Re-homing 2 Pawpaw seedlings and 23 Stratified Pawpaw Seeds

In October I published a blog post entitled Utah Pawpaw Growers: Part 1. It showcased an interview with a Utah pawpaw grower named Dan. Today after work he drove over to our house so we could talk pawpaws, and so I could send him away with two pawpaw seedlings (seeds picked out of some 2015 pawpaws, stratified over the winter, and sprouted in summer 2016) and twenty-three pawpaw seeds (saved from our 2016 pawpaws and stratified during this past winter). 

Here's Dan looking at the seeds. As I told him: they're all mixed up, with seeds from the Wells, the Shenandoah, and the KSU-Atwood. But since each seed has two parents, every seed carries genetic material from two of the best varieties, which are the two final cultivars on the list (no offense to the Wells).

Here's Dan standing with a ziplock bag of twenty-three seeds, with the pawpaw seedlings at his feet. I've talked with him a few times on the phone, and we've talked about youthful pawpaws' shade requirements. As I understand it, pawpaw seedlings need shad for the first year of their lives and then they're fine to be out in direct sunlight. But I don't know when to count "the first year" as finished. If they sprout in June, is that growing season the first year? Of does the sprouting year not count? And so the growing season after they sprout (this spring and summer, for these seedlings) would be the first year?

While he was here, Dan asked our daughter S if she liked pawpaws. S didn't offer a rousing or convincing affirmation, but at least managed to say yes. (She does like pawpaws--I think she was just a little unsure about who Dan was, and I hadn't done much to prepare anyone for his visit, besides telling NJ that "a guy named Dan" was coming over; and I didn't even give S that much of a heads up.)

Dan was especially impressed by the well established Wells. He asked how old it was, and I couldn't exactly remember, but now in the silence of the night (it's about 10.30pm) I remember that this spring in May, it will have been six years since I planted it. The KSU-Atwood and the Shenandoah: five years this spring. We looked at each of the pawpaw trees. At one point, NJ said that liking pawpaws among the fruits is like liking George Harrison among the Beatles.

Here he is, set up now to legitimately vie for first place as the most prolific pawpaw grower in Utah. With these seedlings, he's now got about 8 pawpaw trees I think. And who knows how the twenty-three seeds will turn out. As they always say: You can count the number of seeds in a pawpaw but you can't count the number of pawpaws in twenty-three seeds.