#growing trees

So you might know that when I was planning what I'll have on my property, I planned all the big trees; oaks, chetnuts, willows, linden, I would have a whole park.

I was curious to notice that my whole property had zero big trees; in fact the only 'larger' trees were dried, rotten or felled. This means there is absolutely no shade from the sun in the afternoon! How could someone allow this, I wondered.

I talked to my neighbours, to see what they thought about me planting a nice willow at the front that would quickly grant both of us shade; they freaked out instantly.

'Absolutely not, no big trees, we had one in our yard and had to fell it or it would destroy our house.'

Oh, I realized, these people were old enough to see the full circle of life of trees and understood that all trees would eventually fall and threaten any structures nearby. 'Okay,' I said, 'but what if I put it over there?' I picked a spot decently away from both of our houses. 'Then it's going to tangle into the power lines,' the neighbour pointed out.

My heart fell. There were in fact, multiple power lines right where I was hoping to plant my tree. I wouldn't be allowed to plant anything over 4 meters tall in that entire area. But it was exactly where I needed some shade.

My property is a hill side, and it's set up so that the sun rises behind that hill. Then it scorches the hill the entire afternoon before setting behind a mountain. I wanted a tree at the bottom, so it would defend the bottom area against the worst of the afternoon sun; even garden plants falter during a heat wave if they get no shade whatsoever.

The only far-enough location I could plant a big tree in, is at the top of the hill, but then it would shade the entire property until 1am. And the morning sun is pleasant, not too hot, not too hard on the plants or myself, I don't want it blocked.

Well, the solution then could be to plant the big tree at the edge of the property, but wait, then it becomes a threat to all the neighbours and they're all going to demand I fell it before it grows into a giant.

Doesn't it suck to be an adult? It's not like oaks and chestnuts would grow huge during our lifetimes, the neighbours are all 60+ and wouldn't even see those trees mature. But they've had enough tree trouble to vehemently disagree with a tree that might at some point, be a problem to someone in 100 years. I don't care! If a tree falls on this house 200 years in the future I could not care less. It would give me shade and make my life better. Besides they can put it down before it becomes a problem.

But no, we all have to live based on trauma of these people who had to put one tree down and care about power lines and now I can't cause tree chaos. I can't have beef with the neighbours because they give me drinking water.

So now I don't know what to do. I have chestnut seedlings. They are so ready to go into the ground and it doesn't look like I have a place for them. Despite owning land!

I'd have to call a village meeting and ask everyone where they would all benefit from chestnut trees and if I can put them in someone's forest. This village has no chestnut trees so planting some would be beneficial for the whole community. But I don't feel like dealing with all these people so they can judge me for being a woman and whatnot, this sucks.

Some of y'all may recall last year I made a Plant Profile post after finding my first Paw Paw (they don't really grow this far north in NJ so this was exciting). Well after eating the fruit I decided to see if I could propagate the seeds and I was very successful!

Below I'll describe my process and some tips, this was unconventional towards how I usually grow saplings but I was in my final year of a masters program, needed to be as cheap as possible, and this is probably easier for those of you in apartments

So you want to propagate paw paws? It's not hard it just requires a bit of understanding.

When I found my first Paw Paw I was on the University of Pennsylvania campus, I saw a tree in front of a multi-faith church and immediately recognized the fruit. My friends and I climbed up the branches to get some bigger fruits and then we basically ate them on a nearby bench.

Once I had the seeds (I started with 14, only 4 viable) I walked home and washed off any debris then I wrapped the seeds in a damp paper towel (wring out excess water) and placed them in a plastic bag in the fridge for 3ish months

Around February I decided to grow them, I had some extra cardboard pots I was starting oaks in (image 3: ps I hate these pots) and knew I could use this to to start the seeds, at the same time I asked a friend to grow paw paws so we had a diverse gene pool to produce fruit. Paw paws need deep pots because they develop a taproot that can easily reach 12" the first year, instead of buying multiple deep pots you can place disposable pots in a bigger container with soil. If you find like long/narrow containers those are your best option.

I used left over peatmoss (but loamy potting soil will be better) and placed them 1" deep each. I then cut off the bottoms of my small cardboard containers and placed those together in a deeper pot I had (image 4). You want to retain moisture, so also cover the pots in plastic wrap. Of course water enough to keep the soil moist that goes without saying.

Paw paws take about a month to germinate above the soil but still need the increased light levels. Keep an LED light on above it (these are very cheap to operate) They will start growing a taproot soon after you plant them and occasionally will break the surface, just try to keep it covered in dirt.

Once they appear above the surface (this was march-april for me), let them grow till they develop like 4-5 leaves before planting out. I kept them in my Frankenstein pots until about June when I had time to exchange with my friend (he grew like 18 with seeds from an online seller but stunted their taproots a bit).

Paw paws have a natural insecticide in their leaves, I didn't encounter any herbivory from both deer and insects but I left my best specimens in a sapling cage. I planted about 8 in my yard, all around 4 inches tall (image 5), in partial shade conditions. When you plant the sapling dig a little deeper than the taproot and leave soil around the taproot itself, it helps to have a deep trowel. For amendments, I mixed in richer compost soil with the native soil, but for a few I gave no amendment (I wanted to test if it made a big difference). Ultimately those which grew the most were in brighter conditions but they all did okay, my largest ended up being 15" (image 6) which is the same development as some nursery stock I've encountered for $165...

On a side note you're not supposed to move them once planted but I ended up having to do this with one. I did break the taproot in half, however this sapling still survived so these trees are a bit hardier than others have implied.

Even though I live in the heart of the city, I’ve decided that I’m going to grow my own fruits and vegetables using a couple of smart gardens (like the one shown below)

That and I recently discovered blue Java bananas, which are blue bananas that taste like vanilla ice cream and yes those are actually real. Another thing I found interesting is the fact that while the bananas themselves are pretty hard to come by (at least here in the UK), it’s relatively easy to buy the seeds for the trees they grow from, so one of my plans for the new year is to plant and grow one of these trees.

In general I’m going to invest more time in taking care of plants and hopefully I’ll be able to provide a loving home for a cat too

🌱 Join us to rewild the planet: https://planetwild.com/9/join

Update on mystery plant:

I still don't know what TF it is... still waiting for it to get bigger or for someone to tell me what it is.

I do have a new tree... it was a graduation gift from a friend. I think it is a dwarf purple leaf peach tree.

We get kinda strong winds, so I tied it so it would grow straighter.

Please help me identify the mystery plant at the top. Here are a few pics from the past few weeks.

Oh, I also saw our peach 🍑 trees and apple 🍎 tree full of fruits