Shade sepsitename%% https://onegreenworld.com/tag/shade/ Unique Plants, Shrubs and Trees Mon, 14 Oct 2024 22:42:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://onegreenworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cropped-ogwFavicon-1-1-32x32.png Shade sepsitename%% https://onegreenworld.com/tag/shade/ 32 32 Pawpaw Growing Guide https://onegreenworld.com/pawpaw-growing-guide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pawpaw-growing-guide https://onegreenworld.com/pawpaw-growing-guide/#comments Mon, 14 Oct 2024 22:42:32 +0000 https://onegreenworld.com/?p=1001527 Pawpaw Growing Guide for Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are one of the most unique and delicious fruits that can be grown in the backyard orchard. Native to eastern North America, pawpaws are the only member of the Annonaceae, or custard apple family, that is adapted to temperate climates. Its tropical relatives include...

The post Pawpaw Growing Guide appeared first on One Green World.

]]>
Pawpaw Growing Guide for Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are one of the most unique and delicious fruits that can be grown in the backyard orchard. Native to eastern North America, pawpaws are the only member of the Annonaceae, or custard apple family, that is adapted to temperate climates. Its tropical relatives include the cherimoya, atemoya, guanabana, and soursop, and it is easy to see the resemblance between the pawpaw fruit and that of its tropical cousins. Everything about this plant, from its leaf size and shape to the way its fruits look, taste and smell is tropical, yet it is cold hardy to zone 5 and can be grown in temperate climates from coast to coast.

How to establish your Pawpaw plants

To successfully grow pawpaw fruit we must first understand a few things about its natural history. The tree grows primarily in river floodplains and shady rich bottomlands. They form dense groves, spreading clonally by underground runners and spend many years growing as an understory species until there is a break in the canopy and they can make their leap into the sunnier conditions provided by an opening in the canopy. It is only once they are growing in fuller sunlight that they produce significant crops of their delicious fruit. These are the conditions we must try to mimic in order to grow healthy paw paw trees that give us good crops.

Site selection

Rich, deep, well draining soils are ideal conditions for planting your new pawpaws in. Although they grow in river floodplains that may become seasonally inundated, the pawpaw does best when it has deep well-drained soil with a pH between 5.5 and 7.0. To mimic the understory conditions that the pawpaw needs for its establishment years you could plant on the north side of a fence where the pawpaw will be shaded while it’s young but receive full sunlight as it matures and grows above the fence line.

Another option is to establish a quick growing nitrogen fixing tree or shrub on the south side of where you plan on planting your pawpaw. Get this tree established the year before so it can provide adequate shade for your newly planted pawpaw tree. Choosing nitrogen-fixing species gives you a quick growing tree that will properly shade your pawpaw as well as providing fertility for the tree. The shade tree can then be cut down a few years later once your paw paw is established and the danger of sunburnt leaves and shoots is no longer a threat.

A third option is to plant quick growing annual legumes on the south side of the pawpaw while also building a simple bean or pea trellis over the top of the paw paw to provide quick shade, nitrogen fixation, as well as a crop from your leguminous shade-giving plants as you wait for your pawpaws to mature. Also, planting in a site that is as humid as possible is ideal for the pawpaw. Near a pond can be a great place to plant if you are in an area with dryer summers like we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

Transplanting

The paw paw can be a very difficult species to transplant. It has a very deep root system and does not like its roots to be disturbed or broken. For this reason we sell pawpaws while they are still quite small to ensure higher transplant success rates. While the plant is dormant, or in the spring just after bud break, is the best time to transplant. Be very careful not to disturb the roots. Water in well just as you would any other tree and keep very well watered for the first couple years.

Plant spacing

Pawpaws can be spaced relatively close together, even as close as 5 feet. Because you will most likely be planting grafted named cultivars, this is the best way to mimic the dense root suckering groves that paw paws form in the wild. It’s believed that pawpaws actively graft their roots together and share nutrients more readily than many other species, and close plant spacing helps to achieve this. Planting as close as 5 feet or as far as 10 feet apart, and planting at least three different varieties for cross-pollination, has been shown to be the most successful.

Pollination

Pollination can be the major limiting factor to getting good crops of pawpaw fruit. The flowers are protogynous meaning that the female organ, the stigma, ripens before the pollen does and is therefore not receptive when the pollen is ripe. This ensures that the flower cannot pollinate itself. The entire tree is also usually self-incompatible, meaning that pollen from one flower on the tree will not pollinate the stigma of other flowers on the same tree.

Therefore the pawpaw requires pollination from a tree with entirely different genetics to be successfully pollinated. This is why we always suggest purchasing many different paw paw varieties to ensure the most successful pollination. The more trees you have the more successful your pollination will be. Two varieties is the absolute minimum you can plant to get fruit but more fruit is produced with three or more varieties.

Finally, you must attract the pawpaw’s natural pollinators to achieve successful transfer of the pollen between flowers. In this case keeping honeybees will not help you out as the pawpaw flowers are designed for the decomposers of the world. They are a deep and beautiful reddish purple color and smell a bit like rotting flesh in order to attract various species of flies and beetles. One strategy for attracting these pollinators is to put road kill or rotting meat near your pawpaws when they are flowering to attract their natural pollinators. If this sounds too unappealing to you it is also possible to pollinate by hand, just be sure that once the tree starts setting fruit that no single branch is too loaded up with fruit or it may cause it to break or result in smaller fruits.

Checkout a more in-depth look into pawpaw pollination HERE.

Pests and Diseases

The pawpaw is relatively pest and disease free. If you have deer problems in your area then pawpaw trees are a wonderful choice. Deer avoid eating pawpaw leaves even in areas where deer populations are sky high. A few insect pests exist, but most are relatively minor.

The pawpaw peduncle borer (Talponia plummeriana) burrows into the flowers causing them to wither and drop and can even destroy the majority of blossoms, although this is rare. Other pests in the Eastern United States include the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly (Eurytides marcellus) whose larvae feed exclusively on young pawpaw leaves. The relationship between the Zebra Swallowtail and the pawpaw is similar to that of the Monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant.

The acetogenins that are present in the paw paw leaves remain present in trace amounts in the Zebra Swallowtails body for the remainder of its life, making it unpalatable to birds or other predators. The incredible beauty of the Zebra Swallowtail and the minimal damage it does to the leaves make this insect not much of a concern. A blue stain disease can also infect paw paws but it is not believed that a microbial agent is responsible for this but rather it is a result of stress or trauma to the tree. In general pawpaws are one of the most disease and pest resistant fruit trees that you can grow.

Varietal selection

The best way to select your varieties is to contact your local agricultural extension agency and ask them which pawpaw varieties will grow best in your area. In general, we recommend the earlier fruiting varieties for areas where summers are not as humid as the eastern United States where the pawpaw is native.

Using the Pawpaw Fruit

The fruit is primarily used for fresh eating. It is extremely perishable and is amazingly delicious when it is perfectly ripe. It can be used much like you would use a banana. Try replacing bananas with paw paw fruit in a banana bread recipe or adding paw paws to a berry smoothie. For longer-term storage you can freeze the fruit and make ice cream out of it. Any recipe that requires adding heat or cooking the pawpaw is not recommended as the flavor compounds are extremely volatile and cooking can destroy the delicious pawpaw flavor, although it seems to retain a good flavor when mixed with flour and used as a baking additive.

            Let us know about your experiences with paw paws, which varieties work best in your area, what recipes you’ve found to use them in, and what strategies have been successful for getting them established, and enjoy the look and taste of this amazing tropical tree in your own backyard!

The post Pawpaw Growing Guide appeared first on One Green World.

]]>
https://onegreenworld.com/pawpaw-growing-guide/feed/ 1
Shade Tolerant Edible Plants https://onegreenworld.com/shade-tolerant-plants/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shade-tolerant-plants Tue, 11 Apr 2017 08:15:17 +0000 https://onegreenworld.com/?p=18830 Looking for shade tolerant edible plants to grow on the north side of a fence, building or tall trees? The plants on this list will grow well in at least partial shade. Fruit production will generally be less with more shade. This list of shade tolerant edible plants is a...

The post Shade Tolerant Edible Plants appeared first on One Green World.

]]>
Looking for shade tolerant edible plants to grow on the north side of a fence, building or tall trees? The plants on this list will grow well in at least partial shade. Fruit production will generally be less with more shade.

This list of shade tolerant edible plants is a work in progress and we’d love to hear your experiences with these and other plants.

Akebia

Use this unique, beautiful, semi-evergreen vine to cover a fence or wall, or on an arbor or trellis. Cascading deep green foliage accents the profuse, wonderfully fragrant flowers, which range in color from very dark purple to white. Native to Japan and China, Akebia can bear unique and unusual, light blue, 4″-6″ long, edible fruits. When ripe, it splits open to reveal a row of black seeds in clear sweet pulp.

Arctic Beauty Kiwi

Native to the forests of eastern Russia where it is called Kishmish, Arctic Beauty Kiwi is the hardiest of all the Kiwi Species. A beautiful vine, its unique, light and airy foliage is splashed in the spring with green, white, and pink variegations. Male plants are especially colorful and are often planted alone for their ornamental value. Less vigorous than the Hardy or Fuzzy Kiwi and happier with some shade, you can use Arctic Beauty to cover the north side of a fence, arbor, or trellis. Enjoy the fuzzless fruit skin just like on the other Hardy Kiwi varieties.

Arctic Raspberry

Arctic Raspberry is prized for its attractive flowers and tasty fruit in addition to being one of the hardiest of fruiting plants. Also known as Nagoonberry, this thornless, low growing species of Raspberry makes a beautiful, fruiting ground-cover.  Its 1″ diameter, pink flowers bloom in late spring and are followed by sweet-tart, deliciously aromatic, small red berries in July.

Currants

Ask your European and Russian friends about Currants. A favorite fruit for many people around the world, most of us American’s have not had the opportunity to taste these delicious berries. Beautiful additions to your yard or landscape, these upright growing shrubs are attractive in bloom and a striking sight in fruit, with large clusters of pink, red, white or black berries cascading down the heavily laden branches. Currants are rich in antioxidants and have a much higher vitamin C content than oranges.

Elderberry

These easy to grow, small to medium-size shrubs are prized for their beautiful, large, white or pink flower heads, which are followed by large quantities of blue-black tasty and nutritious berries in late summer. Or ornamental varieties offer exceptionally attractive foliage in addition to fruit. Prepare delicious “elderberry fritters” from clusters of Elderberry flowers and make jelly, syrup or wine from the berries.

Evergreen Huckleberry

Growing throughout our Northwest coastal forests, this very attractive, upright growing shrub is prized for its deep green, evergreen foliage and flavorful, juicy, dark blue fruit, which is great for fresh eating and makes delicious preserves and Huckleberry pies. Evergreen Huckleberry likes shade or sun and moist, well-drained, acidic soil. It will grow to 8 ft. in height in the shade and 3-4 ft. in height in the sun. Space 3-4 ft. apart to make a beautiful, edible, evergreen hedge.

Gooseberry

These attractive, compact shrubs are widely grown and prized by gardeners in many countries. Tasty jewels of our fruit world, the newer varieties we offer are large, sweet and very good for fresh eating, preserves and pies. Our Gooseberry varieties are also easy to grow and disease-resistant.

Goumi

Native to the Russian Far East, China and Japan, Goumi is a very popular fruit in these regions and is now widely planted in many European and American gardens. Goumi forms a medium size shrub growing to 6 ft in height with attractive, silvery green foliage. It’s white flowers bloom in the middle to the end of May and are very fragrant and loved by bees making it a fantastic pollinator. The juicy, scarlet-red fruit is speckled with silver and ripens in July. Aromatic with a flavor reminiscent of pie cherries, it is very good eaten fresh and also makes tasty preserves.

Highbush Cranberry

This valuable and attractive shrub is prized for its medicinal properties, fruit, and ornamental value. Highbush Cranberry features large clusters of snow-white flowers in the spring followed in September by bright red berries and striking reddish orange foliage. After frost removes their bitterness, the berries are used for preserves, candy and baked goods. The flowers, fruit, fruit and seeds are used in herbal medicine as a fever reducer, to lower blood pressure and treat heart disease.

Honeyberry

A very hardy and unique small shrub, Honeyberry is a species of Honeysuckle with sweet and tasty fruit. Native to Eastern Siberia, the Russian Far East, and Northern Japan, Honeyberry is valued for its tasty, blueberry-like fruit, its extremely early ripening, often two weeks before strawberries, and its exceptional hardiness, to minus 40 degrees F., or below. Great for fresh eating, juicing, and preserves.  

Oregon Grape

Oregon’s State Flower, Oregon Grape is an attractive, drought-resistant, evergreen shrub that grows to about 6 ft. in height and spread. Oregon Grape displays abundant, small yellow flowers in early spring accented by glossy green foliage, which often turns purple-red or bronze in the winter. Following the flowers are heavy crops of dark blue berries, which make excellent jelly.

Pawpaw

Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are one of the most unique and delicious fruits that can be grown in the backyard orchard. Native to eastern North America, pawpaws are the only member of the Annonaceaeor custard apple family, that is adapted to temperate climates. Its tropical relatives include the cherimoya, atemoya, guanabana, and soursop, and it is easy to see the resemblance between the pawpaw fruit and that of its tropical cousins. Pawpaw fruit combines delectable, fruity, banana-like flavor with creamy, custard-like flesh. Nutritious as well as delicious, the greenish yellow, 3″-6″ long fruit is unusually high in protein and is a good source of vitamins and minerals. Everything about this plant, from its leaf size and shape to the way its fruits look, taste and smell is tropical, yet it is cold hardy to zone 5 and can be grown in temperate climates from coast to coast. A slow growing, small tree, Pawpaw is naturally disease and pest resistant and features long, tropical-looking foliage that turns a striking bright yellow in the fall. The largest native American fruit, Pawpaw was a significant part of the Native American diet, and with our superior large-fruited varieties, is enjoying new popularity. 

Salmonberry

A very popular plant with our Northwest Native Americans, Salmonberry forms an attractive upright shrub growing to about 6 ft. in height. Salmonberry features large, pink to red flowers and golden-yellow to reddish fruit that resembles a large raspberry. The berries are variable in quality, but are always liked by birds. The young shoots are also peeled and eaten fresh or boiled as a vegetable.

Silver Vine Kiwi

From the Russian Far East, this attractive vine shares the hardwood forest of that region with Arctic Beauty and Hardy Kiwi, Amur Grape, and Magnolia Vine. Silver Vine is prized for its large, white, fragrant flowers, greenish-silver foliage, and abundant crops of unique, sweet, light orange fruit. Great for covering a fence, wall, or arbor, Silver Vine like partial shade and is hardy to minus 35ºF., USDA Zone 3.

Spicebush

Spicebush, from the laurel family, form attractive shrubs and will have either male or female pale yellow flowers that produce glossy red berries. The leaves, flowers, and berry all have a very flavorful spice which gives it it’s namesake. A Spicebush tea can be made from the aromatic leaves and twigs, and the dried and powdered  fruit can be used as a spice.

Thimbleberry

Thimbleberry bears clusters of large, white flowers followed by Raspberry-like, delectably sweet, red berries. Native Americans ate the fruit fresh and also dried it and mixed it with other berries. This attractive small shrub has very large and soft, maple-leaf shaped foliage.

Wintergreen

Wintergreen Shrub, a beautiful evergreen groundcover, is native to the East Coast and produces profuse, small white flowers followed by sweet and flavorful, bright red berries, which taste just like Wintergreen candy. Growing to about 6″ tall, it will spread slowly to a foot or more in diameter.

The post Shade Tolerant Edible Plants appeared first on One Green World.

]]>