I know pawpaws are pollinated by carrion flies and such, but I have never seen any visitors before! A whole mess of “fruit flies”. Too bad only one variety is blooming this year.
3 Likes
Pretty flowers!
Some are self fertile, maybe you’ll get lucky and get a fruit or two.
Are you sure there are self fertile Paw Paw. From what I read from the folks over at Kentucky State University- one of the leading paw paw research institutions, the only Paw Paw reported to be self fertile was Sunflower, but they said their tests had not shown it to be. But that’s been a couple years ago so perhaps there have been some discoveries since then. We’ve got some folks here who would know better than me, hopefully they can confirm or deny the rumors of there being some self fertile paw paws?
@ampersand I’m glad you posted that because this is the first year I had quite a few blooms on my paw paws and I, too, saw the absolute confirmation that flies are the key pollenators and are very much attracted to these blooms. Mine were also covered in flies. Its one thing to read about something like that, but it’s really fun to see it in real life!
2 Likes
This branch is Sunflower, so we’ll see what happens.
3 Likes
I wouldn’t stake my reputation on it…but I have planted seedlings in landscapes.
Where other possible pollinators were definitely not within 1/4 mile.
And had a reasonable amount of fruits.
1 Like
I sure hope you are right! Glad to hear your experience.
1 Like
I have seen trees produce fruit when there are no other obvious trees in the area to cross with.
A KSU student did test self compatibility:
“Self-compatibility in Pawpaw: Parentage Confirmation and Evaluation of Fruit and Seed Set in Two Pawpaw Varieties ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Susquehanna’ in Kentucky
Srijana Thapa Magar , Kirk William Pomper, Jeremiah Lowe and Sheri B. Crabtree, Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY”
Video:
https://ashs.confex.com/ashs/2017/videogateway.cgi/id/4506?recordingid=4506
Paper:
https://ashs.confex.com/ashs/2017/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/26380
Srijana had a couple of setbacks with bagged flowers dying and the first batch of seeds not germinating. In the end she found that cross pollination produced the most viable fruits, but fruits could be produced by selfing. At the time of her presentation she was still awaiting DNA test results to prove that the seedlings were from self pollination. I have not been able to find a follow up to her paper or presentation. I will ask Sheri Crabtree about it if I go to one of her pawpaw presentations next fall.
2 Likes