If You're Growing / Have Tried Growing Grafted Pawpaws...

14 years ago

I'm wanting to do a little research about grafted pawpaw survival and thought I'd start here with a small informal/unscientific pole. If you have ever grown or tried to grow a grafted Asimina triloba, please answer what you can. I've tried to make this as short and simple as possible.

1. Location--Where did you plant your tree(s) (part of the country, sun/shade, soil conditions)?

2. Cultivar--What cultivar(s) do you have/did you try?

3. Source--Where did you get your tree or did you do the grafting?

4. Original condition--How large was the tree when you planted it? Was it bare-root, potted, or B&B?

5. Survival--Did it survive (is it still alive)? If it died, how long did it live? If still alive, what is the approximate age?

6. Reason for failure--If your tree did not survive, what are your guesses as to why?

7. Other comments...

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

gene_washdc
14 years ago
1. Location--south-east MD, western shore of the Chesapeake; clay soil ranges between soggy to normal, full sun, used shade cloth first two years.

2. Cultivar--Peterson's varieties, plus wide range of others.

3. Source--Peterson, Burntridge, Oikos Tree Crops, Hidden Springs.

4. Original condition--Varied, ranged from 3-4 yr potted, to 1 year seedling.

5. Survival--Most are okay, very slow growing (they get almost no care from me--no time). Have lost at least two of the Peterson grafted.

6. Reason for failure--One died back to root stock for unknown reason, second was destroyed by deer either going for the fruit or rubbing in fall, or both. Have another that the deer have almost destroyed, but may come back. I've been slowly caging them as I've been able.
kiwinut
14 years ago
1. Location--northern middle TN, cherty silt loam soil with some clay, pH 6.1 to 6.3, full afternoon sun.

2. Cultivar--Peterson's varieties and one wild selection found nearby grafted on sucker dug up from wild trees in my front yard and transplanted in back yard.

3. Source--Peterson and wild

4. Original condition-2 yr bare root-2' to 2.5' tall for Peterson's and 3' tall wild sucker. All planted without shade.

5. Survival--All three Peterson varieties doing great, although not much fruit yet after four years. Wild selection doing well, but lacks precocity of the Peterson varieties-no blooms yet.

Other comments-all three Peterson varieties bloom later than local native pawpaws by almost two weeks and avoid late freezes. Have made lots of blooms, but not very much fruit set. Only fruit so far was from hand cross-pollination. This past year these had a major issue with tent caterpillars, which rapidly cut off the tips of most shoots and greatly reduced growth. This problem was not seen on the numerous wild pawpaws on my property, nor on the adjacent grafted wild selection.
Related Discussions
Pawpaw refuses to grow?
Q
Comments (5)
I see it occasionally too and I do not understand it. The handful of stunted ones are in different situations with respect to water, soil, and shade. No easy explanation is obvious. I also have a moderately growing "Overleese" that after nearly a decade has started to grow faster and put out bigger leaves. From my own experience I begin to suspect that pawpaws as a species are unpredictable in cultivation. Some just act crazy. These include grafted trees so if it is genetic variability it must be the rootstock. I don't read or hear of this problem from the higher cooler latitudes though, which must hint at something.
...See More
Pawpaws (native fruit Asimina triloba) -- Anyone Growing?
Q
Comments (11)
I had one that I bought from one of the plant sales at NCSU Arboretum maybe 3 years ago. I have no idea what (if any) cultivar it is...I planted it at the edge of the wooded area of my back yard and gave it a good start (amended soil, Osmacote, plenty of water the first year and...Miracle Gro to light a fire up under it) and it took off. This year, it flowered for the first time. Probably 20 flowers and the tree is around 5 feet tall. I bought a partner for it this spring from Raintree Nursery, and the cultivar is 'Wells'. I planted it in the same general area, about 8 feet away from the other tree, pruned off a section of the tip that got broken in shipping, and did the same send off for it that the first tree got, minus the Miracle Gro (because I'm busy in other parts of the yard, and I've become sort of opposed to MG in the past few years). It's been about a month, and the little thing has really taken off. I'm really impressed with the vigor of this one, especially compared to its neighbor. Even if you weren't going to be anticipating fruit at some point (I am!), these are really handsome, small trees. I am also hoping for some zebra swallowtails at some point. These two trees are in the understory of a really large American persimmon, and I've finally figured out that's where the luna moths that appear in the summer are probably coming from...I digress. :)
...See More
thread: where in nj/ny are american persimmon & pawpaw growing?
Q
Comments (9)
Hi, The only place I've seen persimmon growing in NJ was in Strawbridge Park along Rt 38 in Moorestown, NJ. It may well have been planted there, though. I'm not super familiar with it - I suspect it's around in south Jersey but I haven't seen it. I might not recognize it at a casual glance, though. I've never seen it in north Jersey at all. Where's the Ridgefield Nature Trail, anyway? I am familiar with with Pawpaw and I don't think it grows in NJ at all - I've never seen it here. It's very common in Ohio where I grew up. Same with Pin Cherry - it sounds like it's commoner in the mountains of Pennsylvania but I've never seen it here. I was a volunteer on the Metroflora project for the Brooklyn Botanic garden in the late 90s, so I'm pretty familiar with the woody plants in the Bergen county area; and I don't believe I saw any of these three there. In fact, I got curious and dug out the 'Woody Plant Workbook' from the metroflora project - it has maps showing a dot in each quadrat where the (woody) plants were found. Persimmon is show as occuring on Staten Island and in Middlesex and Monmouth counties, but not farther north except for one or two places. Asimina triloba is only listed in 3 locations - 2 on Staten Island ond one in Monmouth County. At that point I suspect that people were either looking at planted specimens or mistaking Umbrella Magnolia for Pawpaw - they look rather similar. I know the BBG made a pretty good effort to check on IDs, but they had a lot of volunteers at that point and they weren't all real knowledgable. Prunus pennsylvanica is listed for 9 scattered sites over the entire area - like I said, I believe this is more common farther west. FWIW, if you're not familiar with it, the BBG Metroflora Project is a census of all the plants growing within a 50 mile radius of NYC. They broke the area up into 964 5x5km blocks; the book I mentioned has maps with a dot in each block where the plant was found. It doesn't really have enough info to specifically locate the plant, but it would give you an idea. It's fun to look at, anyway. Sorry I can't be more help. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Metroflora Project
...See More
Ever grow pawpaw (not papaya)?
Q
Comments (8)
Good for you. The wider the above-clay good soil reaches, the larger the root systems can reach outward into user-friendly soil. If they are in small enclosures, they would benefit from replacing the small walls with wider walls as the trees grow in size. Being above ground, gravity will continually pull downward on the water that you provide and quickly dry out the young roots, so continually check the soil moisture and remoisten as often as possible when dry below the top 1" of soil mix. Dry roots are bad news, so protect your investment diligently. Regular light doses of fertilizer are welcome. Regretfully, the leaves dry out in daytime Sun blasts much faster than tiny root systems can replace the leaf moisture, so having some kind of shade to decrease the blast is a high priority. I actually used a roll of aluminum window screen to form a 4 ft. tall cylinder shaped Sun screen over a pot of brand new potted seedlings and it has worked very well to eliminate the drying of tender new leaves. You can bend the top of the cylinder together and staple a seam all the way across. As for varieties and their taste, you will have to test your own on several varieties to see which are best for you. I would guess that your plants won't venture to make babies until they develop enough roots to make enough trunk to support it. Think "size" to be the real goal rather than how soon you can eat fruit.
...See More
chills71
14 years ago
3 Peterson Pawpaws, planted 3-4 years ago. All three have reached 8 or so feet. 1 set fruit last year, wild-life removed all of it (see mulberry thread) 1 other Peterson Pawpaw in that same area has been damaged by wild-life (I'm thinking possums and raccoons) but it is still trying.

3rd one is planted with 3 seedling pawpaws (which are 2 years older) and while it can likely use a little more space/light I'm hoping it will fruit this next year. This one arrived damaged (and was replaced the next year).

I've not had any graft problems, nor have I shaded upon planting. The first 2 received supplemental watering, the last one, no.

All were purchased as bare-root. They've grown better for me than many of the other plants I've purchased over the years. (I have a 6 year old apricot which started out 2 feet tall and as thick as a pencil which is now 1 1/2 feet tall and slightly thicker than a pencil)

~Chills
Eric B
6 years ago
Location - Long Island, NY - in full sun (7-8am direct sunlight until 4p.m. and then the fence shades them all afternoon into the evening) - The soil is loamy and sandy I would say -

Cultivar - Out of the three trees I am growing - two are seedlings from Hirt's - The grafted variety is Kentucky State Universities KSU-ATWOOD

Source - One Green World (purchased in spring of 2016 and planted in June) it was potted in a deep root pot.

Original Condition - the trees were all around 14-18 inch sticks when I got them - The KSU-ATWOOD from One Green World was said to be 2-3 years old I believe.

Survival - All of the Pawpaw's I have currently are alive and growing vigorously - this season they really took off - they pretty much doubled in size - makes me happy to know they are still alive and made it through a winter so far - now the next winter is here - excited to see how they do next spring and summer 2018..

Reason for failure - All of my trees are growing well so far - However, I will share that the KSU-ATWOOD had some trouble at the beginning of this season (2017) - it was coming out of dormancy very slowly and then the leaves that were emerging were very pale green and I noticed the two other seedlings were growing very vigorously and the KSU-ATWOOD was not - I thought maybe this had to do with sunlight or fertilizer so I purchased jobes organic acid loving formula and then seaweed and fish fertilizer which I watered all of my trees with every 2-3 weeks until the end of july basically -

Now the KSU-ATWOOD is fine but I'm not sure what it was - I guess it was lacking nutrients in the soil but once I fertilized and kept using the seaweed and fish fertilizer the KSU-ATWOOD came back strong and grew like 12-18 inch shoots all over the tree - it's about 2-3 feet now - I'm a little nervous about next season because I'm hoping the trees will be vigorous like they were this past season - I am definitely going to be fertilizing a lot throughout the season as well as watering very well every week or more throughout the season.

If You're Growing / Have Tried Growing Grafted Pawpaws...

Comments (4)

gene_washdc

kiwinut

Related Discussions

chills71

Eric B

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US