Thanksgiving and Winterizing Pawpaw Seedlings

They say that pawpaws can withstand winter temperatures as low at negative 30 degrees F, and I know that there are some pawpaws that grow in Canada. But I imagine the negative 30 degrees figure may be for pawpaw trees that are well-established already. And for pawpaw trees that are growing in the ground, a relatively warm place where their well-established and extensive roots can provide a winter home for the pawpaw life-force. But of course, our pawpaw seedlings aren't well-established, and they aren't planted in the ground but are rather planted in cut-off water bottles. So when it snowed and stuck on Thanksgiving, I started thinking maybe I should take some action to preserve them over the winter. 

But what to do? If I were to bring them inside our house and warm them to a toasty 68 degrees F, they might get fooled and think that spring has already sprung.

They've just shed the last of their leaves, that that would be cruel to get them going all over again, and at the wrong time of year. (Maybe I overestimate a pawpaw seedling's naivete--maybe it's very hard to fool them, I don't know.)

The other alternative that I could think of was to put them in the shed. The shed has a drawback-- namely, they'll be in the dark for about three months, and I think pawpaws (and plants in general) perceive daylight hours and set their spring clocks by those, so the perpetual darkness of the shed could throw them off. But the shed is nice in another way: it's not too warm and it's not too cold, kind of goldilocksy.

So they're in the shed for right now, as of Thanksgiving. But I'm going to email the people at Kentucky State University and ask what they think is best in the circumstances. Once I hear back, I'll update this post on winterizing pawpaw seedlings.

Preparing Pawpaw Seeds for Planting

While we ate the eighty or so pawpaws, we kept nearly all of the seeds in a plastic container. I originally was putting them in layers separated by paper towels. But then W bumped the container and the layers got all shuffled. So we just threw all the seeds into the container.

A few weeks ago it was time to get them organized and get them ready to be stratified in the fridge over the winter so they'll be ready to be planted in the spring. If you're interested, here's another post where I talk about the pawpaw seed's over-wintering requirements.

Because I was getting them organized, and because not everyone does such a good job as I do of cleaning the pulp off of their pawpaw seeds, I decided I would wash the seeds in a strainer.

Once they were washed, I made layers of paper towels and pawpaw seeds in the plastic container. I got the paper towels a bit wet, since the seeds aren't supposed to dry out over the winter. (I'll just mention that I've seen people online talking about needing to pack the seeds in anti-fungal moss over the winter, but I found paper towels worked fine last winter.)

Like a contact lens, this is some of the residual pulpy film from the seeds, left by people (no offense) who aren't so conscientious as me in cleaning their pawpaw seeds.

Some people say that our beings are like onions--no cores, just layer upon layer down to nothing. I'm looking forward to when we stop privileging the onion as a plant-matter hieroglyph of our souls. Hopefully the pawpaw, after a century more of selective breeding, will afford us with an adequate metaphor for our future cyborg selves. It may well have to do with the layers and layers of stratifying seeds.

Oh the strata!

And oh the scummy pulp left in the kitchen sink!

The uppermost stratum.

Even with all my effort, some of the pulp stowed away on the seeds.

The seeds when into the fridge.

And this is about what they'll look like a year from now.

Spooky Halloween Pawpaws

During the day on Halloween, NJ had W do the difficult chore of bringing the pawpaw seedlings inside. It was a smart thing to do on two counts: first, it protected the pawpaws from 8-year-olds who might have stepped on them in their Halloween enthusiasm; and second, it built W's character--if he can't milk a cow every morning, he can move the pawpaws once a year.

Tonight, a few days after the ghoulish holiday, I put the seedlings back outside in the cold. I'm planning on keeping them out there until the snows come. I don't want their soil to freeze solid, though, so later I'll be putting the in our shed, which gets a little heat from our house.

Fall Colors and the Pawpaws

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Yesterday I took pics of the pawpaws and their fall colors.

The Shenandoah

A closer look at the Shenandoah, since its yellow is the most intense

The KSU-Atwood--it was yellower earlier and then the leaves started turning brown on the tree

The Wells, still working on going all yellow

The Susquehanna in its cage of screen and rebar. The screen and rebar help protect it against deer. Even though deer have seldom eaten any leaves from the pawpaws, once or twice they've made the mistake of taking a bite before realizing pawpaw leaves are poisonous. Still, when a tree is this small, even a deer's brief mistake can be devastating to it. But the thing a tree this size needs most protection from: human children running through the yard and not seeing it. The screen and rebar make it visible.

The Mango cultivar in its cage

The fifteen seedlings

Another view, showing the leafless stems. 

Speaking of yellow, here's a male Lesser Goldfinch getting ready to land on our nyjer seed feeder

Here it is after it landed

Utah Pawpaw Growers: Part 1

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A couple weeks ago I opened my inbox and found an email titled "Paw paws!"

As you can imagine, the subject line piqued my interest, and when I opened it, I learned that Dan Carpenter of Murray, Utah, has been working on growing pawpaws here in Utah. (By the way, I'm using his name with permission--I wouldn't just publish the name of someone who contacted me without their permission.) He had a few questions he wanted to bounce off me on the two cultivars he's planted (the NC-1 and the Mango).

In emailing with him, it also struck me that he might be up for being a guinea pig, as the first in a running series of blogposts titled "Utah Pawpaw Growers," which would feature email interviews with...(this may surprise you)...people in Utah who are growing pawpaws. As I explained by email: "Planting pawpaws in Utah--that's not normal like planting apple trees or peach trees; there's always a story about why someone decides to plant pawpaws in Utah. And I'm wondering if you'd be interested in being first in the series? I'm thinking in terms of a type of email interview, where I might send you a series of questions and you could write short answers to them. And then people featured in the series could send a few pics of their trees to be posted in the blog entry along with their answers." I also added: "If you were up for something like that, you could choose either to use your name or you could be anonymous or use initials or just a first name." He said it was fine to use his name, since he's had an online presence for years and hasn't worried about anonymity.

So here's Dan, responding to a few questions from me (all links added by me):

BR: How did you first hear of pawpaws?

DC: I first hear about Pawpaws a couple years back, on The Survival Podcast. Jack Spirko is a big fan of looking "off the menu" for uncommon fruits and vegetables that can be grown, instead of only replicating the things that you see in your local supermarket. From his description, Pawpaws sounded fantastic, so I looked them up.

BR: Why pawpaws and not peaches?

DC: Why not both?!! I don't actually grow peaches (yet), but I do have a nectarine tree, an apricot tree, a dwarf pear tree, a grafted apple tree, a Jujube tree, 2 Black Mulberry trees, 2 kinds of grapes, Gojis, raspberries, blackberries, honeyberries, and a bunch of other herbs. I'm into FOOD. :-) Having said all that however, the Pawpaws do sound the most exotic and wonderful, so they do occupy a special place of hope in my heart.

BR: Which pawpaw cultivars did you choose and why?

DC: I have an NC-1, and a Mango. I chose them because they sounded so good!! :-) I was also fairly active in the Utah Backyard Homesteading Facebook group, and there were a couple people in that group that had Pawpaws, and still hadn't killed them.

BR: Any challenges you've experienced growing pawpaws in Utah? How have you dealt with those challenges?

DC: Yes!!! I was very worried about my brand new little Pawpaw seedlings in the merciless summer of the Utah desert, so I planted my Pawpaw seedlings in large pots, and kept them inside my wood shop. I made a Youtube video about this, and called them my "Pot Paws." Both my little seedlings are tiny little 12" tall twigs. I think my plants may be getting nutrient deficient. Halfway through the summer, the Mango Pawpaw's leaves began to get a little yellowy. At the time, I though it may be too little water, so I tried to water more. The leaves continued to get splotchier and curled up. It has looked like it's been dead for the last couple months, but I've continued to water it, hoping that the roots may still be alive, and come back next spring. over the last few weeks, the NC-1's leaves are beginning to look like that as well. I'm not sure what to do. [BR's note: I'm including Dan's pics below, with some discussion of what may be ailing them and some suggestions on an approach to planting pawpaws in Utah that I've had success with.]

BR: If you've already eaten a pawpaw, what would you compare the taste to?

DC: Sadly, I've never tasted Pawpaws. I tried mightily this last month however, when my family was in Florida and North Carolina. No amount of calling the colleges and growers, asking at wildlife preserves, or stopping at farmer's markets and fruit stands resulted in a single solitary Pawpaw. Sniff :-(.....................[BR's note: I just wanted to mention that although Dan and I are both Utah pawpaw growers, we only met because he went to North Carolina and talked on the phone with Derek Morris of the North Carolina Pawpaw Festival, whose NC Pawpaw Festival Facebook page has linked to my blog several times. When Dan and Derek were talking on the phone and Derek realized Dan was from Utah, he told him about a guy--me--out in Utah growing pawpaws. It's a little wild--and a lot fortuitous--that two Utah pawpaw growers would be introduced to each other by the North Carolina Pawpaw Festival's organizer.]

BR: Is there a question about pawpaws that you wish I had asked but didn't? What's the question and how would you answer it?

DC: There are a lot of questions that I still have, but I'm not sure my little trees will even make it, so I don't think I have any answers yet!

Dan took this pic earlier this year when he was planting his pawpaws

This is the NC-1 that Dan refers to above. Pic taken this month, Oct 2016. Note the leaves looking wilty and unhealthy. The look similar to my Wells pawpaw earlier this year. To read about how I approached this problem, take a look here and here.............But I'm not sure it's the same problem. When Dan and I talked, he explained that he had been giving them a lot of water, which is similar to what I do for my pawpaws. But I speculated that it could be that with my pawpaws (which are in the ground), the excess water drains away. And with his pawpaws (which are in containers), the excess water may be drowning the roots? I told him that every time I've planted a pawpaw tree in Utah, I've planted it in the spring, having it delivered from One Green World in April or May and planting it in the ground immediately. I've only lost one pawpaw with this approach, and that was because the graft failed. So that's my recommended approach to planting pawpaws in Utah: spring planting in the ground, and plenty of water, counting on that excess water will sink into the ground and not waterlog the soil. Here's a post detailing how I planted two pawpaw trees in spring of this year.

Another view of Dan's NC-1

Dan's Mango cultivar, which as he mentioned lost its leaves earlier this season after planting. I'm not sure why, but if I were to take a stab, I'd suggest either over-watering or graft failure. He's right that the roots are probably still alive, and ....

This is also of Dan's Mango cultivar--looks like there's an upper branch that lost all its leaves and a lower branch (pictured here) that still has some shriveled leaves hanging on.

Also, here's the Youtube video Dan referenced in his answers: "Pot Paws." You'll see that in the video, he's concerned about his pawpaws getting too much sun. It's a legitimate concern, and he's got a good solution, I think. But my understanding (as I told him when we talked) is that this would be a good approach to seedlings (pawpaw plants that have just germinated during the present season), while grafted cultivars are already old enough that we don't need to worry about them getting a sunburn. That's been my experience anyway.