I am going to try to plant, as in, put into the ground, some paw-paws that currently reside in 3-gal. smooth-sided pots. I have no idea what I am going to find re: hooks and j roots etc. I will attempt planting the 3’ seedling first and make some photos. If anyone has suggestions I would like to hear them. Unless it all looks very straightforward, I will only plant one this evening and hope to learn a lot before I attempt the other two (grafted) tomorrow. The location and spacing I think I have figured out but any and all ideas re: dealing with the roots, the hole, shade (there is a fair amount, now) amendments, etc., are very welcome. I suppose these are two-year-old (?) specimens. Here is a photo:
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First question… Are you sure they have not rooted into the ground?
My bet is you will find the roots have turned along the bottom of the pot.
I will admit I’m bad about sweeping up pine needles along my driveway and this spring I’ve found 2-3 seedlings whose roots are only pine-needles deep before the root turns a 90 degree angle and runs along the cement.
I’ve pave potted up a few and of the 4 I only lost 1.
Scott
That’s cool to be able to save starts that you have found. I just purchased these and brought them home. Considering the size of the plants, I assume that there are roots wound around in those pots. I’ve read a lot about how delicate pawpaw roots are and I guess my biggest concern is, do I cut off tangled/bent roots or try to straighten them and dig a big hole where they can stretch out or ? It seems like there could be a great advantage having a lot of root material but along with big roots comes big responsibilities.
Another big issue is that Pawpaw sites recommend deep, fertile soil with good drainage and lots of organics. If your soil isn’t like that then make it that way. Dig deep, amend freely, so the roots go down.
In my case, these are to be planted above a creek in kind of a ‘sandy/silty, not a lot of organic stuff, but not too bad’ soil.
I have followed the bare minimum approach on most of my trees, adding very few amendments in a few particularly challenging situations. Re: amendments, the pawpaw situation seems different…is it?
Seedy, the planting advice for pawpaws, like other trees, is not to amend the soil. You will end up with a pot in the ground, from which the roots will not want to wander. My pawpaws are planted in very heavy clay soil and do just fine with an annual dose of fertilizer in the spring.
As far as shade, generally a 2-year-old tree is mature enough to withstand full sun. Those short trees are marginal. If you could give them a little shade for at least a short time after planting it might help them along.
Thanks. I only planted one so far (before I read your post) and I did add a lot of organic stuff. It’s a $10 seedling that will be an experimenter/graft recipient. The area where I’m putting these three units is above a creek and the soil varies quite a bit along there: the first one (planted) being in an area that is a bit sandy, and the next two going into pretty rich, dark soil.
I am new enough to orcharding that I still cringe at cutting anything off of a new tree, let alone chopping off the top. Same goes for planting in less-than-optimum soil. I grew up on the edge of a coastal rain forest in WA. No other soil is like that…but evidently doesn’t need to be. There currently is a lot of shade in the planting area but it’s old alders, some that are already dead that are falling down, and a few that I will help along, and a few that I will leave. By next Spring I expect there to be quite a bit more light. Thanks again.
Keep us posted. I have only transplanted when dormant. On those I cut off the tap root where it turned at the bottom of the pot. Those have grown very well in spite of that. There is no sign of any setback from it. But again, mine were dormant.
I would plant them a couple inches higher than surrounding soil and build a two to three foot diameter water dam (berm) of soil around them.
Here’s a poser: this one didn’t have a tap root, in the normal sense. I suppose it was there, or more likely had been there, but it looked like a root system that had been ‘air pruned’ (I think that’s the term). There were quite a few small roots within the pot but no real main root except from soil line to maybe six inches below. Maybe this unit was a transplant and had been clipped and put into a bigger pot so that it would bush out. I doubt that it grew into a 3-footer with no tap root. The other two have a different form (not tall) and they may be different inside the pot. It’s interesting that you have grown bare root specimens…some say it won’t work. Scott has captured seedlings from kinda harsh conditions on his driveway; Marc has success in less than ideal soil. From the stuff ya hear on the interwebs it sounds like pawpaws can only survive in a green house and cannot be touched once they have sprouted. Well, I’m brand new at this and I suppose it’s better to be cautious than callous, this stuff ain’t cheap.
I really appreciate the input from all.
Seedy Steve
I am not good at getting the height just right when planting…I accidentally did this (planted it high) before reading this post. Thanks!
I always lay a yardstick flat across the middle of the hole to show me ground level. And even then proceed to plant it too low some of the time.
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Yah, same story here…but I keep using the stick, assuming it would be even worse if I didn’t.
Well, my concerns about dealing with big roots in 3 gal. pots was all for naught. What was inside those big pots of potting soil were little square root clumps that look like they had been transplanted to and been growing in the much bigger pots for about 15 minutes. I don’t know what to think. One photo (with phone) is of the first plant, the others are of the second plant (with camera).
From 4" (maybe) pot.
From 4" (maybe) long pot.
These roots were ‘transplanted’ from their original containers so recently that they were still almost perfectly compressed into their square form. I’m glad they weren’t put into 10 gal pots and sold that way.
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Who did you order them from? Was it Forrest Keeling? I got 4 pawpaws from them back in late March, which superficially look like the larger one you have, all in 3 gal pots. I’ve finally got the site ready and will be planting in the next few days.
These were from Harvest Nursery, at their farm. The employee sheepishly suggested a discounted price to the owner and they had a quiet little discussion (I was standing right there) who decided to go full price. I strongly got the sense that there was something funny going on…like maybe, we transplanted these this morning, shouldn’t we grow them this season to fill out their new pots so we can justify…you know.
I will say this, providing that my experience isn’t the norm, it is probably a good time for anyone local to their area to buy anything that you want from them now from their Portland location 'cuz they are closing that store soon and planning to work out of their Molalla location which is waaaay out in the hinterlands (not even very close to Molalla)…difficult to find and park in and…well, buy now if you’re going to…
That’s nice that you have plants deserving of their large pots. The tall one I got was a seedling, so it could be anything quality/flavor-wise. It had filled the pot pretty well.
Last shovel I bought, I got out a tape measure and a sharpie and turned the handle into a ruler… I did go over it with grease pencil last year, after 4 years of use.
One of my more useful personalizations…
Scott
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Oregon does appear to be the home of 4x4 tall pot manufacturing… Stuewe/Treepots and Anderson Plant Bands are big names in the industry.
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Well, I think I’m going to send them a message like the one I wrote here, basically that putting 4" potted plants into 3 gal. containers, and selling them as such ($$), seems fraudulent. Then I’ll see what they want to do about it.
The roots at least go to the sides, but are not all that numerous. When I pulled one of them (a Susquehanna) from the pot, a good sized chunk of dirt fell off, without exposing much roots. I bought a bunch of other plants from FK as part of the order and everything but the pawpaws had huge root systems. It looks like pawpaw are just hard to grow.
Sunflower’s roots:
Before planting (today):
On arrival in late March:
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