Author Topic: Pawpaw flower buds gone  (Read 1572 times)

Triloba Tracker

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Pawpaw flower buds gone
« on: February 03, 2020, 04:07:04 PM »
 I was just looking at my pawpaw trees today and noticed that several flower buds are gone  :'(

I didn't have a lot of buds to begin with - this winter was my first with flower buds on the trees.

2 of my trees lost all the flower buds they had (between 2-5 buds per tree).

Thankfully the other trees have at least one remaining.

Any ideas why these buds are gone?

Obviously, physical forces can remove buds, but we've not had any snow, ice, hail etc. We have had some hard rains over the winter and some very gusty winds once or twice.
I rarely see birds perched on the trees but that doesn't mean it's not happening (just saying that i don't have flocks of birds out there all the time).

Is it common for the (young) tree itself to drop flower buds in the winter?  Seems like an odd time to drop something.

Of course, there's nothing i can really do about it but just thought it was strange, and sad, to see these buds gone. Especially on the trees that lost all of them, even if it was only a handful.....

gnappi

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2020, 11:12:25 PM »
Since it was your first budding, I'll say it's not unusual at all for a "juvenile" tree to drop most or all of their flowers and not set fruit.

I learned a long time ago to be patient and wait it out. Every year all of my fruit trees lose less while setting and keeping more fruits. Some spout their "conventional wisdom" to pinch off all of the first few seasons buds suggesting the lack of fruit to support puts more effort into the tree growing. Others (like myself) postulate to let young trees do what they will like it is in nature without humans to interfere with our logical approach :-)



Regards,

   Gary

Triloba Tracker

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2020, 09:15:28 AM »
Thanks!

Yeah I didn’t expect all of these to really hold fruit or anything so in a way it’s not a big deal.
Just thought it was weird. I would not be surprised if they dropped in spring, but thought it strange in winter. Granted we’ve had a lot of warm weather (pawpaws not budding out though).

Another lesson in “focus on the positive” .... I still have several flower buds on other trees.

Triloba Tracker

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2020, 10:03:41 AM »
I asked 4 other experienced folks about this.

2 of them seemed to think it was pretty odd. 1 seemed to think it was not-so-odd. The other said the same thing happened on some of his trees.

Interesting that this is not more well-documented for pawpaws.

SeaWalnut

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2020, 04:43:12 PM »
My Prima has flowers again but i dont think it can hold fruit because the trunk its too thin and has 8 leaves in the summer. Needs to get bigger to hold the massive fruit.

Triloba Tracker

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2020, 05:37:35 PM »
yes - one of the trees that lost flower buds would almost certainly be too small/young to hold fruit.

Citradia

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Re: Pawpaw flower buds gone
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2020, 10:15:29 PM »
The older your trees get, the more flowers you get. In my experience critters don’t attack the paw paw trees or eat the flowers like they do apple trees. Paw paw flowers later in spring so freeze damage is usually not a problem. My trees are over 10 years old and twenty feet high. Bumper crops the past three years.