A visit to the largest Asimina cultivation

One of the fruits that I was most fascinated by is asimina (Asimina triloba), who often goes by his English name pawpaw. Of all the strange plants that I concerned myself with over the years I have been working on forest gardening, it is the one that felt the most difficult to grow, and that is perhaps why it has been so tempting. Its exotic look with her big beautiful leaves and the fact that the fruit is the most similar to tropical fruit both in taste and appearance have probably also contributed to the attraction. In literature the taste as a mixture of strawberry, pineapple and banana, but it is also written that wild asimina often tastes harsh and bitter [1, 4]. Asiminan is native across much of eastern North America and is considered in some quarters almost like a weed. It grows naturally in undergrowth in fertile valleys, and where the comfortable form the dense bushes using numerous suckers [2].

In my naive belief that it was the heat that limited asiminans hardiness in our latitudes, I planted it in our tunnelväxthus, but already the second winter underscored the expensive plant with. A friend of mine had been smarter than me and put it under the big old trees, and he was my knowledge is also one of the first in the Nordic countries that got a fruit at one of its plants a few years ago. At fruit set has long been considered one of the major challenges of growing asimina. In their natural home environment pollinated it by including blowflies and beetles, and it is claimed that it will help to keep up the rotten meat around their trees to attract the right kind of pollinators [3].

With these challenges, I did not think I would get a taste of this fruit in the coming decades and impatient as I am, I was about to order fruit from a small farming in Germany to sugar price, but after reading the asiminan has almost zero transport capability, I put into this project,. When I got through my asiminaodlande friend an invitation to a private garden in the Gothenburg area where he claimed that it was the largest asimina-tree, I was of course thrilled and booked a visit in connection with Book Fair end of September.

The garden that I saw was nothing short of amazing. I have seen many fascinating edible gardens, but this was something out of the unusual. Hans, who owns the garden, in fact, seems to have cracked the code to get the fruit of Asimina and I was greeted not by a few trees, but by dozens, nearly a hundred trees in total. And it was much more than asimina grown in the garden, there were several hundred kiwi plants of all different varieties, several meters high Chinese jujuber tree (Ziziphus jujuba), oddities as Chinese Rid (Pseudocydonia sinensis) and several chestnut trees were full of fruit, leg (Diospyros kaki) which had fruit that was almost ripe, dozens mulberry, Lots of figs, Asian pear (nashi, Pyrus pyrifolia), several different species schisandra, amounts of loquat (Mespilus germanica) and so on. But most of all I was impressed over asimina-planting, which saw the fine as any.

According to Hans, there are four things that have contributed to the growing success:

Planting large trees: Many of the trees were already 2-3 m high and hefty 5 cm of trunk diameter at breast height, although several of them were planted in the same year or the year before. His mean that you should ideally invest in trees 10 or older. Then get into and out of the 5,000-kronor class (per tree), but fruit set from year one is almost guaranteed - as long as you buy a number of pieces for pollination sake or are lucky and get one of the rare self-fertile specimens. But several of the small, maybe just meters tall trees groaning of fruit, which should be encouraging to us that usually go for a little cheaper plant.

plant densely: The most astonishing to all his garden is how tightly he plants his trees. At best, it was a meter between asiminaplantorna, but in many places he planted even closer. This will give the plants greater protection from wind and sun, and it seems that pollination is greatly enhanced by dense planting.

Plant in partial shade or very sheltered locations: Since asimina is a plant that naturally thrive in the undergrowth needs to be protected from the wind and too much direct sunlight. Its leaves are thick and fleshy and wither at once if the wind blows too much. It needs a fairly steady humidity and do not like to be exposed to large temperature fluctuations. His has been the best result of planting asimina (tight) the larger trees and facing east, where it rarely blows so much. The trees are placed in vulnerable situations have either died or are in much worse shape than those that are set in secure locations.

watering much: As the river edge plant in precipitation eastern United States, it is not a strange thing to asimina need to be placed in locations with good water supply. Is it not the case that water the lot and regularly. It also helps to provide the same deep, humus rich, yet well drained soil it grows in natural.

By a happy coincidence Book Fair coincided with the most intense harvest period in asiminaodlingen and after a long tour of the garden commanded His on helmogen fruit directly from the trees. I did anyway some sort of disappointment given how acclaimed the fruit is, but to my great surprise, it tasted even better than I had hoped for. The different individuals in the garden were all a little different flavor, but all recalled asiminans little more known tropical relatives kirimoja (Annona cherimola) which sometimes can buy in the shops. Unlike it, however, the taste deeper and more complex, with a pronounced fruity, while the texture more reminiscent of papaya or perfectly ripe avocado than kirimoyans grainy texture. During asiminafesten we talked about whether the many names resorts on asimina would be grown, but according to His has been shown to grow worse than frösådderna which forms the bulk of his asiminabestånd. Given how good the seedlings were then, there is little reason to buy the more expensive name resorts.

After this tumultuous garden walk, I was of course even more interested in establishing their own asiminaodlingar and the question is where to get plants or seeds. His itself in the current situation no further surplus, but over time, we can probably expect to seeds and scions from his plantations will find out in the world. His buys almost all its plants through Mölnlycke Garden Center which in turn has a number of suppliers in southern Germany and northern Italy. Flora Tuscany is one of the few nurseries in Germany that sell really great qualities of asimina. Even Westergaard's Denmark sells asimina. Wild fruit worm Germany sells seedlings and there is a young guy in southern Germany, which has started a nursery for just asimina.

I myself have just ordered seeds Grimo Nuts in Canada, claiming to have especially resistant graft. Other companies that sell seeds are Oikos Tree Crops and Sheffield’s Seed Company.

Do you have more tips on sources? Please comment here or on Facebook! And do you want to cave down firmly in asimina world, I recommend that you join the wonderful Facebook groups Pawpaw fanatics and Pawpaw Fanclub.

Literature

[1] Effect, Walden. What does pawpaw taste like? 2013. Walden Effect. http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/What_does_a_pawpaw_taste_like__63__/, Retrieved 2018-10-02.
[2] Moore, Andrew. Pawpaw: In search of America’s forgotten fruit. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015.
[3] Pawpaws, Peterson. Cultural Advice. https://www.petersonpawpaws.com/learn, Retrieved 2018-10-02.
[4] Reich, Lee. Uncommon fruits for every garden. Portland: Timber Press, 2008.