I have dug up, replanted, and grafted pawpaw the last two years. I have found the digging up and transplanting to be very successful. I will report fully on the grafting after they make it through a full winter and leaf back out in the spring, but so far the grafts seem okay.
My zone is 6b (Ridge and Valley part of VA). We don’t have a rainy season, but our wettest months are in late spring/early summer and in fall.
Here is what I’ve done and maybe you can see if any of this works for you:
Transplant part
- I don’t put them in full sun (and barely part sun). They are in the shade of some other large trees and get either only dappled sun or full sun for only a few hours mid summer.
- I planted the in-ground ones (and put the pots) where I have other pawpaw trees that are happy.
- I put the pots in a spot between two large, happy pawpaw trees. I pushed one side of the pots against an embankment there. I thought the earth wall would help regulate the temp of the pots. Maybe it did nothing but maybe it did.
- I water them.
- I dug up and moved them in early spring before they leafed out.
- I had a variety of sizes ~3mm to ~1.7cm
- I tried to get as much root as I could, but some of them I really didn’t have much.
- I tried to use big pots, but I don’t have any special pots or pots that are extra deep - just used plastic ones from things I bought.
My findings:
- Direct to ground was more successful than in a pot.
- Direct to ground I had 14/16 survive the transplant and start growing.
- In pots I had 8/10 survive the transplant and start growing.
- The in-ground ones just look healthier (more growth, bigger, nicer looking leaves).
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The ones that died were the littlest <5mm.
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The larger ones >1cm are the slowest to grow and they have tiny leaves. The ones >5mm and <1cm have the most growth and best looking leaves.
grafting part
I would rate their difficulty as easier than peach and more difficult than apple and pear.
I found most of the difficulty from how soft the wood was and how delicate their bark is. example: I accidently cut the top off of a seedling when I was trying to cut the top of a t-bud cut. The knife just slid through the whole “trunk”. (It became a splice graft). I also damaged bark or peeled more than I meant to several times.
I’ve tried a variety of grafts (T-bud, chip, whip/tongue, bark, cleft and splice). It’s hard to tell if any seem particularly better. Success seemed very dependent on the quality of the scion and rootstock.
I’ve grafted onto both the wild transplants and onto a purposefully cultivated planted rootstock and I don’t have enough data to say if there are compatibility issues if one is better - but I’ve had success with both, so it can work.
Twice I’ve gotten dormant wood from friends (one IRL friend one growingfruit friend). The wood in both cases looked to be in good shape (which I think is important for the notes below).
The ones I grafted with the good shape wood in spring last year came out well, lived through winter, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t take good notes.
I got dormant wood from fruitwood for spring grafting this year and was really, really disappointed. I got one small stick of each type. 4 of the 5 sticks looked sad. They were wrinkly looking, like they’d dried out at some point. None of the grafts with the sad looking scion wood were successful. 2 of 3 with the non-sad looking scion were successful. I think 3 grafts was pushing it with that stick though.
Because I had so many failed grafts (and a bunch of the seedlings were still fine) @kinghat kindly mailed me some left over dormant scionwood in August.
The ones I grafted with the dormant wood in August this year (I know!) are looking okay. Some pushed growth and some just look callused and we’ll see how they fare over winter and spring. It’ll be exciting.