22. October 2020

Determine the ripeness of the pawpaw fruits, process them into fruit puree and cleanse the seeds
Asimina triloba: enjoyment ripe
Most varieties are green-ripe, so they cannot be distinguished from unripe fruits by their appearance. Some fruits take on a yellow tinge.
They are ripe when they fall from the tree (ensure a soft landing) and ripe for picking when they feel soft - feel the fruit very gently with your hand so as not to leave any bruises.
A strong odor is also an indicator of ripe fruit.
The ripe fruits are very soft and should therefore not or hardly be stacked.

Eating pawpaw fruits and processing them into pure pulp:
Cut the fruit in the middle on any axis and carefully unscrew the fruit. Then remove the pulp with or without the seeds with a spoon, spit the seeds out again, they are not edible!
The peel is also not edible! It is bitter, so don't scrape too hard when spooning.

To process, cut the fruit in the middle on one of the longitudinal axes and remove the entire contents with a spoon, be careful that no small pieces of the peel come with you!
Massage the pulp / seed mass through a sieve, I use my compost sieve with a mesh size of 6mm, Neal Peterson thinks a deep-frying basket is best.
Mini seeds that have not become anything can come through the sieve, always keep your eyes open.
In the USA, small modified household machines such as a tomato press are also used (here in the KSU newsletter on page 5).
The fruit puree can be stored in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
The fruit puree can also be frozen (with a slight loss of taste), while pressing the air out of the freezer bags.
If it is completely thawed, it turns brown. But there are some recipes where it is added frozen.

Cleaning the seeds:
Removing the last remaining pulp / seed skin from the seeds can be very time-consuming. If the seeds are stratified moist in the refrigerator, they have to be completely clean, otherwise the mold will do the job and can get into the seeds after some time. If the seeds are naturally sown directly outside, they do not have to be cleaned! There you can also simply sow rotten fruits (2.5 cm deep).
A tip from my colleague Andrej Krasna made it very easy for me! A high pressure cleaner is perfect! I take a sturdy 30 liter barrel, put the seeds with some water to swim in (otherwise the high pressure cleaner could damage the seed coat) and hold the pressure cleaner with the nozzle just above the water surface. When the barrel is almost full, I pour the contents into a vegetable box as a sieve. Repeat the process approx. 5 times until all seeds are completely clean.
The seeds can be stratified in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, the surface should always be moist, I don't seal the bag, I just fold the top so that air can be exchanged easily. Regularly check whether the seeds are moist, if a bit of white mold forms this is not a problem at first, cleaning again with water is sufficient.

You dont have this tree in your garden yet? Link to my plant and seed sale

02. January 2018

Many are content with too low pots for their pawpaws

Why not normal pots? Air-pruning and Deeppots What is that? .... The right pot choice for pawpaws!

The right pots, a little excursion into the world of planters

Traditional plastic pots are far from the best for our plant children.

The first problem is the lack of ventilation from the side and also from the bottom, if something is poured too much (which many fear, the plants would dry up - but do not worry, they only let the leaves hang).

Therefore, for example, there are plant bags that are permeable to air around. This leads through the incoming air to a stronger branching of fine roots, because they are gently cut and stimulated by the air "Air-pruning". These pockets can e.g. sewn from durable mulch film itself. There are videos on YouTube.

In contrast, the usual round plastic or clay pot, where after some time by the circle growth an impenetrable root layer is formed (the pot effect), not well suited. Because if such a plant is planted in the open soil, the roots can not penetrate properly because they have formed a dense felt. So such plants grow worse. In the case of summer flowers, which in the fall, when the plant is dead, are pulled out with roots from the bed, the pot shape is still recognizable.

For pawpaw trees, however, long thin plant bags are somehow too difficult to handle for the producer. So the search continued.

Then there are airpots that are more stable.

But they are not exactly cheap and not available in a special measure.

The airpot raw material can be bought too.

Make fakepots yourself:

Formulary: U = 2 • π • r

Simply calculate the desired measurements, cut the nap tape, punch it, roll it up and tie it together with flower wire at the seam.

When your pawpaw is big enough, you can simply put it in its plant hole and gently open the fakepot and peel it off from the inside.

Instead of - as usual - she first head over and .... (:

You can also simply cut a 6-8cm diameter drainage tube into 45cm long pieces as the first pot.

There are pots for growing palm seeds, these are at least about 20cm high and have the air pruning function (aerial root pruning) at the bottom. These deep palm pots are recommended if you want to buy your pots cheaply.

Why the whole elevation?

Pawpaws are passionate deep-rooters, with a strong tap root.

Normal small pots, if handled improperly, can cause the root tip to decay.

The rule in normal small pots:

Example of Airpruned 1 year old pawpaw seedlings grown communally

In the US there are the Treepots and "DeepPots" shown here, narrow and very high.

Unfortunately, I am currently not aware of any German manufacturer or importer.

I know that commercial growers simply use P9 pots(9x9x9cm), until seedlings are 2 years old.

Who orders seeds can also do a direct sowing at the destination of the tree.