In an effort to move toward a more sustainable future we've begun working our little piece of the world with permaculture design principles in mind. Permaculture is a regenerative, self maintained agricultural system which attempts to model natural ecosystems. Plant and animal species native to our region are preferred, when comparable, to non-native species when deciding which plants and animals we choose to either plant or allow to thrive on our homestead. With this in mind, we have started introducing paw paws into what we hope will become a food forest on the Northern half of our land. The paw paw is a member of the Asimina genus, which is the only member of the Annonaceae family not confined to the tropics. The fruit is a large edible berry 2-6" long and about 2" wide. It looks something like a papaya, and tastes something like a banana or a mango. Since the paw paw is both native to Eastern North America, and high in protein, we thought it would be a beneficial and non intrusive addition to our food forest. We started with two little whips, each only about two feet tall. Since we have a significant deer population we planted them inside tomato cages wrapped in plastic. This should protect the little guys from getting eaten while they're young. The plastic also blocks some sunlight. Since paw paws are an understory tree, too much direct sunlight could be harmful while they're young. The tomato cages are recycled from the garden we're clearing in the front. The plastic was cut from a huge 100'x10' strip that I pulled out of a creek. I have the remainder rolled up and saved for future projects. These two should start bearing fruit in four or five years, but we may add a few more whips next year. The two we have should cross pollinate, but two whips from a different nursery next year could add diversity and improve our chances of consistent harvests.
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| Not on our land, but what ours will look like in 4-5 years, hopefully... |
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| New growth on the paw paw whip |
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