So, I ran some dripline around to the front yard, to the new pawpaws. Last night I installed the emiters. My youngest son was helping me by yelling over the fence, to tell me if the pressure was too high, and if I blew the line.
First vacation sans husband and kids in twenty years. It's a little over due!
Right I'm on an airplane to Colorado to see my best friend and my mom. This was why the dripline emiters had to go in last night.
I still have the vented row cover over the top of the pawpaws.
Safe from our scorching sun. When we get feel like temps over about 103 (this is the low end for the feel like that bothers my plants) I have a bunch of sun sensitive plants that complain by burning.
They dry out and need water every other day. They are also still very vulnerable because they are young with small root systems.
You can see, even though these are on the North East side of my yard, the young pawpaws still needed protection. Any exposure to our super hot days in direct sun will make tender new plants burn back. Even with just a few hours in it.
Emiters in.
Plus, pawpaws are a weird plant. They want shade in their first few years and full sun later. Because papaw leaves are large, like cherry leaves or many understory tropical plants, they don't do as well in our heat and direct sun.
Having these guys in my front yard, at full size, with just a few hours of sun (maybe five hours or so) is a good spot for them. I will not have to build a shade cloth sanctuary like I had to do with the new cherries.
You can see the scorch marks on the one leaf. This was what I caught early, by noticing that the leaf color was changing to a lighter hue. This indicated that the plant was under stress.
The next issue I will have is: will these flower? I have had a couple of pawpaw trees before, in pots (which I don't recommend) and because I let them dry out a couple of times they croaked. However, this was about two to three years into growing them. Those pawpaws did flower for me. So I know it's possible. I just don't know if these two new varieties will.
I buy so many plant's from online nurseries, and this was so many years ago, that it would take forever to find the receipt for the original pawpaws to check which varieties I bought. I doubt I bought the same varieties. So, we'll see. Like most of my garden, this is an experiment.
Caught this one before it burned but you can see by the coloring that it's heat stressed. I put the timers on my dripline and soaker hoses to run daily. This should help.
Hopefully my emiters don't pop off while I'm gone. I could lose a lot of my yard if that happens.
Since I am a pretty skilled gardener, if I can't get these plants to produce I'll let you know. But I have high hopes for them!
Meet you out in the garden to talk about defiance gardens! I will not yeild, mother nature!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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