Pawpaw Seedlings. 6.20.19

Pawpaw Seedlings.  6.20.19

Pawpaw seedlings are starting to emerge.  I think it's about 3 months after I planted the stratified seeds in these containers.  At first they were in the warm sunroom.   In May I moved them out to a shady area.

Pawpaw seedlings require shade.  They die in full sun, according to what i have read.

Each of these four pots has about 6 planted seeds.  I stratified them in wet paper towel, in ziplock bags, in the fridge, from September to April.

Growing pawpaws from seeds is a long term proposition.  Most likely, if they do survive and bear fruit, and if I survive that long, it will be around 6 to 8 years before we see anything.

Meanwhile, with the recent heat spell, only one of my four pawpaw trees is looking good.  The others have smaller, paler leaves.  I don't know if they will survive.  All of the tiny fruits fell off.

Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

PawPaws. 10.24.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.24.18

Wow.  These are so good!  Now I'm down to 4 remaining fruits.  This variety is "Sunflower".  I'm saving seeds.  They are washed off, in wet paper towel, in ziplock bag, in the fridge, for the winter.

Pawpaw Fruits and Fall Color. 10.17.18

"Allegheny" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

 The pawpaw trees are slow growers, but they have nice yellow fall color.  The "Sunflower" pawpaws are ripening now.  Very tasty.

"NC-1" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.17.18

Pawpaw Ripening Experiment. 10.16.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.16.18

This is my pawpaw ripening experiment.  I cut the smaller one from the tree last week.  I placed it into a sealed container with a banana.  The banana gives off ethylene gas, which ripens some fruits.  I don't know if that is known for pawpaws.  I had it containerized

The larger one was tree ripened.  It fell off the tree one day earlier.

The result:
The banana-ripened one was a little firmer.  The seeds and flesh separated more easily.  The tree ripened one was more mushy.  As for flavor, the banana ripened one was a little less sweet, compared to the tree ripened one, and maybe the flavor was a little less tropical.  They were both delicious.

These were the variety "Sunflower".

Conclusion:  Artificial ripening of pawpaws may be an option.  Much better experiments related to timing of picking fruit, variety, and timing of artificial ripening, would be more revealing.  For me, if there is a surplus next year (a big "if"), I might try this again.

Paw Paw Progress Report. 9.17.18

Paw Paw "NC-1".  9.17.18

Most of the paw paw fruits made it through the hot dry summer without problems.  Some that were exposed to full sun, have blackened areas where the sun was brightest - something to think about next year, if they set fruit again.

This was a very hot dry summer.  My ability to keep things watered, was overwhelmed.  But I did manage to water each paw paw tree with about 10 gallons of water, once weekly, using the "5-gallon bucket with 1/4 inch holes in bottom" method.  They are also mulched with tree leaves from last fall.

I'm guessing they will ripen in October.  No way to know, this being their first year to set fruits for me.  The "NC-1" might be bigger, because that was the only fruit on the tree.  The "Sunflower" set about 2 dozen fruits.  Those are smaller, compared to the one on "NC-1".

Paw Paw "Sunflower".  9.17.18

The apple, there for comparison, is a Rubinette.  This happens to be an average size apple.

Back on Track. Resuming GrowingGreener Blog! Pawpaw Progress Report. 6.2.18

 I think the hiatus is fully over now.  Live is back to what passes for normal.  I've been continuing to garden, but it's been difficult to keep the blog going.  I think that's done now, so here we are again.

For starters, last month I pollinated as many pawpaw flowers as I could.  NC-1 got pollen from Sunflower, and vice versa.  Of the dozens that I pollinated, there are maybe one dozen little pawpaw clusters growing.  I'm stoked - this is the largest they've gotten for me, ever.  Maybe this will be the year!

Some continue to fall off.  I have been watering these pawpaw trees once weekly, with 2 5-gallong buckets of water.  Maybe that will help them hold on to their fruits.

Pollinating Pawpaw flowers. 5.7.17

 I've been hand pollinating the pawpaw flowers for two days.  One of the challenges with pawpaws, is they don't self pollinate, bees are not attracted to the flowers, and most if not all require pollen from a genetically different variety.  The flowers first are receptive to pollen with a glistening stigma, then the stigma becomes non-receptive and the anthers bear pollen.  My observation is the flower is open and potentially receptive, one or two days before the pollen is shed.  The flowers do not open on the same day, instead blooming over a couple of weeks.  So if the temperature is not right, or if there is rain, all opportunity is not lost.

My trees for these varieties ("Sunflower" and "NC-1") were planted in 2012.  This is the third year they have bloomed, and this year is clearly the most prolific.  I also planted the variety "Rebecca's Gold" in 2012, it was then eaten off by a rabbit or deer, recovered, and this year is the first year that tree has bloomed.

In addition, I planted the variety "Mango" in 2015.  It bloomed in 2016 but not this year.  I planted the variety "Allegheny" in 2016.  It is not blooming.

Pawpaws do not transplant well, so they are planted when very small, and it takes more years to bear, compared to most fruit trees.

I should add that I have yet to see a ripe pawpaw in my orchard.  Will this year finally be the first?  I have noted that on the first, and sometimes second, year that many fruit tree varieties bloom, they do not set fruit.  Pawpaws are not native to the cooler maritime Pacific NW, and may have more challenges here than hot humid mid continent summers.  However, there are usually some ripe pawpaws at the Home Orchard Society fruit show, so I know that some people get them to grow and bear.

I use a paint brush to collect the anthers and pollen from flowers with ripe pollen, letting them fall into a white cup, then use a paint brush to transfer to flowers of the other tree.  Sunflower started blooming 2 days before NC-1, so this has been one-way so far.  However, Sunflower is also sometimes described as one of the rare self-receptive varieties, so I pollinated those with that tree's own pollen to see what happens.

Pawpaw Progress Report. 4.28.16

Pawpaw flower.  4.28.16

Maybe this will be the year of the pawpaw.  The oldest three trees were planted in summer 2012.   Of those, two - "Sunflower" and "NC-1" have / had lots of flowers this year.  A one year old -  tree about 18 inchest tall, "Mango" also had all of 2 flowers, tiny tree size.  even though "Sunflower" was definitely ahead of "NC-1", there has been overlap of both pollen shedding and stamen receptivity for both.  Some of the "Sunflower" flowers were the first, so there was no "NC-1" pollen to pollinate them.  Even so, it looks like those set.  "Sunflower" is considered unusual in that it may be self fertile.

I continue to collect pollen when the anthers are shedding, and transfer to what I perceive to be receptive stigmas on the other tree.  I also transferred some to "Mango" although that one is way to small to think it will bear.

Pawpaw flower.  4.28.16

It looks like some of thepollination took, especially on these first flowers on "Sunflower".

I need to keep my excitement in check.  There are lots of things that can happen between now and Sept or Oct, when I expect these to ripen.  Still, if all of the flowers set fruit, they will need some thinning and good watering for the summer.

I have never tasted my own pawpaw, and have only tasted tiny bites at the Home Orchard Society fruit fair - probably not optimal.  Looking forward to tasting my own pawpaw fruits.

Early fruit formation, Pawpaw "Sunflower".  4.26.16

Early fruit formation, Pawpaw "Sunflower".  4.28.16

Planting Final Fruit Tree Shipment. 2.4.16

Tree Shipment.  Burnt Ridge.  2.4.16

Pawpaw Roots in Airpot.  2.4.16

This was the final tree shipment.  I still have some berrries en route.  This year I planted more than any previous year. Probably enough for a lifetime.

These were from Burnt Ridge Nursery.  All of the trees had amazingly full root systems, intact and healthy appearing.

The pawpaw was interesting.  This pawpaw was taller than any prior purchase.  It was grown in an open-bottom container, which results in a more branched, less wind-around root sustem.  Very nice roots.  I think this tree will be a year ahead of any pawpaw I've planted in the past.

All are planted now.

Allegheny pawpaw, Winecrisp  apple, Sam cherry, Aromatnaya quince. 

Growing Degree Days, Battleground WA

This information is from Western Regional Climate Center.

Trinity SE Sweetcorn need 1,190 heat units  Based on the info below, if I understand correctly, adding to May (now) 559 growing degree days, +1,190 = 1759 which occurs in August.  But I don't know that I understand this table correctly.

Pawpaws require 150 frost free days and 2200 growing degree days, which I am thinking we get here in Sept or Oct. Might be OK.

Station:(450482) BATTLE GROUND
From Year=1928 To Year=2012
Growing Degree Days for Selected Base Temperature (F)
Base	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	Jun.	Jul.	Aug.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
40 M	62	96	168	275	456	584	747	756	607	375	153	69	4348
40 S	62	159	326	602	1057	1641	2388	3144	3751	4126	4279	4348	4348
45 M	16	27	63	142	302	434	592	601	457	226	59	18	2938
45 S	16	43	106	249	551	985	1577	2178	2635	2861	2920	2938	2938
50 M	2	4	16	57	165	285	437	446	308	105	13	2	1840
50 S	2	6	22	78	243	528	965	1411	1719	1824	1837	1840	1840
55 M	0	0	2	17	72	150	284	292	171	33	1	0	1023
55 S	0	0	2	19	91	241	525	817	988	1021	1023	1023	1023
60 M	0	0	0	3	26	62	148	152	71	6	0	0	468
60 S	0	0	0	3	29	91	239	391	462	468	468	468	468
Corn Growing Degree Days
50 M	16	44	88	153	258	334	456	465	373	215	61	16	2479
50 S	16	60	148	300	559	892	1349	1814	2187	2402	2463	2479	2479

I bolded the bottom line.   That seems the most relevant.

Interpretation of the table:

"M = Monthly Data
S - Running sum of monthly data. 

Growing Degree Day units =  (Daily Ave. Temp. - Base Temp.) 

One unit is accumulated for each degree Fahrenheit the average temperature is above the base temperature. Negative numbers are discarded. 

Example: If the days high temperature was 95 and the low temperature was 51, the base 60 heating degree day units is ((95 + 51) / 2) - 60 = 13. This is done for each day of the month and summed.

Corn Growing Degree Day units have the limitations that the maximum daily temperatures greater than 86 F are set to 86 F and minimums less than 50 F are set to 50 F. "