farming

Happy Easter with Mayapples budding and Pawpaws leafing

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Second year mayapples budding up at Saint Andrews Forest Farm
Rappahanock cultivar Asimina triloba by the southern wet weather gully beginning to leaf out.

We think the pawpaws and mayapples are about a month earlier than previous years. It’s been very warm with repeated cold snaps. Speaking of which, this Tuesday overnight is dipping into the high twenties in Staunton and Afton. We’re relieved that so far it looks as though SAFF and the budded up Asimina triloba out there will be alright in the low 30s. We will have to cover all of our pawpaws potted up in Staunton that have begun to leaf out. The forecast is 28 here.

Asimina triloba right now at the farm are still opening buds. We got a good look inside of them on Saturday and it appears fruit is forming.
Asimina triloba, pawpaws, we potted up in February from the Virginia Department of Forestry. We ordered 100 more of these for pickup next week. The February ones are doing well and beginning to leaf out and wake up. They are the same age as the seedlings we planted at SAFF last year. We will cover them with warm blanket way before the temperature gets into the 20s. They will stay in their tall tree pots until the fall. Then we plan to plant these 150 in total from the Virginia Department of Forestry along with the seeds that pop open in June (we think as with prior years) that we’ve had stratifying in pots over winter in our backyard. Last year it was 100 that opened with much less seeds than we had this last year. So we’re hoping for at minimum 150 seedlings to sprout, maybe 200. This will give us 300-350 or so to plant in the fall.

We continued our pollination at SAFF in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch on Saturday. While we were down there, we saw what appears to be tiny fruit forming! Right now, they look like tiny bananas or very miniature versions of the Buddha’s hand, a type of citrus.

Our pollen covered boots walking around the woods.
Pollen all over the pines attracts butterflies and bees aplenty.
Allegheny cultivar Asimina triloba leafing out on the Pawpaw Peninsula.

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