Hi! I planted two cultivated pawpaw trees in the fall of 2023. They seemed to do fine last year, big pretty leaves and some growth. I covered the base of the trees for the winter both 2023-4 and this last winter. After taking off the covering this year, I noticed that one of the trees has pretty messed up looking bark. The damage may have already been present last year, maybe I didn’t register it. The second tree looks fine. Any advice on what it may be? The tree is waking up this year, even has one little flower. But it is behind the second the healthier tree, that one has way more flowers.
If the bark is not damaged more than 1/2 of the circumference of the trunk the tree should recover. Pawpaws are slow growing when young but I believe can become more vigorous after adolescence. If it were me I would take a sharp knife or a razor and try to clean up the edges of the damage so it’s not so ragged. This will encourage the formation of callous tissue to encapsulate the damage.
I keep my hardware cloth cages rather small to discourage things from taking residence inside, but it looks like yours is probably a good size.
Thanks! I’ll try it with a razor. Maybe the damage happened last year, I wasn’t able to make it out to the orchard for long stretches in the summer.
Should I keep the trunk protection around all trees all year around? We fenced against deer, but we do have rabbits still. I protected only in the cold months, maybe I should keep it there at all times.
I have been fortunate enough not to deal with rabbits, but the deer are persistently aggravating. I keep things caged always. I see no reason not to really. Animals are unpredictable sometimes. Just when I think I’ve discouraged the deer enough to stay away, they come and find something to destroy.
I wanted to remove the caging so I could visually inspect the bark better, easier spraying with Surround, and better airflow. But maybe these aren’t worth the risk of having a rabbit come and nibble the tree to death
It’s going to sound crazy but I would probably cut it flush with the ground this spring if it doesn’t grow vigorously. Pawpaw wood is very soft and if it doesn’t push enough growth this year to heal over it will start to rot. I would bet that the tree will send up a new stem anyway.
It is amazing how fast pawpaws will push growth from the roots when it senses that the main stem will not make it. I planted some grafted bare root trees years ago, and a couple died back to the roots. The ones that died back I let grow to waist/chest high(one year) and regrafted. Those trees I regrafted are now larger than the ones that didn’t die back to the roots.
long story short, your tree will likely send up a new stem, and I would encourage that new stem to take over vs saving the existing trunk.
Thanks for that input! That’s super interesting, as I was wondering whether I should already be making backup plans for that spot… if the tree would slowly be dying anyway. Hmm I do believe that was a grafted tree and I don’t have experience grafting yet. If the rootstock variety came up from the roots, could I just keep that? Would it still be about the same as wild pawpaws? I like those well enough…
Hard to say what the quality of the rootstock fruit would be like. And grafting pawpaws is pretty easy, especially on established rootstock. It does look like a grafted tree based on your photos. For now just letting the tree be and see if it will make a new stem is your best bet. You can taste test cultivars this fall and pick which one you like best.
The fence is maybe 6 feet or so, and I have a large area fenced in. It’s t-posts and tall chicken wire. I really don’t think deer get in, because if they did, they would destroy all my trees and flowers. They are savages around here. Since there is no other deer damage (I have seen what they can do to baby trees, lost a couple before the fence went up), I doubt that this particular damage is deer related. I do worry about deer breaking in, but we’ve been lucky for about 2 years
