North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Matt Demmon <mdemmon@gmail.com>]

I think you would have a hard time getting a paw to be pot bound the
first year. In my experience, they have thick, fleshy roots with very
little branching and no visible fine roots. usually mine go down like
a carrot until they hit the bottom of the pot, then they try to get
out if they can.

I've had much better results and successful (even mid-summer
bareroot!) transplanting by growing paw paws, peaches, and apricots in
my partially finished compost pile. They'll have bigger tops and
simply enormous, branched root systems. I just dig them out with my
hands and they are so vigorous they transplant great. I have a 3 pile
system, so the pile has already been sitting for a whole year when I
seed them in the fall, and then I transplant the plants out of the
compost sometime during the following summer or fall, then add the
compost to my vegetable garden and start over again.

-matt

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Alexander Brands <abb7@lehigh.edu> wrote:
>
>> That's an interesting pattern, not sure if it means there's something
>> different going on than with my Paw Paws in containers. But mine will
>> often get yellow and distressed looking in containers, more than other
>> plants I grow do. I think it just means they're tired of being in the
>> pot without proper nutrition. Fish emulsion usually fixes it for me,
>> if I haven't let it go on too long.
>>
>> I would guess it's either too little/too much water or some sort of
>> nutrient deficiency which could be corrected with proper
>> fertilization. It's hard to grow plants in little pots and keep them
>> as happy as in the ground.
>>
>> -matt
>> z5 se MI
>
> Some details I should have included in the original post:
>
> The seedlings are in transparent 3 liter soda bottles, and for most of them
> (including the chlorotic one), I can't see any roots yet, so it doesn't seem
> like they are too crowded in their pots yet.  I made the potting mix with
> Osmocote plus, which is a time release fertilizer that includes all the
> trace elements, and have been supplementing with foliage-pro 9-3-6, which
> also has all the trace elements.
>
> This seedling has been in an East facing window, side by side with other
> seedlings that look healthy.  It gets a few hours of sun in the morning
> through a double pane window.  The top of the pot is at windowsill level, so
> the pot doesn't get too hot from the sun.
>
> Alex
>
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