Another guy from Alabama

I posted the other day in here but it seems to have never made it to the board. Blasted iPhone.

~31 dude living in Hayden, Alabama
We (my wife and three kids) have a little 16 acre wanna be permaculture type farm.
6acres pasture-ish cross fenced land, 2acres garden/yard,
and 8acres woodland bottom land with a good many of the best acorn producing chestnut oak trees ever.

I'm big into muscadines, scuppernongs, and pawpaws!
With an idea of a PYO / road side honor box stand.
Possibly a hostel of sorts later on when the wofati-ish guest house is complete.

I've been raising free foraging free ranging hogs the past few years with good success. Still looking for that perfect breed of hog without having to drive 6+hours to go pick them up.
At the moment I have a Berkshire boar and a spotted sow.
She just had a litter of 9 of the most acorn candy loving pigs ever.
I don't have an electric fence of any kind. The pigs tend to just hang out on the property with out causing to much trouble with the neighbors.
Nothing like herding the pigs back to the house after they had an all night grub hunting expedition in the ditches beside the road.

Of coarse many of my neighbors think I'm your typical shirtless bearded flip flop wearing redneck.

Anyway just wanted to say Hi and that it was about time I stop being a lurker.

Howdy, (almost) neighbor.

How are your paw paws doing? I have one tree which is growing sloooowly and I am stratifying some seeds from a great tasting wild tree that I hope to get started this spring. I see the trees all the time, but I very rarely see fruit on them around here.

I bought three trees from onegreenworld two years ago.
One died back below the graft the first winter but the root part is back up to a foot. The other two mango, and overleese are up to about 3ft. Mango actually had blooms this year but nothing to polinate with.

I searched craigslist all over Alabama and many pawpaw producing states and found a guy in Ohio that sold them. I took the risk in sending him a somewhat hefty check IMO. For a medium flat rate shipping box full of the fruits. Made a lot of breads, pies, and puddings. Not to mention the couple pounds my family ate of the raw fruit.
In all I acquired about a small sandwich bag full of seeds.
I didnt worry about stratifing in the frig. I just planted about half of them in the spots I had prepped already and the other half in raised beds to transplant this coming spring.

I have at least 40 three to four inch plants that finally come up.
Some of which died back in the heat this year but have since resproutted.

If I'm not correct it's 5 to 7 years on the fruit if planted from seed.

I saw on craigslist a guy selling pineapple guava fruits down in moundville. That's a good sign as I have a good many of those trees too.

Nicole are you north or south of me?

Jay Grace wrote:In all I acquired about a small sandwich bag full of seeds.
I didnt worry about stratifing in the frig. I just planted about half of them in the spots I had prepped already and the other half in raised beds to transplant this coming spring.

I have at least 40 three to four inch plants that finally come up.
Some of which died back in the heat this year but have since resproutted.

Good job! I wasn't sure where I wanted to put them, so I had to follow the seed saving routine. Also, I wanted to be sure I didn't damage their taproot when transplanting. I plan to plant in tall pots and I have a perfect partially shady spot for them behind my house for the first couple of years. Maybe by then I will have figured out a restoration plan for a troublesome spot of mine. I'd love a rambling row of paw paws along the edge to let them colonize in the other direction (into a wet weather creek and some woods of mine that are overrun with privet and a couple of other invasives). Then a couple of pecan trees for the top story and some more persimmons... but the site just can't support it now.

The tree I have, I bought at a local plant sale labelled "Michigan." I've never seen that variety on any list, but the tree probably came from one of the nurseries up in McMinnville, TN, since that's where this plant sales gets most of their fruit crops each year. It had two leaves last year and ten this year and it's probably twice as tall, so it's actually doing well although it's still only a whip about 30" tall.

Nicole are you north or south of me?

North of you near Huntsville. So no pineapple guava for me.

We bought three pawpaw trees at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens fall plant sale. They have thicker leaves than the local wild Pawpaws, so I'm thinking that they are most likely a northern variety. I've planted these along side several local transplants, hoping for better yields. All are planted in the Blue Heron Edible Forest Garden along the Montevallo Parks Trail. We hope that this garden will be enjoyed by hikers for its beauty as well as for its fruit.

In the Spring there is a Mennonite? man that sells trees and shrubs at Collinsville Trade Day at Collinsville, AL...He sells 1 gallon Pawpaw trees for 5 dollars each (as of last year). I bought two last year and planted them in a small clearing in a wooded area behind the house...so far so good...plan on a few more this Spring.

That's a great price on Pawpaws. Let me know it you get any this year and he has more. Sounds like it would be worth the trip.

We did buy three pawpaw trees at the Birmingham batonical gardens fall plant sale. The leaves are thicker than the pawpaws that I have seen growing around here. They are about three to four years old and I'm hoping that they will flower in the next year or so. There are a few native pawpaw trees upstream from our forest garden, so cross pollination may occur.

Hey there. Im in al as well and am looking to maybe get a bunch of people together to chat about permaculture. Head over to the thread below and lets meet up.

https://permies.com/t/33169/southern-usa/North-alabama-meetup#258901

Anyone mind giving me some pawpaw seeds, I have no credit or debit but I live in Alabama, I used to eat powpow when I was younger but I can never find a tree now unless its online, I have no way to order, and I'm really poor. If anyone would mind sparing some seeds it would be very greatly appreciated. I miss eating them. Thanks

John Raines, you mentioned the Collinsville Trade Days Sale being a place you bough PawPaws; how did they do?
We bought land up on Lookout Mountain, and I’m trying to do some permaculture and Forest Garden areas on our property. I’ve never tasted PawPaw, but would love to buy some from you, and maybe a couple trees from that sale, if they grew for you. You should have fruit by now. Let me know. Thanks,Edna

Newish to permies but definitely not the concept. I would love to find some trees or fruits in Alabama, if anyone has any to spare. I’m outside Birmingham.