Pawpaw Power!

I had given up hope of getting any fruit from my parents' pawpaw patch. It seemed that all the little fruitlets disappeared shortly after the trees stopped flowering. I have searched for signs of fruit since April, but saw nothing. Well, today I found one little fruit that survived. Yea!!! I wrapped it in netting in hopes that the wild animals don't get to it before I do. To recap, the pawpaws started breaking dormancy around the end of March to early April. I transplanted some pawpaw trees (6 to be exact) from my parents' yard to mine. All are thriving with the exception of one because I delayed planting it for a week. I did not remove the dirt from around the roots after I dug up the pawpaws; instead I put the plants, dirt in all, in a plastic grocery bag. The next day, I dug holes about twice as big as the dirt ball and planted the pawpaws. They are beautiful. I think that transplanting just when the plant breaks dormancy may be helpful. By April 12th there were flowers. By April 25th, there were still flowers and some fruitlets. By June 24th there was a 2" long x 1" diameter fruit.This is one of the pawpaw transplants. It looks so happy.

Watermelon Blooms Keep Me Buzzing

What a pretty bloom! Each morning I get up with the bees to pollinate my plants.

Edibles

Other edible plants that I am growing are pawpaws, figs, peaches, apples, mulberry, blueberries, parsley, cilantro, oregano, dill, thyme, and rosemary.

Spring/Summer Garden

My garden is in full bloom. I have already harvested zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, and cucumbers. Lord willing, there is more to come. Other plants in my garden are as follows:corn, roma tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, pinto beans, canteloupe, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, sunflowers, bell peppers, watermelon, white onions, mint, catnip, butternut squash, spaghetti squash,green beans, okra, tomatillos, carrots and asparagus. Today I sowed some lettuce and spinach. It's probably too hot, but I figured I'd give it a try.

Pomegranate Update

The flowers are opening.  One fell off.  I don't know if I'll heterosexual any fruit.

Pawpaw Fruit??? Continued

Just another picture of a cluster of pawpaw fruit that I found growing in my parents' back yard.

Pawpaw Fruits???

If

I went to my parents' house to dig up some more pawpaws. The four previous trees that I transplanted from their yard suffered no ill effects, which is strange considering how fragile pawpaws are. My parents' pawpaws seem to be robust. I have learned that pawpaws like to be mulched by fallen leaves, twigs, and bark. This debris enriches the soil and helps hold in the moisture.

My only concern is that they are all clones of the same plant and therefore unable to pollinate one another. Well, I inspected my parents pawpaw trees and it seems that the largest tree has the start of little fruits. I hope that this is the case because this would make me think that all the pawpaws are not clones of each other. Maybe several birds or possums ate pawpaws from some other location and excreted several pawpaw seeds. If different seeds germinated, then all the pawpaws would not be clones of each other. I guess it will be several years before I figure this out.

If the fruit start to develop, I am going to cover them with some sort of netting or breathable bag so that the wild critters don't eat them before I do. I have never tasted a pawpaw, but Lord willing, perhaps I'll get the chance the coming fall. I am so excited to be learning about pawpaws. It's hard to believe that my parents have had them growing in their backyard for at least 5-10 years judging from the size of some of the trees and no one knew what they were.