What did you do in the garden today?

[SkyAJK]

Pawpaws


View attachment 4142318

That fruit and leaves do not look like pawpaws. Is it special pawpaws?

 

[Backroadlogic]

Ugh... I'm so jealous! Mine are still years away from producing any fruit.

I found mine last year next to a path on my property, i had been looking for them for years and they were right in front of me(1/8th a mile from my front door) I have 8 in that patch and have found a second tree that flowers a little closer to my house. Mine didn't do well this year, I had a couple dozen fruits last year and just a few clusters this year.

 

[Backroadlogic]

That fruit and leaves do not look like pawpaws. Is it special pawpaws?

That's a normal pawpaw, fruit is far from done growing, it was just in flower 2 months ago. Leaves are typical of wild pawpaw.

Flower of typical wild pawpaw

 

[SkyAJK]

That's a normal pawpaw, fruit is far from done growing, it was just in flower 2 months ago. Leaves are typical of wild pawpaw.

Flower of typical wild pawpaw

Thank you! I did not know about wild pawpaw until today. There are many wonderful things in nature. This is the first time I heard of and seen wild pawpaw.

I only aware of the pawpaw in the shops and my backyard.

Edit to add: I google it and the green outer skin looks a bit like mango. I think I saw this fruit in the shop, I will have a closer look next time.

 

[Backroadlogic]

Thank you! I did not know about wild pawpaw until today. There are many wonderful things in nature. This is the first time I heard of and seen wild pawpaw.

I only aware of the pawpaw in the shops and my backyard.

The ones in shops are clones of an exceptional quality tree grown from wild seed. They grow 100s if not 1000s of pawpaw from seed and then pick the best ones to commercialize. Same thing they did with all the apple varieties, cherry, bananas, peaches. etc.

 

[Smokerbill]

I found a patch of wild paw paws growing in the understory of some huge trees when I was a kid... 16 or 17 years old. It was next to a big swampy area. The fruit tasted great.

When I saw the seeds I remembered seeing them in raccoon droppings. Big seeds. I don't know if the paw paw patch is still there 50 years later. That was in the NE corner of Kansas. I'm now 1800 miles away in WA state so I'll never get back to check them out.

It would take a 2 mile walk through the wooded, rocky hills to get to them, so at this time in my life I don't think I could even make it back there.

They were all pretty short trees, around 6 or 8 feet tall if I remember correctly. I was excited to find them, that's for sure.

 

[Sally PB]

I watered one of the gardens today. I'll do the other one tomorrow. I'm really hoping for rain on Sunday!

 

[Smokerbill]

I really need to put my tomato plants in the garden today or tomorrow, but it's going to be hot here for a few days. I'll have to hang some kind of shade over them so they don't get too stressed.

ETA: I determined the location for most of my tomato plants and dug out the holes in the hard, clay soil. Then I filled the holes with water a couple times to get the ground saturated. I'll plant the tomatoes tomorrow morning. That's the plan anyway.

I was able to find spots for 14 plants in the new garden bed. That leaves another 10 or so that I need to find homes for. There's still some space in my raised beds, so that's where some of them, at least, will end up going.

I gotta have lots of tomatoes. My frozen and canned tomatoes ran out too early this year.

 

[chickengr]

at what distance to plant 2 different varieties of pumpkins? (to avoid cross pollination)

 

[jerryse]

at what distance to plant 2 different varieties of pumpkins? (to avoid cross pollination)

I have had crosses from neighbor 1/4 mile away. There are pumpkins in 4 different groups and different groups do not cross with each other. For seed saving protect flowers and hand pollinate. List the Varieties you are planting and I can help. Most common are in C. Pepo group.