Pawpaw power

Beautiful!

Pumpkins and squash

Peaches

My peach tree has a few good sized peaches on it.

Asimina Triloba

My pawpaws look healthy and happy.  I hope to get blooms next year from my parents pawpaw suckers and the gurneys pawpaws.  That way I can cross pollinate.

Blueberries

My bushes have berries on them.  I hope to eat some blueberries.

Pawpaw Pollination

I have been going to my parents' house to pollinate their asimina triloba trees.  There are at least 7 to 8 fruit-bearing-size trees.  One is quite large, and given the girth of the trunk, the tree is probably 10-20 years old or more.  The others are similar in height but not girth.  They grow in a shaded area and are probably younger.

Last year, despite abundant blooms and mature trees, only one tiny fruit was produced.  There were a few small fruit clusters, but they fell off somehow.  I have found a website which chronicles the development of some pawpaw fruit: http://www.watersheds.org/nature/pawpaw.htm. According to this site, it is normal for some fruits to fall off a cluster. I guess it is normal that some of the clusters fell off; however, it would seem that more fruits would have made it.

In order to help determine what may be the cause of the poor fruit production, I am going to pollinate all fowers as much as I can. I have noticed mostly ants and a few other buts crawling around the blossoms. I have not seen any flies or any other winged insects that can easily fly from blossom to blossom, so it's not a wonder that the rate of pollination is low. By pollinating, I will eliminate the low pollination factor, and I plan to wrap any small fruits in netting. The netting will reduce or elliminate the wild animal destroying the developing fruit factor. If the trees are unable to produce more fruit than last year, I will attribute the lack of fruit to the need of another genetically different pollinator. Most all literature that I read about state that pawpaws and their clones are self-infertile. I kind of hope this is not as absolute as it seems. I wonder if the botantists and others have attempted to hand pollinate clones over the process of a few years. I don't see how they can make such a blanket statement about asimina triloba because the lack of pollination could be due to inadequate insect pollinators. Once again, I only saw ants, an occasional beetle, and spiders trying to catch ants. None of these seem like they would be the best pollinators.

I have hope that my efforts might pay off. Some of the flowers that I pollinated as females over a week ago turned to males about four days ago. These same flowers have run their course and the petals are drying and falling off. However,I have noticed the stems which held the flowers are still health and a ball, I assume the ovary, is still attached to the tree. According to the aforementioned website, if I have had some success, I should start to see little fruitlets within the next month. I'll try to remember to take some pictures.

Spring

Asparagus

Ive got a decent-sized asparagus emerging.  its only been a year since I planted it.

Spring's Around the Corner

It's that time of year again.  Spring is coming.  I started some seeds to economize.  I've planted tomatoes, broccoli, Musquee de Provence pumpkin, unknown round squash, bell peppers, pasilla chilis, sweet orange peppers, peanuts, yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, okra, sweet potato slips, cucumber, cantaloupe, and sunflower.  I hope to purchase a tiller and clear a spot in my yard for a large garden.

Pawpaws

The Whatcom pawpaw seedling is stretching up.  She likes her new spot under the grow lights.  There is,another sprouted seed that is proving to be very vigorous.  If the seedlings get strong enough, I will plant them this spring.

Pawpaw germination update

I discovered that one of the seeds from my parent's backyard asimina triloba seed has sprouted.  It has been 2.5 months since I took them out of cold storage.  What a slow germinator.

Starting seeds

I've decided to start some seeds.  I planted the following:

Tomatoes
Chilis
Peppers

Pawpaw Seed Stench

I decided to peel back the seed coat on my pawpaw seeds in hopes of discerning if the seeds are viable and enhancing germination.  Well some of the seeds were dried out and others appeared in good shape.  However the viable seeds reek of unwashed, crusted, week old butt.  They smell horrible!

Pawpaw Sprout

I tried germinating pawpaw seedlings back in November.   Out of seven seeds I only had one successful germination.  The picture shows the sprout breaking through the soil.