[NAFEX] Paw Paw species propagation
Lucky Pittman
lucky.pittman at murraystate.edu
Wed Nov 9 17:07:03 EST 2005
At 02:07 PM 11/9/2005, you wrote:
>I understand there is two other species of Paw Paw native to the US besides A.
>triloba. Has anyone used these as dwarfing or early fruiting rootstocks for A.
>triloba? Both are smaller trees or shrubs. Also, has anyone eaten their
>fruit or
>selected any seedlings?
Heron,
I have an A.parviflora(small-flowered pawpaw) selection, "Trash Pile",
which I made from plants growing on my parents' former farm, in Lee Co., AL
- just outside of Auburn. Heavy fruit production is what caught my
attention initially - the small fruits, 2-2.5" in length, were festooned
all along the length of its branches, rather than in 'hands', as is the
case with A.triloba. Fruits are quite seedy, with a pretty thin rim of
pulp surrounding them - certainly nothing to write home
about. Additionally, I suspected that this particular plant might be
self-fertile, as there were no other pawpaws of either common
species(triloba or parviflora) within several hundred feet - and my graft
of it here in KY has fruited well, with no other blooming pawpaws located
within several hundred yards.
My graft of "Trash Pile" (on A.triloba rootstock - so it's evident that
they're graft-compatible) has been fully winter hardy here in southern
west-central KY, and Gordon Nofs has been growing it for several years at
his Flint, MI location. A couple of years back, Gordon told me he had a
late freeze that burned the new leaves off all his A.triloba trees, but the
A.parviflora leaves were virtually unscathed.
I'm growing this selection mainly for nostalgia's sake, but it's possible
that A.parviflora seedlings *might* work as a dwarfing rootstock for
A.triloba. The "Trash Pile" ortet was less than 10 ft tall, growing out in
the open on a terrace on top of a droughty old red clay hillside; may have
now been overtaken by encroaching kudzu & sweetgum trees, and if it is
still alive, I have no doubt the developers who purchased the property
will, at some point in time, bulldoze it.
If anyone cares to play around with this selection, I can supply limited
amounts of scionwood - and may be able to find some seed from this year's
fruit crop in the litter around the base of my grafted tree.
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