I almost killed it.
So….. I got happy with myself about the fig I have rooting in the pot. Aaaaand I watered it and took the baggie off of it.
That was not a good idea. The largest leaf died and one of the the side shoots started to dry up.
I put the baggie back over it and it seems to be recovering.
It’s sitting in the kitchen window with the baggie back over it, now. It will stay there, with its baggie, until my friend is ready to take responsibility for it.
I have rooted a fig.
I’m not positive what the variety is. It has yellow fruit. It is not a Brown Turkey fig.
I watched this video and decided to give it a try. https://youtu.be/VQy-ChIvNKw?si=EoK3amigA0ssDAO_. It has been staying in my bedroom with a plastic bag over it to keep it from drying out.
I’m so excited!!
I went to the NC State Extension Service Pawpaw Field Day yesterday. Since I have had pawpaws growing in my back yard almost as long as I have had Chuck in my life and have never had fruit, I felt the need to touch base with people who know something about them.
I got to taste fresh fruit, ice cream and bread. It does have its own flavor, which is very mild. I really couldn’t tell it was in the ice cream. The bread was delicious and, until I get some actual pawpaws, will be good made with bananas or persimmons.
They have a collection of 30 varieties of pawpaw trees at the Forsyth County Agriculutural Building and collect ripe fruit to freeze the pulp in anticipation of the day. The fruit is only good for about 3 days at room temp, 5 days in the fridge. They do not ripen in a way to allow growers to pick them green for shipping. But, pulp freezes just fine.
The woman who led my group through that collection said she can’t tell the varieties apart by taste. A woman in the group said she definitely could.
Along with getting to taste, I picked up a baggie of seeds. Everybody has told me something different about why I don’t have fruit. My arborist says it’s because of how they open and close their sex-changing flowers and has nothing to do with requiring cross-pollination. One collection of Master Gardeners said I need a different variety of plant that what I already have, like you do with blueberries. Someone else said that as long as you have separate trees near each other, they will pollinate each other just fine; it doesn’t need to be different varieties.
The guy that gave me the baggie of seeds said they just bag up what they have from collecting fruit for the festival. So, I mostly likely have more than one kind in the bag.
Since our winters have gotten so erratic, I don’t really trust the weather to germinate what is simply outside. Maybe yes, maybe no. So, I plan to put a couple of seeds in a pot by the shed and the rest in the fridge until Spring and then stick those straight in the ground. Maybe put one of them in another pot to see how that does. I think there are 5 in the bag.
I’ve been waiting this long. What’s another 5-8 years for fruit?
It’s a variegated lace cap hydrangea. See how variegated those leaves are?
I have no idea how long it will take to mature. I took cuttings from a bush in South Carolina 4 years ago. I know it should be variegated. The leaves on the cuttings were not solid green. Which is why I took cuttings.
I have never grown any plant this way before. So, I am pleased it’s not dead. But, I’m ready for it to look like its mother.
The original bush was in the shade. I planted this with lighting that matched its parent plant.
I planted 5 pawpaw trees in 2011 and 2 died.
I have never had fruit from the 3 remaining trees. But, I did start to see blossoms a few years ago. I just never see fruit.
The Pawpaw Field Day in Winston-Salem is in September. I’m hoping that having that on my calendar will remind me to check. I’ve never been to the festival because I keep neglecting to put it on my calendar and I always think about in November. Or April when I notice the flowers.
This year, I have also noticed that each tree seems to be creating its own patch. There are smaller trees growing near the original plantings.
My first thought was that they grow like aspens or trees-of-heaven and put out roots that sprout up making a grove that is actually one organism.
But, it might just be that the fruit dropped and sprouted because I wasn’t paying attention.
Ok. I looked it up. It’s clonal. So, trees are coming up from the roots of what I planted.
But, I may not have seen fruit because they are “self-incompatible” and if what I bought were shoots from the same tree, it probably won’t produce.
I’ll pay attention the Fall and may see if I can find another one to stick out there between the older tress.
I am the Audience 