Paw Paw Tree anyone??

Discussion in 'Outdoor Gardening in the Pacific Northwest' started by Eve von Paradis, Apr 22, 2010.

  1. Paw Paw Dana

    Paw Paw Dana Member

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    You do need 2 trees that are not genetically identical, or at least that is my understanding. The tree sends out runners. I have cut them and put them in water. If they root, you're welcome to them. I bought mine 10 years ago at Cedar Rim Nursery... but that was 10 years ago. I later found some at random in a Nursery on #6 Road in Richmond. I couldn't help myself and bought 3 there, which I gave away to an acquaintence who runs a Blueberry farm in Maple Ridge. All this to say, I can't really be of much help, unless I can get those runners to root. Stay tuned!
     
  2. Paw Paw Dana

    Paw Paw Dana Member

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    One last thing. I understand they don't like direct light, but mine never complained. I think that is because Vancouver at its most humid, hottest and brightest, pales in comparison to where these plants originate, so mine are thriving in the best light my yard affords.
     
  3. Rick43215

    Rick43215 New Member

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    Burnaby, BC
    Does the main cause my flowers to drop? Also I'm just wondering if the wind might cause my flowers to drop? I'm wondering if I should protect them from the wind and the rain?
     
  4. Al Chomica

    Al Chomica Member

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    Hello friend, I hadn't seen this thread and can make comment for those who might like to know more about these plants. Allow me to rummage through the dim recesses of my little mind to disgorge a few details about them that I have learned... Yes they grow well here although one must have an awareness of the fact the trees are unlike any others in their flowering schemes. Because they have eliminated the need for aerial pollinators, like bees, it has been suggested that the tree is either a throwback to the age of dinosaurs when there were no fragile bees around or that the trees are futuristic (perhaps apocalyptic?) in their propagation strategies and have moved beyond the need for the temperature-dependant, fickle bee pollinators. Trees are a riparian species so they like shade in the first years of their life. They like wet feet too if one can believe that. I have a buddy in Arkansas that picks fruit by canoe. Flowers form as velvety buds the previous year and allow one to measure their harvest a year in advance, just like the ancient Egyptians could measure future crop harvests by reading a Nilometer. We have at least 1000 flowers on an 11 year old Sunflower this year and if properly pollinated each of those flowers could yield six or more heavy fruits. The Sunflower variety is very self-fertile but requires liver baiting or hand-pollination. I grow Mango as well but it is not at all self-fertile and needs the Sunflower pollen to set fruit. Last year I did not hand-pollinate because it was warm and we had flies out. Mango set no fruit. Sunflower provided over 80 nice big fruits and I just used the last of my pulp to make PawPaw/Spruce Tip cookies that went over very well during a big horticultural tour last week. Flowers come out a pale green/purple and are females. They morph into dark purple males shortly after and disperse large quantities of a blackish pollen that can be collected and even frozen for next year's first female flowers that would normally never have a male ahead of them. The Sunflower is robust. The Mango is a weakling and only produces a small amount of miniature flowers but when they get pollinated they do taste a bit better than the bigger Sunflower. Suckers are of no use. That's why the cultivars were created, cultured and selected over the last several decades. Coons and rats love them, even when they are not sweet. Ours ripen in late October and are harvested just before the first frost which coincidentally is the same time the tree does a final ripening and sweetening and dumps the fruit unceremoniously to the ground. Every year I place three different ladders up into the low branches of both trees that are planted only a few feet apart. This year I had surgery and can't even walk but the lure of sharing part of my crops has dragged in several crop-sharing, hand-pollinators from as far away as Comox and even the Kootenays (I'm in Nanoose Bay). In November I usually stratify the seeds in the fridge for six months but last fall I just planted them deeply in root pouches and left them in an unheated yet dry location. The pouches are never unpotted but rather get planted in the ground where the roots are then able to penetrate into the soil through the mesh without disturbing the roots at all. They have more tap root growth than surface growth. These pouches are also used for the fragile roots of Everbearing Mulberries and work better than I would ever have suspected. In early May I brought in one flat of the stratified seeds and left it in front of a patio door. After two months all the seeds have sent out long shoots and yesterday the tiniest of leaves have opened and are drinking in the red and blue spectrum of my gro-lites with gusto. The flat that was left outside in the cold has not shown any movement so perhaps this will prompt me to find someone who can bring them inside for me. I trade hundreds of seeds to nurseries but also grow a couple dozen every year that sell for 20 bucks a pop. I do not feed nor water it. I never prune it either - zero maintenance. So, my Sunflower feeds us fresh fruit, it is also made into jam that is used as a local currency, it makes a highly sought after Jalapeno/PawPaw hot sauce and generates around 500 bucks a year in coin - not bad for a tree. It is a well-behaved smallish tree with elegant tropical foliage that turns a rich golden yellow in the fall. Truly a plant of worth...
     
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  5. soccerdad

    soccerdad Active Member 10 Years

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    I have two trees that produce fruit. Unfortunately no one in my family likes their taste... but they are rather attractive,

    At least, they used to be rather attractive. This year the main one has gone crazy on me, At about 1m height it divides into two trunks that then continue upwards and parallel to each other about .5 m apart, with branches splitting off from each trunk. Fine. But this year one of the two trunks is acting strange. It shows no signs of any damage but at a height of about 2 m the branches that split off from it have no leaves. The lower branches do, but the higher ones don't. It may soon be chain saw time.
     
  6. Al Chomica

    Al Chomica Member

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    I hear many Paw growers lamenting on the lack of flavour or taste with wild-obtained seedlings. That is why many decades have been spent by esteemed horticulturalists producing cultivars that do taste good - very good in fact. The Sunflower and Mango varieties that we grow in Nanoose are exceptional in flavour so it is too bad that yours are not what you had hoped for when you planted them. I occasionally see a vendor from Ontario offering fresh seeds of Paw Paws for sale on the various fb growing groups. I can say with a good deal of certainty that none of those seeds will ever produce any fruit that one would write home about yet one would have to wait five or more long years to find that out. Get a proven cultivar if you want Paw Paw fruit. And from what I have learned over the last decade, only the Sunflower variety is self-fertile...
     
    Margot likes this.
  7. Paw Paw Dana

    Paw Paw Dana Member

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    Location:
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    Well it's Paw Paw season and the warm autumn produced many Paw Paws this season. Our 3 trees are now 15 years old, very tall and quite beautiful. The fruit is especially tasty this year, and the flesh quite creamy. I just love everything about these trees.
     

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