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Post by Calluna on May 14, 2012 20:43:43 GMT -5
Namely, does anyone here have experience doing so? I saved a small bag of locally-collected seeds, stratified them in moist vermiculite over the winter, and now... I have no idea what to do with them! Not sure if they transplant well, or if they're even still viable! Help?
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Post by Drahkk on May 14, 2012 21:11:13 GMT -5
You didn't dry them or freeze them first did you? Pawpaw seeds are a little different in that they need to be fairly fresh; drying or freezing can kill them. Assuming they are fresh, the cold moist stratification period is about three months. After that, you should transfer them to pots deep enough to accommodate the taproot, and they should sprout in a couple of months. This page is pretty informative: www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/ppg.htm (Edited for clarity)
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Post by castanea on May 14, 2012 23:56:20 GMT -5
Don't ever let the seeds dry out. If you do, the germination % goes way down.
Seedlings do not transplant well after about one year.
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on May 15, 2012 7:23:08 GMT -5
I guess this 'paw paw' is Asimina Triloba? I got some seed from a UK seed company this winter, and have sowed them but nothing has germinated. Before I throw them away, what should I do now? Is it worth keeping them in the pot and putting them in the fridge to stratify them? I sowed them a couple of months ago now.
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Post by Drahkk on May 15, 2012 7:30:52 GMT -5
As long as they never dried out, don't give up yet. They take a long time to emerge. About three months in the fridge, then two months in warm air. Seed sown outside in fall will emerge sometime the following summer.
MB
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Post by khoomeizhi on May 15, 2012 7:49:04 GMT -5
yeah, root growth goes on for months before anything happens above the soil (i tend to plant them in small clear plastic bins, like salad mix sometime comes in - lets me see what's going on under there without disturbing it)
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Post by bvillebill on May 17, 2012 13:28:17 GMT -5
If you can, I would highly recommend getting a grafted tree with one of the proven cultivars. Just like apples, if you grow from seed you'll get a tree but not necessarily a good one.
I grew up in pawpaw country and the wild ones I never found to be particularly worth eating. There are actually quite a few selections available that are much better so unless you're interested in breeding or just for experimentation them your space and time will be better used with a good cultivar. They're big trees and take a lot of years to really fruit.
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Post by castanea on May 17, 2012 22:14:52 GMT -5
As long as they never dried out, don't give up yet. They take a long time to emerge. About three months in the fridge, then two months in warm air. Seed sown outside in fall will emerge sometime the following summer. MB Absolutely. They can even take a full year to emerge. Apparently they do that in nature because they sometimes spend the first growing season putting down a tap root and only put the top up in the second growing season. This can be more common in seeds from northern sources.
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Post by castanea on May 17, 2012 22:19:50 GMT -5
If you can, I would highly recommend getting a grafted tree with one of the proven cultivars. Just like apples, if you grow from seed you'll get a tree but not necessarily a good one. I grew up in pawpaw country and the wild ones I never found to be particularly worth eating. There are actually quite a few selections available that are much better so unless you're interested in breeding or just for experimentation them your space and time will be better used with a good cultivar. They're big trees and take a lot of years to really fruit. Depends on what your seed source is. Seedlings of poor trees tend to be poor trees. But seedlings of the better cultivars tend to quite nice which is why there has been such an explosion of good named pawpaw cultivars in the last 10 years. I have a superb seedling that came from a Corwin Davis tree pollenized by another Corwin Davis tree. It's as good as, or better than, most named cultivars.
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Post by stevil on May 18, 2012 2:36:30 GMT -5
I sowed seed in January 2010 (just left outside for nature to do its business) and they started germinating in fall 2011, about 20 months!
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Post by khoomeizhi on May 18, 2012 6:51:48 GMT -5
or, you can identify local sources of named-cultivar scion (or buy some - buying scion is frequently pretty inexpensive), and do the grafting yourself on your seed-grown rootstock...
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 18, 2012 7:02:44 GMT -5
Some of us (namely me) are not experienced in grafting beyond having the ability to slaughter scions. We have a couple of small nursery purchased trees. But I understand that like nuts they will fruit only with another compatible variety? I was given some seed as well. They never germinated even though they were very well protected and arrived moist. I'm not giving up hope yet.
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Post by Calluna on May 18, 2012 19:35:41 GMT -5
I put them straight into moist vermiculite when I collected them from fresh, wild-harvested fruit in September and just took them out of the fridge (bet they thought it was one long winter!). They're in an open Ziploc I've been keeping moist until I can send them home to be planted.
I like the idea of using these as rootstocks for named cultivars, I've only grafted apple trees before but I have a pretty good success rate with the technique. I've never had fruit from domestically-grown trees, but I've been told the seeds are much smaller?
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on May 19, 2012 7:06:29 GMT -5
I shall have to stick to the seed route bvillebill as the cultivars offered here by the only company offering them were priced at 90 euros or something close! Ridiculous! Thanks for the advice about persevering with the seed as I was on the point of throwing it away! I will leave it in large pot to be stratified over winter if nothing emerges by autumn.
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Post by MikeH on May 19, 2012 9:20:02 GMT -5
Some of us (namely me) are not experienced in grafting beyond having the ability to slaughter scions. If you have any wild fruit trees - crabs, apples, persimmons, plums, etc., use them to practice on. Cut a piece of scion wood - last year's growth. It should have 2-3 buds on it. Find a small branch and try to match the diameter - start at a clearly smaller diameter and keep cutting bits off and matching the scion wood to it until you get the diameter of both the host and scion to match. Then with a very sharp knife - a box knife works well - cut the end of the scion wood into a wedge. Try not to shave it as this usually tears the cambium layer. Then carefully cut a cleft into the host and, while gently holding it open, insert the scion. Attempt to match the cambium layers on one side. If the other side matches up, great. If not, the graft will still take. Pinching the cleft together, wrap electrical tape tightly around the graft. If the graft takes, remember to remove the tape in a year or two. It won't disintegrate with the sun and weather and will end up girdling the branch. C'est tout. This is some apple scion wood that I "parked" on a wild apple because I didn't have enough rootstock this year to graft onto. As this was one of my first ever grafts, I was pleased when it took and shocked when it flowered. I suppose that I should pinch out the flower so that energy is diverted to repairing the wound. I've got a few other successful grafts with the same scion wood so I think I'll leave it and see if it produces fruit. Attachments:
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