Transplanting young Pawpaw saplings; Advice Please?
Alright so let me give you some backstory on this. Back in December, I ordered 3 pawpaw saplings online (from ebay believe it or not). I live in zone 5 and the tree is native to my area, but you just don't see it that much anymore, and you can't buy it at any nearby nursery. So anyway, the trees arrived at my door in early January. The roots were wrapped with wet newspaper/ pine shavings and plastic. I planted all three in a big pot of soil and kept the pot on my porch through the winter, hoping for the best. I wasn't sure if they would make it, having been shipped through the cold like that. But sure enough, earlier this spring I started seeing leaf growth. Now all three plants are sending out lots of branches with vigorous healthy green leaves. The plants are about 2 feet tall now. I want to plant them soon, but I'm not quite sure what the best method would be to go about transplanting them. Since they are all three in one big pot, I know there will probably be some root damage, when I seperate them, so what I'm wondering is, Should I cut off all the new vegetative growth when I transplant them? Because I know the roots will be stressed and I don't know if all that leaf growth may be too much for the stressed roots to support? Any suggestions?
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
If the leaves are still small, I would leave them alone and just plant your trees. I have pawpaws in the ground leafing out, but their leaves are small yet. The leaves gather energy for the tree.
If it seems really out of balance with small roots and large leaves then you could trim a little.
And yes you do need to separate them and give them plenty of room to grow. They don't want to be in full sun. They are an understory tree that wants some protection. But if possible plant them somewhere where they can grow up in to the sun. The mature trees will produce fruit better with more sun, but the baby trees want protection.
If it seems really out of balance with small roots and large leaves then you could trim a little.
And yes you do need to separate them and give them plenty of room to grow. They don't want to be in full sun. They are an understory tree that wants some protection. But if possible plant them somewhere where they can grow up in to the sun. The mature trees will produce fruit better with more sun, but the baby trees want protection.
I dunno if you do want to prune the top of your new paw paw. I'm pretty sure you do not want to prune the roots.
Paw paw does not like its feet pruned at all. When it comes time to plant out to field, pick a place with some afternoon shade (for leaves), with at least 15' space between trees.
Add no fertilizer to hole. Water in well and side dress foot print with bark mulch.
Stake trees with large obvious barrier stakes to reduce lawn mower-cide.
Paw paw does not like its feet pruned at all. When it comes time to plant out to field, pick a place with some afternoon shade (for leaves), with at least 15' space between trees.
Add no fertilizer to hole. Water in well and side dress foot print with bark mulch.
Stake trees with large obvious barrier stakes to reduce lawn mower-cide.