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Re: TT: Hoosier Banana?
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We have Pawpaw colonies in the woods behind us. To "reproduce clonally"
in the case of Pawpaw means to sucker up from the roots of the parent
plant. We dug a Pawpaw up from an area about to be bulldozed. After
finding a two foot high tree we dug down until finding (I am going to
use my layman terms here) a runner root. The little tree was a sucker
off of this root. This runner root crept along about 3 inches below the
soil line. We carefully dug/pulled up the runner root until we came to
another sucker about 5 feet away. We had two little trees and one long
root, |_______| like so. I carefully potted our two (or is it
one)Pawpaws by winding the root up at different levels in a 2'x2'
container. In 96 we let grow under our deck in full shade. One sucker
died but the other survived. Last year I brought it up into a position
that received morning and early afternoon sun. Grew 6 inches and had
full size leaves.
I saw my first Pawpaw fruit in the fall of 1995, unfortunately I had no
idea what it was. We thought it was some strange twig gall or
something, it looked so out of place. I missed my chance because I
haven't seen one since. Maybe 98 will be the year of the Pawpaw? I
don't know if we have separate Pawpaw trees in the woods, or if they are
the same colony. I do know that it takes two different plants to
produce a good crop of fruit.
Mark Stephens
-----Original Message-----
From: RT Ellsberry <rtells@Flora.Com>
To: Community_Forestry <TreeTown@majordomo.flora.com>
Date: Monday, January 12, 1998 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: TT: Hoosier Banana?
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On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Tom Kimmerer wrote:
> What a great tree to start off the year! Pawpaw, Asimina triloba ...
> Pawpaw is a small understory tree that reproduces clonally in patches
> (there's an old fiddle tune called "Chicken in the Pawpaw patch") ...
Gary and I came up with 'Pickin' up Paw Paws, put 'em in your pocket'
-- but you're right! There's at least that one other one:
Way down yonder in the Paw Paw patch! -- Remember that one (or is it
the same song)?
I'm a little unclear on what it means to 'reproduce clonally' -- is
this similar to a root sucker, sprouting from the bottom of the tree?
Richard@Flora.Com
Baltimore USDA Zone 7
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