Tag Archives: mayapples

farming

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 specimen to take to the female pawpaw buds 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 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 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. We hope to begin working on the roof as soon as next week.
The view from the other side of the tiny house interior with water tanks and 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 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 hope they spread out the novel pollen we’ve delivered to them from our travels this week. 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.

farming

March 31, 2024 St Andrew’s Forest Farm on Easter Sunday

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Class Agaricomycetes growing on black cherry.
The underside of theAgaricomycetes shows teeth instead of pores or gills.

Of course we went over to continue to search for morels. It was a beautiful day and the farm was burgeoning with spring. We saw multiple colonies with thousands of mayapples emerging. Only a couple of the largest ones have flattened which is a great indicator of timing for morels to begin coming up. We found these new colonies of mayapples emerging in the pawpaw grove where we also found Virginia bluebells popping up. We noticed that the blueberry bushes are starting to leaf out.

Virginia bluebells not yet flowering but almost.
One colony of mayapples which has plenty of sun so we hope to see some fruit. We hear the taste is similar to pineapple and starburst candy. Yum!
Leucobryum moss found at the bottom of the slope.
Eastern fence lizard found up top in the clearing.
Genus Houstonia, flowering bluets, a native wildflower found covering the farm especially in clearings.

We got plenty of rain yesterday and can’t wait to go back out to search for the elusive morels.