Summer Ramblings - And Then There Was One

An update on my gardening project for this year - attempting to grow paw paws, a native American fruit, from seed.

It will be a challenge.

Last year, when I found paw paws for sale at a locavore store, I bought one, saved the seeds, and kept them in moist peat for the winter.  Then, come spring, we planted the large seeds, one to a pot.

Would they grow? They sat and sat, with no sign of germination.

I thought I had failed.

Then, in late July, I found that all but one of the seeds I had planted were germinating.  Such excitement!

Since then, I watched the germination.  Each seed would rise to the surface, pushed by an emerging stem.  The stem would emerge from the seed, and then stand up to the world, leafless.

Then the leaves appeared.

Five out of six seeds had germinated. 

But one of the heavy seeds broke off the head.  Then there were four.

Yesterday, the leaves of one plant were lying, broken off the stem, dead.  I couldn't figure out why.  The stem remained.

But today, two more plants' leaves were broken.  Obviously, something was after them.

This is the one survivor, and I hope it can thrive in the house until it's a little older.

As for the remaining stems, I'll just have to hope they can recover.  These are not fully cultivated trees, after all (I'm guessing).  Maybe they are tough.

But nature is not always kind.

Hace you ever had a project that you did "just for the heck of it"?