There I was armed with Pollen,PSB (plant sex brush),Scions, and a jar of stink bait out to increase my chances of getting some Pawpaws. When I noticed several of these little guys helping me out.
I’m new to this hand pollinating Pawpaws gig, so is this all that uncommon?
I topped a 6-year-old SAA-overleese off at about 5 feet, and top grafted the central leader with KSU Chappell (sometime around the first week of may). I don’t know what I did wrong, but the Chappell leaves are only about 1" long, still! They are green, so the graft is still alive, and fingers crossed it takes off next year, but this year it looks like a dud.
I had left about 4 big branches of the SAA-Overleese down the bottom of the tree, my thought being that the bottom half of the tree could pollinate the top half and visa versa. Maybe that messed with my grafts? Maybe all the energy and growth was going into the old branches instead of into the new scion? I have no Idea. I just know that your big healthy grafts with their giant leaves are soooo pretty, and I’m so jealous!
Looking good!!! That is an enormous patch of bluebells. If you have permission, you should collect seed from them. It’s worth like 400 bucks a pound because they are so rare. Message me if you want a contact.
The bees pollinating is not unheard of but is unusual. Another thread mentioned someone who placed sugar water in some blooms to “train” the bees and it worked.
Those pawpaws don’t look like they’re quite ripe yet…still awfully green, but the one in the fore does look like it yielded to pressure… did you pick them, or did they fall?
My early ones have just started to drop, but some are probably still a month off from being ready.
