Lesson from a Pawpaw Tree
Lifeless Doesn’t Mean Dead
The Backstory
Trees have a way of teaching us the hard way, and even if it means offering a little sacrifice. Simultaneously harsh and humbling.
Having over 30 foreign and native trees on my property including two dawn redwoods and two buckeye trees, I noticed that the native pawpaw tree was not one in the collection. Pawpaw trees grow all over the area where I live. Shoot, there’s even a festival near Athens, OH dedicated to them, and NPR has covered pawpaws in its Morning Edition podcast.
So, I headed out to my parent’s woods with bucket and shovel in hand to dig one up. They thrive in wooded areas… so much so that I figured transplanting one from the woods to my yard would be like any other tree. I was wrong.
The trick is getting a good root ball, as much as the original soil the tree was in as possible, keep it out of the direct sun, and water it like crazy. Turns out, young pawpaw trees tend to grow in clusters in the woods, which makes them easy find but harder to dig up due the the root spread.
Speed was of the essence, as I was digging up the first tree. Busted the tap root. Crap. On to another one. Too big. Too small. Too eaten. Then, I found a really small one. Got on my knees and scraped the leaves and some soil away from the base. Looks good… dug around to loosen the dirt to see how rooted the tree was and if it could be moved. Armed with a small hand shovel, I broke up the dirt little by little and slowly lifted the tree out of the ground. I quickly rounded up the dirt that it was in, buried it in my bucket, left the woods, and drenched it water. Now it was time to go to the yard.
The Object
My first attempt was with what I thought was a small tree and having it grow in the front yard by the driveway. It was doing well… until it didn’t. The leaves were eaten and shriveling, and it looked like it was dead.
For some reason, maybe laziness, I left the tree in the ground. I kept mowing around it and trimming the grass up close to it, but it still looked dead. Totally lifeless.
I thought to myself, “I’ll get around to removing it,” or I’ll just let the spinning blades of death come as I drive over the sapling with my riding mower. BUT, I was surprised to see as I was leaving the house one sunny morning… the tree was not dead. What?!
Somehow, the tree managed to sprout new leaf buds… 3 to be exact. What I thought was a lifeless tree had somehow started showing signs of life. No one could see that it was alive on the inside and life was waiting to burst out and yell, “Surprise!”… or “Wait, I’m not dead!” While seeing new leaf buds being “born” may not compare with the excitement and heart-string tugging elements other living things, it comes pretty close to awe-inspiring considering how delicately brutal life is for a pawpaw tree. Nature has prevailed against the odds.
Sadly and unfortunately, the winning didn’t last long. It was depressing to see the small tree finally whither away and watching the life get sucked out of it — again. It is still in the ground. I haven’t touched it. It is tempting to mow over it every time I drive around it, but maybe a part of me is hoping that it will come back to life and show that it has what it takes to survive.
The Lesson
Fast forward. Three pawpaw trees died in failed transplant attempts. They didn’t survive. I put each in a different location; in different shade areas; some watered regularly and not… what was I doing wrong?
I am on my fourth pawpaw tree now. The bigger trees failed… even though they didn’t look that big. There are so many variables, and they can only be controlled so much. I started looking for smaller ones to grow, instead of jumping to the big ones to speed things up. The pawpaw tree in this story can be representative of so many things in our lives… from projects or initiatives at work to career trajectory to life at home.
A few take-aways from the pawpaw tree:
- Just because something looks dead doesn’t mean it is.
- Start small and grow your plans, projects, and initiatives to the size you want them to be. Risk of failure is still there, but it the risk will be lower.
- Taking too big of a first step will lead to failure, even with big dreams
- Breaking or cutting the “tap root” or source of passion will kill momentum and growth
- It’s hard to tell if something is still worth pursuing by just looking at it
If this next one fails, I will have to look for a pawpaw fruit or seeds and plant those. The best ideas, plans, and trees grow from the seeds you plant yourself. So much for getting a head start.
Written by Shaun Holloway.
