Tag Archives: Saint Andrews Forest Farm

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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 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.

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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.

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A Rainy Saturday at SAFF

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A decaying tree stump covered in mosses and lichen on the main trail in Dan’s Folly.

We got an early start yesterday to spend a rainy morning and afternoon at St Andrews Forest Farm. We got interior shed work completed after a lovely walk. Being in the forest with the rain falling is especially calming.

Physcia caesia, Blue-gray Rosette lichen, found on a tree trunk near the North Trail by largest clearing.
An image to show the size of the Blue-gray Rosette lichen.
With the ground wet and covered in pine needles and leaves, it was soft and much quieter walking through the forest. Our feet sunk in to the squishy floor.
Tremella mesenterica, witches butter, grows on decaying branches of hardwood trees. Some are edible. This is on a conifer, so it is considered inedible.
Trichaptum biforme, violet-toothed polypore, decomposing hardwood logs. Often mistaken for turkey tail but the underside has definite teeth instead of small pores. Inedible with research indicating potential antioxidant and anti microbial properties.
Red Hawk Rd at roundabout. American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, attracts pollinators, songbirds and small mammals.
Bonus sunny Sunday walk rounding out our farm weekend.
Reindeer lichen, genus Cladonia, found along Fern Trail.
A patch of Honey locust trees found near the culvert.
A white gilled mushroom, most likely Russula. It did not lactate when cut so not a lactarius. It could be Russula brevipes or Leucopaxillus. Further info and observations are needed.
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Pawpaw Planting at St Andrews Forest Farm

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Pawpaws we foraged under Edible Landscaping’s Sunflower and Mango cultivars in Nelson County Virginia on Sunday.

We went out to the farm on Friday and Sunday to get as many pawpaws planted before the rain comes. Thunderstorms and rain are forecasted to get started late tonight and continue until Wednesday afternoon. We planted 17 on Friday: Five in the orchard (a Kentucky State University Chappell and 4 seedlings) and another five alongside the Shenandoah and select seedlings that we planted last year. We put a Mango cultivar and four seedlings we started from foraging. Then we planted 2 on the Pawpaw Peninsula (an Allegheny cultivar and Wild native seedling from a Rockfish River foraged pawpaw). After that we put two by the pawpaw patch at the bottom of Ridge Trail and another two on the left side of the large pawpaw grove. We walked up Ridge Trail and put another wild pawpaw seedling from Rockfish River foraging near the small colony of native pawpaws growing along the south wet weather gully.

Wild native seedling planted up top.

We were exhausted after this. We had to carry water for the trees after planting in our packs, carry our equipment and the trees themselves all around the farm. It was hot and the ground was hard and dry for digging. Chris was battling each hole. (We are looking into finding a lightweight device to dig our holes, as in an auger.)

Allegheny pawpaw cultivar on the Pawpaw Peninsula with our SAFF native wild pawpaws. The wild ones are yellowing leaves and going dormant for winter since it has been so dry.

Then we went back out on Sunday to water what we’d planted Friday and put a few more in the ground. We planted 5 up top in the main clearing along the driveway and put two along the South Gully on Dan’s Folly. We put one more across next to a lone wild SAFF native pawpaw on Fern Trail. From there, we walked down the Gully and watered our select seedling planted a few days before. We were happy to see they all were still in the ground (last year, the deer ate them and pulled them out of the ground a day after we planted so we almost expected the same.) They were glowing in fact. They all appeared to be very happy in their new locations. We watered them some more.

We have another 80 or so to plant and hope to get out to the farm again soon to get a few more in the ground.

We found this lone flower along Mary Banning Trail. We aren’t certain but are leaning towards a type of Spurge. We will continue to observe it in order to further identify.