May Lotito

A bit more info on my pawpaw from seeds. I saved some of the farmer's market pawpaw seeds, plus online ordering 5 seeds and they got mixed up. I planted the seeds in the pots in February 2021 and several seedlings didn't come up until late June. I transplanted one in a raised garden bed, one in a less fertile spot and two by the edge of the woodland. I have to say fertility matters a lot for pawpaw trees. The one in garden bed is the tallest and flowered in 2025, next one up has flower buds developing this year, making it 7 years starting from seed. And the two under mature trees barely grow bigger than pencil size.

I did save the seeds. But this fruit is totally self pollinated, I am not sure if it's a good idea to plant those seeds. By next year I will have two flowering pawpaws for cross pollination and that will help with fruit setting as well.

Finally I got my one and only ripe pawpaw from a seed started in 2021!  Two days ago it started to turn a light yellow-green. The night before I was reminding myself to take a picture and the next morning it had fallen on the ground! Skin was slightly soft to touch and I could smell the aroma. It had some missed pollination giving the peanut shape and there were 7 seeds inside. And it did taste like mango! So sweet and flavorful! I only had pawpaws once and wasn't impressed. A local farmstand sold them for $2 a lb but it was pale, insipid and full of seeds. Now I doubt those were picked unripe.

Pawpaw is such an amazing fruit tree it's totally worth the wait growing one.

Where are you at? Many factors can play together: timely rain, warmth, CO2, sunlight, previous years drought killed off some vegetation for nutrient to be recycled, wildfire smoke, duststorm, volcano eruption etc all bring minerals around to have an effect.

I took two dozen cuttings and stuck them in a tub of play sand in ghe shade. I only water a few times when it's dry. I check today and about half have rooted! 6 turned brown and anther 6 green but no root yet. I can't believe it's steady. Thanks all!

In my poor and acidic soil, balsam can grow amazingly the first year if I amend the soil, and set lots of seeds. Then the volunteers would be yellow and tiny in the same spot next year. I am intentionally scattering the seeds everywhere to map the soil fertility. In rich soil a single plant can be huge. If I don't want them to take over, just chop and drop.

Are you growing a large area of buckwheat? How do you hull the seeds?

I am afraid the Inca giant corns are a bust this year. They all tasseled for over a week but there is no silk emerging. I cut one down, stripped the leaves and found nothing inside the sheath on every node. I guess there is something special about the sacred valley of Peru where they are grown for generations.

Other tall and short corns are doing well with their companies.

I am happy to report that the nectarine started from seed last year is doing well and flower buds are forming. I probably train the branches too high it looks like a lollipop. Fingers crossed for some juicy nectarines next year.

C4 plants have very high light saturation point so that the threshold is not reached even in full light in the middle of summer. C3 plants have a lower level less than half of that, meaning higher than certain light density, C3 plants can't do more photosynthesis. So it is good practice to interplant C4 and C3 in a polyculture.  Using tall C4 to provide shade for C3 and avoid damage from too much radiation. Cooler season C3 can be planted earlier in the understory,  providing soil cover all the time. In that case it leaves  no gap when C4 crops are harvested and the soil microbes get food source the whole time.

Another thing about C4 is that they can partly substitute sodium for potassium for osmosis control. That makes C4 plants resilient in arid and semi arid regions with high salinity.  Sometimes I give my plants diluted sea salt water, sodium isn't all bad. Of course concentration and timing is the key, be careful if you want to try.

I sort or foliar feed under certain circumstances. I normally let the plant roots take up nutrients and deliver them to where they are needed. I am not pushing for maximum yield for most annual vegetables if the soil fertility can't keep up. But with fruit trees at critical stages of development, foliar feed can make or break a year.

Last year my seedlings pawpaw tree started to flower for the first time. It self pollinated just fine but I noticed fruitlets and flowers dropping about 2 days after each heavy rain episode. I suspected it had to do with cold soil and low calcium concentration below what the fast developing buds and fruits required. Noted naturally pawpaws are understory trees growing in moist area. They don't experience the exposure and quick change in soil CE as in my upland tree. This year during the flowering period, we had one deep freeze, four severe storms including two hail storms. Each time the heavy rains came at night dumping 0.5 up to 3 inches of rain water and it turned sunny the next morning. The feeder roots had to take in very diluted water for transpiration. I tried foliar sprays with home made calcium citrate on the stems, bell-shaped petals and fruitlets with some untreated for control. The ones received calcium stayed firmly attached and those didn't fall off. Maybe I can slowly build up soil calcium level, or hope for less extreme rainfall next year, or have a bigger tree with so many flowers that I don't care losing some. I am glad that I tried and I finally have one pawpaw ripening this year.