The champion tree looks good for another growing season. As of February 20, 2011 grafting scions are available at the web-site until they are sold out:
https://sites.google.com/site/nativeamericanplants/American-Seeds-Catalog/pawpaws/ky-champion-pawpaw-tree
We already knew the champion pawpaw tree has a very large tasty fruit.
Pawpaw fruits about the size and weight of a 12 oz soda can.
The pleasant surprises keep coming in such as:Last summer the champion tree was ahead of all cultivars at KSU. We tasted three very large and ripe pawpaw fruits before August! All of those were 270 grams or larger. If anyone knows of an earlier-bearing pawpaw tree please let me know. This is a genetic trait by the way.
Last spring we grafted some scions, and one of those has 3 flower buds this year – so it looks like precocity is in the genes as well!
Tree graft in first year. Note 3 flower bud formations.
I’m looking forward to another year of surprises as we compare DNA with a stand of pawpaw trees at Ft. Boonesboro about ten miles further down Otter Creek from here. As I understand it, pawpaw fruit was Daniel Boone’s favorite and I’m certain he came across a lot of pawpaw trees in his wilderness adventures. Anybody going to the fort would be quite unprepared to stay without food provisions -- especially under Indian siege. (Boone was captured by the way).
What would a fort be without heir-loom seed-gardens and a few top-choice selections of pawpaw trees around the grounds? That would be kind of like a home without a refrigerator!
Happy gardening!
pawpawman
