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A Monday Afternoon Walk at SAFF

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Antennaria plantaginifolia, plantain-leaved pussytoes, was found budding in multiple locations on the trails Monday afternoon. The buds resemble cat paws. This native groundcover supports Virginia pollinators and is a host plant for the American Lady butterfly, Vanessa virginiensis.
American lady butterfly
Uvularia perfoliata, perfoliate bellwort, a north American woodland perennial known for its distinctive leaves that appear to pierce the stem and drooping yellow bell shaped flowers. Attracts pollinators. Young shoots can be cooked like asparagus and eaten. Roots are also edible after cooking. Found along the trails at SAFF.

We got out to the farm yesterday to check on the tiny house and continue to level it up. We’re placing cinder blocks around the trailer to support it. We also continued to pollinate the newly opened small, green pawpaw flowers. We see tiny initial fruit set has occurred as well as new buds opening.

Asimina triloba buds showing an older female flower to the right with green color at bottom and the pollinated one facing us with the green banana surrounded by pollen. There’s another smaller and younger bud not yet open behind the middle bud which has dropped most of its petals.
Early fruit set on just one small 6 foot Asimina triloba in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch. There’s multiple large colonies of Mayapples and Virginia bluebells coming up.
Mayapples by the main waterway down in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch.
A Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, with a white bloom in center. We will watch this one for a fruit. All parts of this plant are poisonous except for the ripe yellow edible fruit. Extracts of this plant are used for treating cancers. It spreads through rhizomes to form thick ground cover colonies and goes dormant mid summer. Wear gloves when handling as it can cause irritation.
Mayapple flower.
This is the Mayapple fruit which ripens through the summer. We begin to look for it in August in spots where we’ve seen flowers. It’s the 2 leaved Mayapple that flower and fruit. The fruit is described as a fleshy lemon shaped berry native to eastern North America that has a unique tart flavor compared to pineapple, passion fruit or starburst candy. I found this description from one of my favorite teachers. “My first encounter with a ripe mayapple fruit was unforgettable.  I actually smelled the fruit before I saw it.  Within seconds of harvesting, I indulged in what little edible material was available.  The taste was ambrosial — almost too good to be true — and from that day forward I became a devout seeker of ripe mayapple fruits.
“ Adam Haritan from Learn Your Land.

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I was literally standing on a young rat snake as I took this photo of the blueberries here by the waterway! I bet I scared him as much as he did me.
First peaches are forming on the heritage Indian Blood cling peach.
Our first asparagus spear this season.

We’re picking up 100 bare root Asimina triloba seedlings from the Virginia Department of Forestry Thursday and we have 50 Spicebush seedlings and another 50 Asimina triloba seedlings coming from the Arbor Day Foundation this week. We will be busy this weekend potting up the new trees in deep tree pots to accommodate their long tap roots. Last year we planted 108 and this year it looks as though it will be 300-400. We can’t wait to see how many seeds sprout that we cold stratified over winter. Last year they began growing in June. It may be early this year since it’s been so warm. We will get photos of it all this year. Last year we were too amazed by how much grows from the seed so quickly. The taproot goes 10 inches before there’s anything to be seen up top. It’s a wondrous thing growing Asimina triloba —and the seeds sprouting is just the start but we were too overwhelmed last year to document it. We will do so this year. 👍🏼

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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.

Initial fruit set of Asimina triloba.
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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Continuing Pawpaw Pollination and Tiny House Leveling

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Virginia pine, Pinus virginiana, on Wednesday with yellow pollen cones clustered near the tips. We pulled in and saw these on all of the pines. It was a beautiful surprise. We were at the farm just the day before and did not notice them!

On our way to Saint Andrews Forest Farm Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday, we continued to find male pollen from many trees and locations to take to the female pawpaw buds at SAFF in order to set fruit in the old clonal colony. We’ve seen many more clusters of trees along Howardsville Rd, creeks and rivers on the way to the farm. We are so hopeful they will produce fruit this year with the pollen from different genetic material. We have been getting rain regularly so far and have more in the forecast for the next few weeks. We just hope for the best.

Male Asimina triloba buds found along Howardsville Road.
Chris walking from the native old clonal colony of Asimina triloba after spreading compost tea.

We’ve also continued to level the tiny house and check for water entry after rain. We found that there are a few areas where we need to address past water damage. We have plans for a new overhanging warm roof which will be a large help on multiple fronts. We also will remediate the damage done by replacing materials as needed. The tiny house was built on a mobile home trailer with steel framing so the bones are strong.

Inside view from the tiny house. Our plan is to address the roof issue as our top priority with the tiny house. We have been working on the layout for inside and planning our staircase and storage needs. We will begin working on the roof as soon as we get scaffolding and other supplies as soon as next week.
The view from the other side of the tiny house interior with water tanks and some lighting and other supplies.
The tiny house is built on top of this trailer.
They insulated it and covered it in plywood. We will need to replace a few of those sections under there. Instead of plywood, we will use metal and flashing. The overhanging metal roof will also take away most of the moisture from dripping onto the edges of the trailer. We are collecting our supplies.
The metal frame of the tiny house.
Mayapples, Podophyllum peltatum, found in the old colony pawpaw patch.
Azure bluet, Houstonia caerulea, found everywhere right now at Saint Andrews Forest Farm. Clearings, trails, roads and under forest canopy.
Some melted and some fresher shoehorn oyster mushrooms found on Amanita Way just near the main clearing up top.
Asimina triloba found on the way to the farm.

Today we were pleased to have a farm day Friday and we ran right down to the old colony pawpaw patch to continue pollinating. We noticed a powerful smell right away. As we went down to the main waterway from the Pawpaw Peninsula to cross over we saw a possum carcass. Normally this would cause us more than some displeasure. Today we couldn’t believe our good fortune. What a blessing in disguise! Asimina triloba are pollinated by a number of insects as we’ve seen but the most important pollinator historically has been the fly. Flies were all over this gift of a stinky carcass. We are sorry for the possum. A few years ago, we found another possum in a similar spot and also deceased. We’ve grown to appreciate them and hope they thrive in the forest at SAFF. They are known to eat ticks which is a positive. Poor creature.

We also noticed our shoes are covered in pollen. We will get a photo. We are like giant bumble bees running around the forest spreading pollen everywhere wittingly and not.

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Sunday afternoon trip to Saint Andrews Forest Farm

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Asimina triloba flowering along Howardsville Rd along Rockfish River on our way to the farm today.

We were able to collect more male pollen to take to SAFF native old colony of clones. We also took compost tea made from our home bin and spread it around the old colony pawpaw patch. So, as Chris said, “we fertilized and we fertilized.”

Two flowers on left are male and the greener smaller flower on the right is female.
Chris made a long paintbrush attached to his walking stick with tape to increase the range of buds we could reach.
We gently swiped the pollen from the male flower and brushed the females with the dusted paintbrush. You can see the dusty white pollen on the inside of the flower.
Blurry action shot of paintbrush on the long pole.
The Rappahanock cultivar at the south gulley native patch looks like the leaves will open up soon. We still have loads of Asimina triloba flower buds tight and unopened. We think the pollinating with go a few more weeks.
A photo of the temporary stairs to get in the house without climbing. Also, Chris is jacking the sides and was able to get the house leveled today. We measured spaces for the loft stairs and more. It was a nice weekend of activity.
The Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, leaves are starting to emerge down in the old pawpaw patch.
And, lastly, one old and already decaying mushroom we found walking under pines down South Trail to the old pawpaw patch. It was nicely disguised with pine needles on the cap. Too melted to identify.
The underside of the unidentified mushroom.
After pollinating the Asimina triloba we came up North Trail and were greeted by the tiny house on wheels.
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Pollinating SAFF Old Colony Pawpaw Patch

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We found male Asimina triloba flowers and brought them to SAFF to hand pollinate what we believe is a clonal colony of nearly 400 trees of varying sizes. We had maybe 50 or so female flowers that were ready to receive pollen today.

We were able to hand pollinate the old colony pawpaw trees at the bottom of SAFF. Notably, this is the first time with novel dna so we hope they set fruit and stay put instead of dropping early as in prior years when we pollinated them from one tree to the next not knowing they were a very old clonal colony all arising from a large root system with identical dna.

It was raining lightly and getting cooler while over there in the forest. We also shored up the tiny house as the rain began and worked on construction of temporary stairs out of concrete blocks.

A ladybug and an ant crawling from a flower with pollen from the pawpaws stuck on them. They’d fallen asleep in there together and came out groggily leaving in separate directions. Off to pollinate the highest flower buds we hope! We saw lots of tiny flies and insects in the pawpaw patch. We hope for success with pollination. We dream the pollinators will spread the novel dna from pollen outside of the clonal colony to the highest reaches of our Asimina triloba canopy down there. Some of the trees are about 15 feet tall and we couldn’t get to the buds to hand pollinate.
Before we built the temporary stairs from concrete blocks. We will get a pic of stairs when we’re out next. It was hard to climb inside! 😂
We want to write a children’s book about the ant and the ladybug.🐞
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SAFF Tiny House Delivered

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We finally got it on the pad.
Brian backed it down the driveway.

We met the designer and builders and Brian, the tow truck driver yesterday morning at 9:30 am in Troutville. It took us a while to get everything loaded up and ready for traveling to Buckingham County. We were nervous and excited. The most nerve racking part was whether or not it would fit under the train trestle with 13 feet and 4 inches of clearance stated on side.

The builders of the tiny house, Taylor and Kaitlyn, followed us to be sure it fit under the trestle that had been lowered after they built it.
This is just after Brian left with the tow truck.

It took two hours for us to drive to Buckingham. We went about 45 mph with the house. Once we got to the farm, it took about an hour to get it into its place. We are going to head back over today. We have to finish leveling it and shore it up against the weather.

The beginning of the journey was clearing this 13 feet 4 inches train trestle and we all cheered as it passed through.

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SAFF Invasive Tree Removal

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We trimmed the driveway up to 13.5 feet to accommodate the new tiny house being delivered.

We spent the weekend taking down and processing the large paulownia trees up top in the main clearing. They loomed over the driveway and pad where we decided we’d place the tiny house. It felt like we were dismantling a giant whale carcass. These trees were messy, seedy and dropped limbs off during any storm. They take over native forests and choke out beneficial plants and trees for our Virginia wildlife. They were very fast growing as well which is why we put off cutting them down. They were a big bunch of hard work!

The truck parked in the spot we cleared for the tiny house this Wednesday. It looks so much better without the paulownias. We are pleased with our decision.
The first paulownia tree we cut down earlier in the week and then came over Saturday to cut it into smaller pieces. This was the largest. It took all of our Saturday farm day.
Hole in the middle of the paulownia is not a sign of disease but an inherent characteristic of the Paulowniacea family of trees. It is called pith and creates a water highway for the tree to support its rapid growth. This hollow bamboo structure runs the length of the trunk. This is one way this tree can take over quickly. Similar to ailanthus, Callery Pear, Mimosa and White Mulberry in its destruction of forests in the eastern US. Kudzu in tree form.
The second and smaller of the two paulownia trees we took down and cleared it yesterday (Sunday).
We are going to need a wood chipper!
Paulownia tree debris around the pad. We will find a use for these logs. It is lightweight and fire and rot resistant. We picked a lot of great walking sticks and fishing poles out of the rubble and sorted into useful and non useful piles. We brought the long dead pieces home to use as fire starter. They burn for a long time and are as light as paper. It’s really very interesting wood. Too bad the tree isn’t adapted to playing nice in our environment with its native cohorts.

We stayed focused on creating our space for the tiny house for the most part, but ran down to the old colony pawpaw patch last night just before leaving SAFF for the weekend. The buds are still tightly closed. We are happy with the slow moving progress of the buds as we have only found female flowers out in the wild so far. We continue to look for the older male flowers with pollen. We will use this to pollinate our female flowers when they open. We are watching the pawpaws develop along the Rockfish River on our drive to the farm and we see them covered in buds. They are all still female with green flowers instead of more purple male flowers that face downward.

Female flowers at Edible Landscaping on Saturday in Afton Virginia.

View of the clearing and pad without the paulownias.

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SAFF Pawpaws, roads and a Tiny House

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Asimina triloba buds still dormant despite the wacky weather.

We drove over to Buckingham County yesterday to pick up soil test kits and drop off paperwork before heading to SAFF. Spring has sprung in many pockets of Virginia with purple flower buds emerging from red bud trees and bright yellow forsythia and daffodils blooming. After the deep cold snap, it appears we’ve made it and the weather will keep warming up from here.

Peach tree blossoms at Edible Landscaping on Saturday in Afton Virginia.

On Wednesday, the day before, we drove backroads down through Lexington’s Maury River and Kerrs Creek Virginia. We drove further down through George Washington and Jefferson National Forest through creeks and hollers down to Troutville. It was beautiful and we kept our eyes open for pawpaws the whole way. We went to look at a tiny house that we’ve decided to buy and place at Saint Andrews Forest Farm so we can spend part of our time out there.

Victorian tiny house built by engineering students during the early days of pandemic.
We will have to finish the inside and make a few fixes but we are excited about the possibilities.

So yesterday we went over to SAFF and decided we would place it on our pad just off the driveway up top. We took down one invasive paulownia tree that would interfere with our plans. We have a few more trees to cut down to make a safe space for the tiny house.

Finally this paulownia is down. It was a job. Now we have to get it out of the way.
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Wednesday Trip to Edible Landscaping in Afton Virginia

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Pear tree blooming at Edible Landscaping. The smell was indescribably pleasant and sweet. We would have spent the rest of the day right there if possible.

We drove over late yesterday afternoon to check the status of their flowers on the Asimina triloba, pawpaw, trees at Edible Landscaping in Nelson County Virginia. This is one of our favorite places almost any time of year but it was especially enchanting yesterday. The flowers were blooming on many fruit trees and bees were buzzing hungrily. The pawpaws were just about to open on a few cultivars—namely the Sunflower, Shenandoah and Allegheny with some blooms starting to open and others (like ours in Buckingham County at SAFF) are still small and tightly closed for winter. While they are fully closed they can survive temperatures as low as -25 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they begin to open like the flower below, they are hardy to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes them susceptible to late freezes.

Shenandoah cultivar at Edible Landscaping and the clone of our own at SAFF. It was the first pawpaw we planted ourselves at SAFF. The outer whorl of petals can be seen opening.

When the flowers first open on one year old wood, they are in the female stage with a green, glossy stigma inside the petals. At this point, the stamen are immature, green and compact. After a few days, the petals turn wider and become more horizontal turning a deeper, purplish brown. The stigmas are no longer receptive and the anthers turn brown and release dry loose pollen. The pollen is light colored beige or yellowish and fine and dusty.

The Allegheny cultivar (parent clone of our Allegheny planted at SAFF on the Pawpaw Peninsula) with buds swelling but not yet opening like the Shenandoah above.

The Sunflower cultivar has been known to self pollinate. However most Asimina triloba need a second genetically distinct tree to set fruit. If successfully pollinated the green ovaries at the base of the flower begin to swell and develop into fruit. We’ve been staying on top of the weather. Hopeful to stay above 28 degrees wherever the flowers have opened. So far it appears Buckingham County will not drop below 28 degrees this season. Fingers crossed.

We got the new trailer yesterday. We are pleased with the look and feel of it. We will make good use of it at the farm. We plan to take it over tomorrow and begin transporting compost to the pawpaws.