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nafex - [NAFEX] PawPaws - full sun or shade?

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  • From: Rosholdt <rosholdt@erols.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] PawPaws - full sun or shade?
  • Date: Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:14:26 -0500

My experience with PawPaws:

I raised 14 or so in pots then transplanted and put shelters on in the late fall. The old green tree tubes worked fine, and the trees never had any problems. I admit to not having a fully open and exposed site - the PawPaw orchard has trees about 50' away to the east and about 60' away to the south. Thus the sun doesn't hit them first thing in the morning. They do get sun the rest of the day, though.

When I started putting in transplants from nurseries, I never had any problems until I got some very small Wabash and Allegheny trees in the spring a couple years ago. Please note that planting trees in the spring is not the best plan here in Virginia as the summers are hot and often dry. The winters are {ahem, usually) mild and the trees can actually settle in some before April hits.

So it was that I saw the spring planted Wabash was suffering (though the new Rappahannock and Shenandoah, were not, and the Allegheny was only hurt a little). I got a tomato cage (we make them out of reinforcing wire) that was fairly wide (at least 14-18" across) and grabbed some downed branches and pine boughs and made a little bower for the two suffering trees. The Allegheny didn't need any more than that and a few weeks later was fine when I removed the cage. The other I left the branches on, though the leaves/needles turned brown and fell off, reducing the cover a good bit. Just that little bit of branches gave it all the protection it needed, and by late summer I took off the protection as the tree seemed to be okay. It has never "asked" for any more protection.

So the advice I give is - watch your tree and see what it needs. If you anticipate, don't overdo.

Barb Rosholdt
Z7 Virginia Piedmont
- yay PawPaws!

--------------------------

Hello Jay,

What has worked well for me are 2 foot tree shelters. I've used more than one kind and they all work. It is my experience that once they are tall enough to come out of the top of the 2 foot shelter the direct sunlight doesn't hurt them even if it is the first year. But I'm only 600 feet of elevation you are over 5000 feet consequently nearer the sun, less filtration by the air of UV. I would think open shade would be sufficient protection and you wouldn't need to have them nearly in the dark.

Jerry

I have had problems in the Chicago suburbs with transplanted 6-12 inch pawpaws without shading. Nursery stock still in pots reacted to UV within half an hour. The tree shelters seemed to cook them in full sun. The north side of a fence worked well with a tree shelter. 4-6 foot size transplants that were bare root seemed to be fine without any shading. It is possible that smaller plants need to have much more care hardening off than any other plant I have run across, seedling pawpaws left in place seemed OK. In New Mexico at high elevation I would be very careful with small transplants.


Martha



  • [NAFEX] PawPaws - full sun or shade?, Rosholdt, 02/06/2010

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