How much sun protection should I give my pawpaw trees?

[LeVin]

So the main question is basically in the title.

Last year in November, I bought two paw paw trees and planted both in a large pot and put them in my garage to over winter them. When the weather started to warm up in April, I put them out in my porch in full shade, because time and time again during my research about these trees, I've been told that they needed protection from the full sun.

Due to that, both trees were really slow to leaf out, to the point where I firmly believed that one of them were dead. I finally decided to put them out into the sun in the beginning of May, and they've been leafing out and growing very well thus far. But now, as the temperature finally hit 80s in my area, I'm beginning to worry about the sun protection issue again.

In the area behind our house where I've placed the pot, the trees get full down from around 8am to right about 2~3pm, then they are in full shade until sun set. I originally thought they would be fine without any extra protection since they'd be shielded from the worst of afternoon sun and heat, but I would like to ask someone with more experience before proceeding.




Would these trees need some extra protection from the sun? I am especially worried about the smaller tree as it was much slower to leaf out, and this much smaller, so I'm worried about it burning up in the summer heat.

Any input will be much appreciated, thank you.

[tomc]

Pawpaw hate, hate, hate, having their feet fiddled with. I would not plant out your saplings till they are fully dormant late in fall--early in spring.

As long as mine had adequate water in NH, they did OK in full sun *if* they were fully dormant when having roots moved.

[!potatoes!]

after they're two years old, they don't mind full sun. they only need shade for the first couple years. can't quite tell the age of yours, but they look about that age. if they don't seem to be struggling, they probably don't need more shade.

[LeVin]

Thank you very much for responding. Both trees were delivered last year, but one is a grafted tree that may or may not have been two years old, and the other tree on original roots appear to be one year tree. Both have been doing well with the current location, and I am watching both closely, so I will continue to do what I'm doing and monitor and water regularly. I am hoping to over-winter them in the garage again this winter, I guess I'll look and see when the next spring rolls around on whether to plant them into the ground or keep them in the pot again for one more growing season.

[applestar]

My understanding is that they don't transplant well. I would worry about keeping them in containers (especially ones that are too shallow) for too long.... Why can't you plant now? ... Or is it too late? I *think* it's still OK if they are in containers.


BTW mine have always been slow to leaf out. They have not been given the VIP treatments but I think I will replace the cage around them and mulch this year.
Mine are planted where the fence casts shade on them during the winter months. I planted corn and sunflowers next to them the first year, and then a volunteer elderberry started to grow on the south side of them to block the sun some more.

[LeVin]

Darn, nothing I'd read about said anything about them being bad transplants. With the temp hitting 80s, I'm kind of worried about planting them in sites I have in mind right now. Maybe I should have put them in the ground earlier, but that side of the house had some trees that needed clearing, and I was worried about the little trees getting in the middle of the big tree removal. The trees are still very small, and the pot is fairly large one, so I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed and do my best when I put them into the ground.

[applestar]

My two big ones were planted when they were about the size or your bigger one. Hence the cage to protect them from accidental lawn care mishaps, dog trampling (neighbor lets their dog loose in the front yard and he always comes over to explore), and bunnies trying new food. The cage also initially supported their shade cloth.

Most sources recommend planting only in spring (not fall). I kind of think you are better off planting now while the night temps are staying in the low 60's. You'll need to put up a shade cloth for them anyway, so daytime sun shouldn't pose too much of a problem. Just keep up with watering.

[Gary350]

Pawpaw trees grow wild in Illinois. They are always found in a forest of tall 50 foot trees where they get lots of shade. There was a 20 acre forest across the road from my Grandfathers house we use to play there all day in the summer in the 1960s. I never saw a pawpaw trees much taller than 20 feet and they are always very skinny trees in all that shade. They sure are good when they are ripe, I have heard them called the American Banana. Bealls Woods south of Mt Carmel Illinois at Kingsburg Illinois is a State Park, it is loaded with pawpaw trees. The forest and shade keeps the pawpaw trees very moist. Pawpaw trees do not grow very far south, I never say them in Tennessee. They do good in cold weather, -20 degrees F and lots of snow and ice.

I am not sure full sun all day will hurt the tree. I would recommend planting a pawpaw trees in the yard on the north side of a 50 foot tall shade tree so the pawpaw trees gets shade during the hottest part of the day. Full sun should be fine in the morning and late evening. The best time to plant or transplant any tree is late fall after it has lost all its leaves, you can call any nursery in McMinnville Tennessee to confirm that.

[applestar]

I'm resurrecting this thread and continue with updates of my Pawpaws. I hope other members with pawpaw will contribute their experiences and expertise


Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden
Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:41 pm

Subject: What kind of bog plants are you growing?

...my triple PawPaw planting dubbed "Paw and Paw and Baby Paw"

BOTH Paw and Paw are blooming this year, so high hopes for seeing some fruits later this season. I am as intrigued as ever by the gorgeous maroon blossoms.


...Baby Paw is still a little twig to the left...

I noticed yesterday that there are still quite a few blossoms, and I read about how they are sometimes not insect (flies) pollinated well and benefit from hand pollinating -- with excellent photo tutorial here

Asimina triloba - pawpaw | Apios Institute | Edible Forest Garden Wiki - Useful Plant Species - Regenerative Agriculture - Edible Landscaping
https://apiosinstitute.org/asimina-triloba-pawpaw

I was able to ID the different stages of the blossoms this time, and there are still some green immature flowers. But when I started poking around, the fly you see on the trunk flew out of the first blossom and others contained tiny flying insects -- wasps? flies? So maybe my assistance was not needed?


...my trees are still small so I'm hoping to see maybe three fruits at most for this year.

[barnhardt9999]

My experience with Paw Paws is their hate of the sun is greatly exaggerated. In zone 8 (NC), I've used an old porch screen for first year plants from June - August. Other than those three months in the first year, no protection is needed. So far, I'm 4/4 on getting Paw Paw's established. My third year plants blossomed for the first time this year. Unfortunately, we got down to 21 degrees late March (after everything had leafed out in mid-February), so the blossoms were lost. Damage aside, it was pretty neat to see everything look like spring in February, fall in March and spring again in April.

[!potatoes!]

agreed with the above. I've got a friend growing out seedling pawpaws in his basically full-sun yard and they look great and aren't complaining.

[applestar]

I saw two of these clusters the other day, but only could find one today. Not sure if I was just not seeing the other one, or it dropped off, or maybe the House Wren who is actively possessing that birdhouse in front of it, and has been using the PawPaws as a singing perch, casually nipped it off during intermission....

[jeff84]

I have germinated lots of seeds before and they stay healthy until winter, and never come out of dormancy. I have tried ordering bare root saplings and they also never broke dormancy and died. this year I have ordered two potted trees and just got shipping notifications so hopefully I have better luck this time. I have been trying to get pawpaws growing here since I bought my house in 2011

[applestar]

I wonder if they are a little later this year? — lots of blossoms, I’m going out there to hand pollinate tomorrow.

[!potatoes!]

You know, the lazy person's technique (a friend of mine does this even in town) is to hang up a bit of meat to draw flies in during bloom. To me , hand-pollinating is for when you're doing intentional breeding work.

We're processing nuts at my friend's house, so he's engaged in a war with squirrels - hanging uncured pelts did for pollination this year.

...admittedly, this technique is maybe not for everyone.

[applestar]

...Ha. These trees are in a sort of “showcase” location in the front yard ... I guess I should have researched more thoroughly before picking a location. I *could* hang something on the lone tree in the back once that one starts to bloom....

[!potatoes!]

I suppose there are some situations where hand pollinating might be appropriate...

[applestar]

I just had an idea — I Could appropriate the birdhouse and put something inside .. neighbors will never know where the whif is coming from....

[applestar]

Tah-Dah!! FIRST EVER PAWPAW fruit developing on one of the Paw&Paw trees. (Yes I took photos from multiple angles of the single fruit )

[applestar]

I bought these as seedlings when interest in pawpaws was just starting to gain attention and suppliers were starting to explore the best ways to grow started plants that could be safely shipped, planting instructions that would work, etc. There were specialty “experts” but overall supply was limited and expensive as well as failure reports were still not uncommon.

I opted for the less expensive and smaller container-grown seedlings rather than grafted older trees in larger pots, etc. I also posted about my interest and received a box of freshly harvested seeds from a generous fellow gardening hobbyist, that I planted all over the property — I only managed to save one of the resulting seedlings but it’s growing in the backyard, so I actually have three trees.

At the time, there was some question about whether a grafted tree would survive here, too, and there were maybe three cultivars that were generally available.

Now, grafted pawpaws are pretty commonly offered and about half dozen cultivars to choose from. If I could find the room, I would likely opt for a grafted tree. That way, I would see mature fruit-bearing growth faster. — In addition to guaranteed fruit characteristics, disease resistance and other conferred desirable traits, THIS is a major advantage of grafted fruit trees.

I might now have another option though — find sources for scion wood or bud grafts and create multi-cultivar branches onto the three trees I have.

[!potatoes!]

remind me in wintertime! I have 4 non-peterson varieties for easy sharing (and if you can figure out where to send a bit of money for the petersons, 4 varieties of those)…and will probably get more scion too. most of my trees are from cultivar crosses, so there’s a few ‘rootstock’ varieties that seem promising too. plenty of options.

[applestar]

Ooooh !potatoes! THANK YOU THANKYOU!! I will definitely work out the details with you later

I don’t know the significance of peterson’s but coming from you it must mean something good.

[!potatoes!]

https://www.petersonpawpaws.com/

neal peterson has done some awesome work, collecting old varieties of pawpaws and breeding new ones, focusing on flavor, size, and minimizing the percent by weight of the seeds. generally when his trees are bought, one pays a royalty to support the work he’s done and still does. usually just a buck or so, I think. I’m happy to share but want to support him as possible.

[applestar]

I TOTALLY understand. Thanks for the link — had a quick glance and I recognize some of those named cultivars! Fantastic.

I’m stuck in the house today so will be poring over these pages.