Pawpaw pollination: proximity to compost

I planted three pawpaws, from the same nursery, in 2016 or so. One is about 15’ from our compost bin; it has 60+ fruit on it.  The next is 5’ from the first (20’ from the compost) and has perhaps 50. The final tree is another 5’ on, and has … two fruit. This basic pattern holds every year - in fact this is the first time the farthest tree has fruited.  

So - plant those pawpaws near compost so the bugs do your pollination for you!

Also - by this method I get a higher percentage of flowers to fruit than if I manually pollinate the trees.

Hi Steven,
This is an interesting hypothesis. I would wonder if proximity to the compost has more to do with available nutrients and microbial life, than the pollination itself? Maybe it allows the closer trees to grow more vigorously?

I am wondering if you hang a piece of rotten meat under the pawpaw tree farthest from compost pile will bring pollinators to that tree?

Thank you Steven.  Any chance you will build your next compost pile by the 2 fruit tree soon?  Would love to know if that tree sets more fruit that year!

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Steven,
This is an interesting hypothesis. I would wonder if proximity to the compost has more to do with available nutrients and microbial life, than the pollination itself? Maybe it allows the closer trees to grow more vigorously?

I don’t think so - I could see that the trees closest to the pile had flies and beetles swarming the flowers, and the far tree did not. The compost pile is also downhill of the trees so it is less likely that nutrients are the explanation. And all three trees are of equal height and health as far as I can tell.

The compost pile is staying where it is - we have a small urban lot and it is in the best location I could find.

I like what the others have said.  I just want to add that if your compost pile was hot maybe the warmth helped more than the insects.  

Maybe having a compost pile near each tree might be even more effective.

Creating micro-climates and even planting more flowers will benefit those trees.

Anne Miller wrote:I like what the others have said.  I just want to add that if your compost pile was hot maybe the warmth helped more than the insects.  

Maybe having a compost pile near each tree might be even more effective.

Creating micro-climates and even planting more flowers will benefit those trees.

I wish the pile was hot! It definitely isn’t- and isn’t balanced between greens and browns, though on the flip side all the rotting vegetables and fruit on top help attract beetles and flies.

100+ pawpaws is more than I will be able to eat or give away once they are ripe so I don’t need to do any more optimizing for my garden - I just figured it was an interesting data point for anyone who wants to grow pawpaws.

I could certainly imagine that surrounding a compost pile with pawpaws would work well. In our case the linear planting pattern is to take advantage of topography (a wet ditch) and to create a privacy screen (the ditch is along the property line).