Ricky Chilcott

Hello, I live in Southeast Ohio and we have a plethora of wild paw paw trees in our area. I've been to the Paw Paw festival many times (as it's just a 15 minute bus ride during the fesival) and would encourage anyone who likes paw paws to make the trek each year to enjoy Athens, Ohio culture and to celebrate the Paw Paw!

My question: I recently purchased a small plot of land behind our city house and as we hiked the property there are several dozen paw paw trees scattered throughout the property. They are quite small, maybe 3-7 feet tall and only produced a few small fruits this year which weren't very edible. I'd like to encourage them to grow faster and produce fruit quicker. There are a bunch of taller trees that I'm unwilling to cut down, but there are small maple, ash, and oak saplings that could be taken down around these trees to provide more sunlight. Should I consider doing that?

Also, are there ways to fertilize naturally, add soil amendments, or other things to be done to encourage paw paw growth and harvest?

Thanks for responding Tim and Jim.

I suspect, too that it would have all of the properties that one would want in a sound absorbing wall -- dense, trapped air, and irregular shapes to contort sound waves and dissipate sound energy into multiple diretcions.

I haven't studied what roofing materials are compatible with straw bale construction, but that may indeed be the single biggest sound leakage point. Soundproofing a space is a mixture of material selection and filling up air gaps.

I saw a few articles about recording studios being made with straw bale construction, so I'd think I'm on solid footing.

I'm wondering about the sound properties are of a straw bale constructed building? I have an interest in building a small outbuilding that would be my office and possibly a small studio space for a band to practice -- drums, electric guitar, keyboard, etc. It won't be a recording studio space, per se, but space for a 3 or 4 people to get together and jam. Still, that creates quite a few db SPLs, so I'm looking for construction methods that will keep costs low, properly insulate the space and keep heating costs down, along with reducing sound levels that escape the space.

I live in the city so, reducing sound leakage to the neighbors would help me sell the idea to them, and maybe help them get involved with the project.