I don’t want a little twig; I’d like some wood and development on the trees. I’m looking for a Celeste fig and some type of named pawpaw.
Here is an example of the development I’m looking for in the fig…or something close. This fig cost $50 in person.
I don’t want a fig like this…
Let me know who sells developed trees mail order. I’ve looked around but the sellers all seem to sell twigs.
Figs go from cuttings to 6’ tall in a single season and fruit on that year’s growth so I wouldn’t really worry about that.
I would rather a stick since a fig from a cutting will be that size in 2 seasons. But here
Because of the pawpaw’s tap root. Your not really going to find a big mature pawpaw tree, or at least a quality one that’s a large sized one. Because of their root system you’ll most likely find smaller trees. Starkbros has air pruning pots that they grow their persimmon in that had the same root type. And you can get like a 4ft one, but you pay for it (I got one) i think they sell pawpaw’s too
I can only really talk about the fig that I’ve had at my parents house forever, but the thing grows back in 1 season like crazy. A small fig should size up pretty quickly.
@Hillbillyhort on this group had a very nice selection at the PawPaw festival… he has one of the best collections of pawpaws that i have seen other than below. He also has nice figs. I have several of his going.
@KYnuttrees will have a website up and going at some point… with many grafted pawpaws listed.
As far as large figs… i have seen Celeste and others in big pots at Lowes and other box stores with the fruit trees. Plants were probably 4-5 feet tall.
Barring that theres FGT
Is there a reason you’re looking for a mature paw paw or fig? As previously mentioned, figs are very fast growers, so I don’t see the advantage.
Paw paws are very slow growers, so I can understand the urge. It may be difficult to get shipped though. The ones I just bought were 1 gallon = 1-2 feet tall whips, some with small branches.
It is my understanding that in cold climates the more developed a fig is the better its chance of survival when getting established.
I’m going to echo the pawpaw sizing sentiment above. Pawpaw have an important tap root and generally don’t like their roots handled overmuch.
The only ones of any size I have personally seen in pots were almost certainly an unnamed sort from seed. Pretty sure they were in 3 gallon pots, and likely all from the same batch, even though I got them over three summers. I planted five without trying to do anything with the rootball aside from covering it with dirt. The caliper was at least an inch on the stem at ground level and they were perhaps 5’ -6’ tall including the pot - an awkward stage when planting as they go from looking you in the eye to looking much shorter. The last stayed in the pot in my yard for an extra year to ill effect, and after the second year it had no roots to speak of.
Pawpaw seems to me to graft pretty cleanly even for an inexperienced grafter, but use scion from the preceeding year. Even stored well it is much less likely to succeed in a second year graft. Mark the branch well because they often heal well, at least with whip and tongue, and you’ll be guessing which branch you grafted. If I had any successful chips, I’ll never know until I get fruit. Sunflower scion has given an exceptionally high success rate.
Shorter plants do like protection from the sun. I suspect this is one of the reasons you want bigger ones. The couple of little ones I have planted show little movement in two years, and those I tried to overwinter in pots with minimal protection from the elements have long since composted. It’s not a plant to pot up several times before planting.
Circling back, the place I found them was not mail order, but a side of the road type nursery outside of Lenoir NC. He had a bunch of everything, and I mean everything. It was a mom-and-pop operation that primarily served landscapers, so he had lots of laborers to keep thingsmoved around and watered, but the owner was already past wanting to retire and the “kids” helping in the office were of limited interest in learning what he knew. And he himself was far more likely to know the local common name than the latin, which left a lot of room for “no, the other plant X tree” type conversations. But he could tell you the current count of Gala apples or Stella cherries or Flowering Dogwood, etc. without using his computer or ledger of any kind, and he must’ve had a thousand trees at the nursery, mostly in 3 gallon or larger pots, and three farms he dug them from.
Pawpaw trees do not transplant well at all. More than one year old is a crap shoot.
