Re: [nafex] Pawpaw question and observation

I'm in NM at about 5000 feet. I've been trying to get pawpaws
established for about 10 years. I buy grafted named varieties bare root
and plant them in the ground. All but one have died after a year or
maybe two. Our sun is very intense. The trees have been planted in an
area that gets partial shade but I also used to put a shaded structure
around them that kept them pretty much shaded all the time. I had some
trees that did ok for a few years that way but when I removed the
shading, they declined. Many times the trees were simply dead in the
spring for no apparent reason.

I noticed that some trees that had survived the winter then put out a
few leaves (these were usually small plants and often had only 4 or 5
leaves) and within a few weeks the leaves were chewed up, burnt out, or
shredded by the wind. For the one tree that has survived, I put a mesh
enclosure around it to keep off insects, birds, and wind. This year it
put out a dozen or so leaves and is doing ok.

They definitely require acidifying the soil here. Without that, the
leaves are cholorotic. Once I acidify, the change in leaf color is very
rapid.

I've always puzzled over why I couldn't get the pawpaws to survive.
Maybe the graft is the key and I need to plant seedlings.

Regards,

Jay

Jay Cutts
Director, Cutts Graduate Reviews
Lead Author, Barron's MCAT Prep Book
Lead Author, Barron's LSAT Prep Book (2013)
(505) 281-0684
10 am to 10 pm Mountain Time, 7 days

On 8/19/2015 7:44 AM, Jerry Lehman wrote:
> On 8/19/2015 8:56 AM, Louis Pittman wrote:
>> My experience has been similar to mIEKAL's - container-grown pawpaws
>> that I
>> grafted and transplanted a year or so later, often grew for a year or
>> two,
>> then the graft 'woke up dead' after winter, and the understock re-grew.
>> Now... in-groung established seedlings that were topworked to named
>> selections... no decline or death of the grafted variety.
>>
>> But, again, it may be that if I did more than chunk 'em in the ground
>> and
>> walk away, they might have fared better.
> Lucky,
>
> Thanks for your input, I would like to hear if others have had the
> same experience. It is quite common for a grafted tree to abort the
> graft the year of planting if it comes under stress. I've not heard
> reports of this following survival of the 1st year. This may be
> problematic with pawpaws and may be involved with the pawpaws dislike
> for being transplanted.
>
> In thinking about personal experience. I've only planted 3 grafted
> potted pawpaws and none of them survived the past 2 years. One that
> did survive after the graft failed died the 3rd year. But my
> experience with only 3 instances isn't enough to draw a conclusion. I
> believe it was partially my fault as I may not have cared for them
> sufficiently. We need to hear from more planters of grafted potted
> pawpaws.
>
> About 5 years ago I planted 33 pawpaw seedlings from the IDNR
> nursery. I also have a wild population and took the tractor back and
> brought in dirt from those root systems in an attempt to bring in the
> Mycorrhizae fungi specific to a Asimina and back filled the holes of
> every other one with this soil. I do have a water wagon that I can
> hall 200 gallons at a time and spray onto the ground, simulating rain.
> I had also applied pelletized sulfur to the ground and tilled in
> before planting. They were planted in well dug holes, not chunked in.
> (Lucky, not trying to put your method down as it's difficult not to do
> much else when planting potted pawpaws.) After planting when active
> growth had begun which is when I normally graft trees I grafted all of
> them using the Omega or saddle graft. Of the 33, none of the grafts
> survived past the 1st year and only 3 of the under stock survived.
> It's hell a be a total failure, and after all that work of planting
> those 33!
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
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