| Author | Content |
Loligo
Murphysboro, IL
(Zone 6b)
September 28, 2009
1:18 PM Post #7112116
| My husband and I are big biology geeks, and ever since college we've both been intrigued by the stories we've heard about pawpaws. We always said that as soon as we bought a house with a real garden, we would plant some pawpaw trees. So two years ago we finally bought our house, and we ordered two grafted pawpaws from a specialty nursery for $20 a pop, and they were literally the first plants we planted in our new garden.
Then those two little sticks sprouted leaves, and we looked just beyond them to the forest that surrounds our yard... and realized that like 25% of the understory trees in our woods are pawpaws. LOL! That's $40 we could have saved ourselves!
So we finally got to taste them, and they were just as delicious as everyone says. We got quite a good harvest of wild pawpaws that first year; no one else in our neighborhood seems to have any clue that they're out there or that they're edible. This year, though, we've only found ONE fruit in the whole neighborhood. I don't know if our cold, wet spring prevented pollination, or if the horribly destructive wind storm we had in May stripped the immature fruit off the trees.
My husband just left to check out a state park where we found a ton of fruit last year, to see if they fared any better. |
sallyg
Anne Arundel,, MD
(Zone 7b)
September 28, 2009
1:34 PM Post #7112166
| Loligo- What a great story! I loved it. Too bad you had to spend $40 for the priviledge of telling it.
So you get harvests from the wild understory trees? The trees I've found near me have been fruitless and I don't know if it's because they are too shaded, or isolated from other nonsuckered pawpaws (self infertility problem),
Thanks so much for checking in. Please let us know what he finds about the other grove. And I wonder if the pawpaw research would like to know your opinion of taste on your wild ones versus your grafted commercial ones.
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BayStorm
Hendersonville, TN
September 28, 2009
2:22 PM Post #7112307
| Am located in TN and this year's paw paw harvest seems to be very good here. This is the first time I've had them and yes they are delicious. Am now considering planting some in my yard. Can you give any tips? I know you must plant two for pollenizing, and they seem to like alittle shade. Any ideas about acid vs. base soils, etc? Would like to plant them near some pines. Thanks for any help. |
sallyg
Anne Arundel,, MD
(Zone 7b)
September 28, 2009
2:33 PM Post #7112338
| Give me a couple days and I'll double check--but I think there are links to references in the article. As I recall, they are not picky on pH. Should do fine in an average to rich, moist soil but not a poorly drained spot.
The old way to give shade was a barrel with ends cut off.
Thanks for another vote for deicious!-(-I am on a deadline but can check back later.) |
Loligo
Murphysboro, IL
(Zone 6b)
September 28, 2009
2:39 PM Post #7112346
| I can't wait until the grafted ones finally fruit! We've found most of the wild ones to be quite tasty -- some have been on the starchy side, and some have a tannic/bitter aftertaste, but the best ones are definitely fruit worth paying money for, so if the commercial ones turn out that good or better, I won't begrudge the $40. The wild ones by our house fruit in fairly heavy shade, but that windstorm I mentioned earlier took out a LOT of upper canopy trees in our neighborhood, so all those pawpaws will now be getting much more sun. I'm very curious to see how this affects their fruiting.
I double-checked on the site my husband went to: it's actually on National Forest land, rather than a state park. So for future reference, if you're in Southern Illinois, there's a huge (sometimes) fruiting patch at the parking lot for the Little Grand Canyon trailhead. Further updates when he gets home... |
Loligo
Murphysboro, IL
(Zone 6b)
September 28, 2009
3:12 PM Post #7112469
| My husband reports, not a single pawpaw. Last year the crop was so heavy that the local wildlife couldn't even keep up with it and the ground beneath the trees was littered with rotting fruit. This year, nothing. So no one needs to rush out to Little Grand Canyon! |
growild
Fairview, TN
September 28, 2009
3:30 PM Post #7112530
| We had great production on our pawpaws this year. Lack of fuit could be the pollinator as they require the presence of a beetle. A very early bloomer when not many insects are flying, old timers would put a dead carcus in the tree to draw the beetles. We've also had to fight the critters to get the fruit as they love them as much as we do. We harvested fruit about 2 weeks ago, with the largest crop coming from my fathers trees in suburbia Nashville - collecting about 20 fruit off 3 trees.
Baystorm, you should come visit our nursery GroWild, Inc. in Fairview, TN - we have pawpaws of production size in 15 gallon containers. |
Liquidambar2
Mount Vernon, KY
September 28, 2009
11:30 PM Post #7114290
| This year there was a late freeze. Nobody seems to understand that including me.
Then it came time for my blueberries to bear fruit and nothing. My mother reminded me of the late freeze this spring.
My Dad's apples never bore fruit and he was wondering why, and once again my mother had to remind us all that there was a late freeze this spring.
It was not that big of freeze but there was one, it was not bad enough to hurt the forest like about three years ago. Damaging even the leaves, and turning the whole forest black, but this freeze was not that bad, just enough to stop a lot of things from bearing fruit.
I planted paw paws five years ago. I planted them down in a very wet area that later dries out in the summer. Lots of crawl dad hoes.
I sewed some green cloth over top of two large tomato cages and put them around the trees for shade, so they could get a good start.
You would have thought I did some weird thing, every neighbor and passer-byer would stop wanting to know what was those tomatoe cages were all about.
When I said Paw Paws, I was amazed that number of people that looked back at me blankly?????!!!!!
Growild I hope Paws paws from Tenn are good ones because I got these from McMinniville Tenn. |
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