinated, maybe, 50 flowers per tree over a 2 week period, and there might be a dozen incipient fruit clusters per tree now. So persistence pays.

It’s so hot and dry now, I placed a 5-gallon plastic bucket under each tree, with 1/4 inch hole in each bucket, and am filling each one with water every couple of days. I hope that prevents the heat and dry from causing total fruit drop. I would like to finally get a taste of my own pawpaw trees.

I think these are behind those back East, most likely due to climate difference.

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