re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

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Announcement for Southern Asimina Pawpaw Growers:

"Marsh pawpaw" discovery in Madison County, KY on the preglacial Pleistocene KY River bed near Berea.
It is a promising break-through for the long-seasoned, humid, heat soaked, clay-baked areas of the South.

Geology did the Breeding:

The shunting of the old KY river bed created a shallow terraced broad lagoon ecosystem where pawpaw trees were required to survive in standing water for weeks and even months at time. It was do-or-die with no escape to the south because of an elevated ridge running the length of the Cumberland escarpment. The lake eventually became Silver Creek which drains to one of the largest pawpaw super-forests in the country between Harrodsburg and Nicholasville along the KY River.

The Marsh pawpaw:

The fruit on the Mash pawpaw is similar to the Tropical Treat pawpaw and so is the open vase-like structure with slender "whip-branches" that are sent above the 8 ft level.

These open canopy trees have no problem with black spots etc. and take the heat well. On the other-hand this is the only pawpaw-group I have seen that touches creek-water at normal levels with the trunk and produces healthy fruit at the same time.

Tropical Treat is not like that, but the mother-tree has scaley thick bark that is promising against ambrosia-beetle infestation for a resilient cross--breed.

The 2012 KY ice storm almost completely destroyed the marsh pawpaw stand where I selected. The forest ranger said pawpaw trees in that area were 95% crushed by falling oak limbs, trees, etc.

Background:

Kentucky once had an entire pawpaw growing and marketing system worked out in the 1800s that was lost. It moved fruits from the orchard to the farmer's market throughout Central KY.

The KY pawpaw varieties have been largely ignored in breeding efforts by Corwin Davis, Zimmerman, and others, that focused on northern extremity meso-forest genetics. Trees grew large with large leaves and sprawling horizontal braches.

This left a huge niche opening for the southern half of the indigenous range. Sunflower has the heat tolerance and does well in the south with its thicker leaves. Mango is too juicy and has kerosene flavors. The few named KY varieties are not from central KY. Tropical Treat appears to be promising with its "river-bank" origin from the KY River system. It came from seeds found in Beattyville at the confluence of the 3 KY Rivers.

The land grant system at KYSU was concerned about the gap between the breeding and the native trees. KYSU had a contest in the 90s for wild KY pawpaw fruit to reduce concerns for the natural KY population -- which is superior anyway, imho as Indian tribes from all over the east converged there for hunting and brought some of their best seeds with them.

Conclusion:

So now we are looking forward to the root-stock this tree produces along with some possible cross-breeding to use in the hot humid long-season South with baked clay soil along with two million years of evolution in a do-or die cul-de-sac, several glaciers, and indigenous hunting bands preparing the way.

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