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J blue

FREE SEEDS 1/ 🧵

Eastern North America, zones 9-6

for easy native edible pest resistant plants whose crop is not sensitive to freak seasonal weather.

Asimina triloba
Boehmeria cylindrica
Diospyros virginiana
Physalis grisea

Please read whole thread and all the AltText.

4 large Asimina triloba “pawpaw” fruits hanging in a cluster off a tree. The background is a forest landscape. I have the most seeds of this plant and it is the most pest resistant. It has a natural pesticide in its leaves, bark, roots, seeds and trace amounts in the skin of the fruit. It is the only plant that the zebra swallowtail caterpillars feed so if you do see a caterpillar, leave it alone bc destruction of these trees has decimated this butterfly’s population. The skin peels away easily like paper and you can eat it like a burrito. Or you can just cut it in half and spoon out the fruit. The seeds are very large and woody and slide away easily from the fruit.
Little yellow berries of Physalis grisea, sliced in half in a blue bowl with vibrant green sissoo leaves. There is a pale white dressing on the salad. When physalis berries’ husks turn papery or fall off the stem, the berries might still be a little green. They will ripen to bright yellow on the counter. Leave the husks on until ready to eat.
Boehmeria cylindrica leaves. The leaves are lanceolate with serrated edges. It is a leafy green that tastes spinach-y. This grows in shade or mostly shade. The plant is host to many beautiful butterflies but produces enough leaves to share.
Sorry for this underwhelming pic. The background is blue sky and the pic shows high-up branches of the American persimmon with hundreds of fruit still hanging on its branches. This is the tree I collect fruit from and this pic was taken in late October last year after the leaves had mostly fallen for the season. Frost does not hurt persimmon harvest. Some people say the fruit is better after a frost but our frosts are very late (December).
J blue

2/ Asimina triloba, pawpaw tree

Smooth, custardy fruit that tastes like banana with vanilla. Expect fruit 5-7 years after germination. Not self-fertile, need two trees. Very easy to hand-pollinate. Note: Don’t eat skin or seeds. Skin easily peels away and fruit doesn’t cling to seed. You can eat it like a burrito or cut it in half and spoon out the insides.

See more info in AltText.

Four large pawpaws, hanging off a tree in a cluster. Fruits ripen first week through mid September. They are ripest when they fall and should be soft. You can set up at net to catch the fruit for easier harvest. The fruit will ripen on a counter at room temperature. Use the fruit soon after ripening because it does not store well. Seeds will arrive in damp spaghnum moss, and will be partially cold-stratified. Put the plastic bag back in the fridge and plant in springtime in a large pot and protected from squirrels with a sturdy cage. Germination depends on warm soil and can take 6-8 weeks. Plant seedling trees in ground when they are a year old. Hand pollinate: take one flower from one tree and make it kiss with all the flowers of the opposite tree and do the same with the opposite tree. The natural pollinator is flies and the flowers smell faintly of carrion. Pawpaw farmers hang roadkill and dead fish to their trees. I do not recommend this for a home garden!!
J. Puma

@jblue I’ve seen a couple of pawpaw trees here in the PNW. The most successful ones were on a permaculture farm and the trick was to hang dead rats in the trees so the flies would pollinate the flowers!

J blue

@mysteryharvest yeah, that’s what they do on commercial farms here. They just hang up roadkill or dead fish. Most home growers I know just hand-pollinate and you’re sure to get fruit then and also avoid unnecessary stink.

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