![]() Let's discuss some less charming thoughts, shall we? Like location. Oh dear there goes our last Vegan follower. Or turn to the trick that pawpaw author Andrew Moore explains many growers rely on: Drag some roadkill under the plants or dress the branches with chicken skins. So we suggest that Mark also hand-pollinate his flowers. Or at least that don't smell like rotting flesh. And so insects that take care of things like roadkill are attracted to the plants and go from flower to flower, just like bees do with flowers that smell nice. Like the famed 'corpse flower' that put on a magnificent show at the National Arboretum last month (August of 2017 if you're taking notes), pawpaw flowers smell like rotting flesh. As Lee notes, pawpaws are pollinated by flies and beetles-so he says that next spring, he's going to hand-pollinate some trees "in an attempt to verify whether pollen not being transferred is the problem." Ah, but bees and other pretty things like butterflies don't pollinate pawpaws. And it's hard to imagine a lack of pollinators at Lee's place he probably has as many native bees in residence as I do. So-no sudden freeze to damage the flowers. But he then acknowledges "that this past spring's weather was perfect for fruit set in virtually all fruits." First, he speculates that the failure two years ago was due to that late and severe Spring frost that nailed so many plants in the mid-Atlantic-in my case (and in many other cases) hydrangeas and peaches especially. His plants may have been mislabeled at the nursery, which is more common than you might think-and two different varieties are needed for successful pollination." But Lee adds that he has twenty trees that definitely include a good number of different varieties and his have also borne very little to no fruit for the past two years. Lee: "The most obvious possibility is that Ron does not actually have two different varieties. We had Andrew on the show shortly after the book came out and it was a great interview. ![]() I also went back and re-read sections of Andrew Moore's great 2015 book on the famed 'banana of the North': " Pawpaw-in search of America's Forgotten Fruit". Ah yes it was a genuine privilege to serve as editor of ' OG' back in the 1990s those were the days….Oh well, out of La-La-Land and back to Ron's lack of pawpaw land.įor those of you who follow these adventures on a regular basis, it will be no surprise that, yes-I did ask for help from our resident fruit growing expert Lee Reich, author of numerous excellent books on pruning and backyard fruit growing. What could be wrong? I remember you fondly from your Organic Gardening days and appreciate your guidance!Ī. For the past two springs, they've set blossoms nicely, raising my hopes of getting my first crop of fruit, but within a few days, the flowers all dropped and no fruit developed. ![]() They're around five years old and growing well. I have two pawpaw trees planted about ten feet apart (I think the varieties are 'Wells' and 'Sunflower'). ![]()
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