Does anyone have experience growing pawpaw trees?

Does anyone here have any experience growing the Paw Paw tree/shrub? They are hard to find. Any info would be loved. I am thinking of putting them near my blue berries. Anyone growing them? I am in SW Michigan. Thanks.

I have no personal experience growing them, but I happen to live near KSU. Kentucky State University is doing some ag research involving paw paws and I think you'll find links from their site which may be helpful. http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/

You can get them from Oikos: http://oikostreecrops.com/store/product.asp?numRecordPosition=1&P_ID=305&PT_ID=78&strPageHistory=cat
Burnt Ridge Nursery: http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=9&parent=7
Vincent Gardens: http://vincentgardens.com/-Paw-Paw-Asimina-triloba--P1406859.aspx
Even Stark Bros: http://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/additional-fruit-trees/sunflower-pawpaw

Lotsa places, just look around, and make sure to buy them when they're small - they have very long roots that don't like being transplanted.

I have 4 seedlings from Vincent Gardens that came with very nice root systems, I got 9 seeds from a friend in the autumn that I stratified and planted a couple of weeks ago, and I'm getting a selected variety and a seedling from Burnt Ridge this spring.

I agree with the KSU link above. They have as much researched/published as anybody.
If you live in KY, buy from them as you would have trouble finding a better price:
http://forestry.ky.gov/statenurseriesandtreeseedlings/Documents/Seedling%20Price%20List.pdf

If you are planting from seeds, be patient...the root germinates the first year, the rest, the next year.

Good stuff!

I was about to start looking for info about paw paws soon, I just got 22 seeds in the mail last week.

One of the seed packs said that they don't transplant well, I think it said they had like a 2' taproot when they only had their first set of true leaves. Does anyone know if that's true?

I was going to start them in deep pots and move them outside once they got their first leaves, but if that's true about the taproot then I think direct sowing would be best.

I'll follow the links and see if I can answer my own question.

I actually pot-seeded and direct seeded about 50 paw-paw seeds just yesterday! First time trying them from seeds, so it's all one big experiment. The ones I direct seeded I put in a pretty moist understory area along one side of my property. If I notice any big paw-paw looking leaves in a few years, I'll know it paid off!

My understanding is that they grow best when young in shady spots, but need full sun later on... not so handy for a tree that doesn't like being transplanted.

Anybody that's within driving distance of SE Ohio, I would highly recommend the Ohio Paw Paw Festival. Me and the lady went for the first time this year, and it's an absolute blast. Great food, great people, informative workshops, and everybody's walking around eating paw paws and dropping the seeds on the ground... we came back with a ziploc bag full of 75+ seeds!

I have been growing them for a number of years.
i started about 100 seeds last week to give away at Earth Day this year
they will not have sprouted by then, but the root should be growing
I am using paper pots this year (available from Oikos) so no transplanting, bury pot and all
they are slow to appear above ground as they concentrate on roots first
those seeds planted in the ground may sprout August-Sept this year (sooner if weather is warm)
digging up seedlings is possible but Care is needed to get them out of the ground.
once the ground here warms up enough, I will be digging out some seedling in my "patch"
these were from some fallen fruit. I need to remove them to reduce the crowding

I have seeds available pm me if you want some, free + shipping
I have about 1500 in my refrigerator now

duane hennon wrote:
I have seeds available pm me if you want some, free + shipping
I have about 1500 in my refrigerator now

how long do they stay viable in the fridge? just curious. i've heard how long they need to be in there, but not how long they can be.

was given seed in peat moss that have been in my frig waiting to plant..they have to be processedlike this before planting..also read recently thatyou can't plant the seedlings in sunshine, the sunshine will kill them (my mistake last few times)..you gotta shade them first 3 years of their growth..so try that too.

they are supposed to be understory trees.

also read that planting the entire fruit just below the soil with only a small amount of dirt over them helps...

Has anybody here grafted a pawpaw before?

Greetings, At our place in New South Wales,between Brisbane and Toowoomba, paw paw grew, can't say I grew them. The temperature and humidity is like Florida. It depends where you are.

Jist read you are in Michigan, I don't think so! Do you have a hothouse you can didicate to this?

Isaac, Why would you graft a Paw Paw and onto what a mango? Hope you do well with this but we have to be reasonable. Is it very warm and humid where you are?

richard valley wrote:Greetings, At our place in New South Wales,between Brisbane and Toowoomba, paw paw grew, can't say I grew them. The temperature and humidity is like Florida. It depends where you are.

Jist read you are in Michigan, I don't think so! Do you have a hothouse you can didicate to this?

Isaac, Why would you graft a Paw Paw and onto what a mango? Hope you do well with this but we have to be reasonable. Is it very warm and humid where you are?

I'm in northern central Ohio and they grow just fine here!

Richard, the North American paw paw is a temporate tree/shrub. Ours do not grow in the tropics/semi tropics.

That sounds great, in what zone can they be grown? Will they grow in zone 6?

richard valley wrote:

Isaac, Why would you graft a Paw Paw and onto what a mango? Hope you do well with this but we have to be reasonable. Is it very warm and humid where you are?

Lol, no, I would graft a selected variety onto a wild rootstock. The selected varieties of pawpaw can be much larger, have fewer seeds, sweeter with better flavor. I have a bunch of seedlings and I would like to graft some better varieties on to them.


Zone 6 is perfect for pawpaws, you can grow them in Zone 5 and sometimes 4. And I think up to zone 9 or so, but there are some different species of asimina that grow in Florida that might be able to be selected.

Isaac, You're kidding me? I've got to look into this, if it be true, that they can be grown in the zones your mentioned, I will call down blessings upon you.

Nope, I'm not. Check this site out for some recently discovered pawpaw varieties, this man is doing some great work. http://www.petersonpawpaws.com/About.php I'm getting the "Allegheny" from Burnt Ridge, they're sold out of most of their other Peterson pawpaws, but there are other nurseries selling them.

The pawpaw is native to the Eastern Deciduous Forest, so they grow wild in WV, PA, VA... They're shade tolerant, they're delicious, I don't know why more people aren't planting them.

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/ppg.htm That's another great resource, they say they grow in zones 5-8. You can probably grow them in 4-9 with a little finesse.


P.S. I'll just wait here for my blessings.

I have grown paw paws and helped a good friend of mine keep up with her 12 year old trees. I know a little about them. They grow tall with a skinny trunk. Heavy winds take a toll on the branches if exposed. Maybe plant it next to a larger tree to block the paw paws from the wind. they also can thrive in half shaded areas. The big problem with the paw paw is that they have a hard time pollinating. They say its best to place rotting fruit or beneficial insect attracting plants below the trees to encourage pollination. remember to get a male and female to ensure fruit and reproduction.

boyhowdy Hatfield wrote: remember to get a male and female to ensure fruit and reproduction.

Asimina triloba's flowers are perfect, they're not dioecious... they are not self-pollinating so you do need two, but any two will do.

Says they are "shade tolerant", but can they handle a long, hot, dry summer? We need to take down a large fruitless mulberry and I want to replace it with a producing tree. I wonder if two pawpaws close to each other would work okay, but they'd have to be able to handle this climate. We are in the right zone we are (depending on the map) zone 6b or 7a.

They will require irrigation as far as I can tell. They prefer moist, slightly acid soil.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pawpaw.html

Wild pawpaws are abundant where I am in the Missouri Ozarks. I have started them from seed, too. I planted them in the fall and they sprouted the next summer. As far as cold hardiness goes, I have family in Southern Minnesota (zone 4) that have some pawpaws, the biggest one nearing 10 years old. They say that only seedlings work in that climate, the grafted ones have died, although the rootstocks sent up new shoots. Young pawpaws need some shade, the full sun is too intense for them, but once they're a few years old they will grow well in the full sun. As for irrigation, that depends where you are. The wild ones are pretty drought hardy here. They are most common on floodplains here, but there are also healthy stands on uplands, just not the most droughty sites, I think they just need a deep enough soil that their taproot can access the more moist soil at the deeper levels during a drought. They are more drought hardy than most of the commonly grown temperate fruit trees.

Moist soil...haven't seen that in a while. Well, I guess I'll just check that one off my list and look into a fig or nut tree. :0)

I'm wondering if one built a really fabulous hugelkutur (partially buried), if the Paw Paw could be grown in our region.....

I'll let you go ahead and attempt that one. I saw some of your pictures and you have people with bobcats and backhoes. I am all manual labor here and I can't dig more than a foot in this dang clay. I think If you did do it I would wait about 2-3 years after making it before I would plant it. Let that material really start to rot first.

One half of the kitchen garden was done entirely by me (49 year old woman) using a pickaxe and shovel. Clay soil full of rocks. The "people with backhoes" is my husband on a small rented excavator (weekend for about $400) trying to save my poor aching body.

But yeah, it is something I'm going to try eventually.

I've planted 10 pawpaws down here in North Houston. I planted 3 of them last year and 7 this year. The ones from last year I did have to water being as we were in a drought. I haven't watered any of them this year and they all seem to be doing fine. Hoping they survive and produce in a few years!

Mark Larson wrote:I've planted 10 pawpaws down here in North Houston. I planted 3 of them last year and 7 this year. The ones from last year I did have to water being as we were in a drought. I haven't watered any of them this year and they all seem to be doing fine. Hoping they survive and produce in a few years!

I started some from seed a few years ago in deep pots, then transplanted them to the edge of the woods near my house. Mine hardly grew at all last year, so I am hoping for more growth this year.
Funny thing is, I never even got the chance to taste a paw paw until last fall when a friend brought some that he had found the next state over.
Very exotic and tropical tasting! (I planted all the seeds from the two fruit I ate)

Its very strange how rare it seems to be, I've talked to many older people around here and none of them have tasted a paw paw.

they grow wild here in the red river bottoms on the texas oklahoma border. Hard to get them before the hogs do.

chris cromeens wrote:they grow wild here in the red river bottoms on the texas oklahoma border. Hard to get them before the hogs do.

Hogs like them, eh? That's very good information to know. Do the seeds remain, um, intact afterwards?

yes, seeds stay intact but the trees get damaged, 300 lb. pigs have no problem knocking down 2" diameter trees when they know what is at the top.
Pawpaw round here is always within 10 ft. of the water table, 7ft. probably more acurate. That means river bottoms and the like. Never see it upland, our uplands are real droughty, and never in marsh.

Cris Bessette wrote:

Mark Larson wrote:I've planted 10 pawpaws down here in North Houston. I planted 3 of them last year and 7 this year. The ones from last year I did have to water being as we were in a drought. I haven't watered any of them this year and they all seem to be doing fine. Hoping they survive and produce in a few years!

I started some from seed a few years ago in deep pots, then transplanted them to the edge of the woods near my house. Mine hardly grew at all last year, so I am hoping for more growth this year.
Funny thing is, I never even got the chance to taste a paw paw until last fall when a friend brought some that he had found the next state over.
Very exotic and tropical tasting! (I planted all the seeds from the two fruit I ate)

Its very strange how rare it seems to be, I've talked to many older people around here and none of them have tasted a paw paw.

I've actually never tasted one myself nor do I know anyone personally that has. Truth is I've never met anyone outside of being online that has even heard of them. I saw them in a video when I was looking for exotic fruits. I'm hoping these produce some fruit because I'd sure love to try them.

You should come to Ohio! We have an entire festival devoted to them every year.

I tried them for the first time this year (at said festival). They have a uniformly smooth texture not unlike a ripe mango, and a sort of cloying light flavor. I don't personally think they taste much like bananas (although the flavor is about as strong as a banana's, if that makes any sense), but that's just me. Different varieties also vary pretty heavily in flavor.

The only reason we're not all used to buying them in the grocery store and eating them like apples and oranges is cause they don't keep well. No large scale commercial potential means nobody's bothered, and overlooked an excellent and hardy fruit in the process.

Hell, they're worth having just as a temperate hardy fruit tree that can be reliably grown from seed that will fruit within a reasonable period. Not a lot of company in that category.

i grew up eating these out of my grandparents yard in subtropic south east Queensland. I'd always assumed they were a subtropical fruit, wonderful to learn otherwise.

re: commercial viability, anyone in eastern Australia from Sydney north would be used to seeing paw paw in green grocers. Im quite surprised to hear of the opposite in the USA.

Andrew Kay wrote:i grew up eating these out of my grandparents yard in subtropic south east Queensland. I'd always assumed they were a subtropical fruit, wonderful to learn otherwise.

re: commercial viability, anyone in eastern Australia from Sydney north would be used to seeing paw paw in green grocers. Im quite surprised to hear of the opposite in the USA.

You might be thinking of the Papaya (Carica papaya) which is also called "pawpaw"... common names can be misleading.

Isaac Hill wrote:
You might be thinking of the Papaya (Carica papaya) which is also called "pawpaw"... common names can be misleading.

You are absolutely correct! Many thanks for clarifying.

Mark Larson wrote:
I've actually never tasted one myself nor do I know anyone personally that has. Truth is I've never met anyone outside of being online that has even heard of them. I saw them in a video when I was looking for exotic fruits. I'm hoping these produce some fruit because I'd sure love to try them.

I can buy apples and pears and other "common" fruits at the grocery store 365 days a year, I want something different! The Paw paw (asimina triloba to you guys "down under") is like the only temperate or hardy member of a family of tropical fruit and it shows that heritage in the smell and flavor of the fruit and in the shape of tree and leaves.

I'm with you on the "exotic fruit", I love a variety. In the last few years I've started to grow Paw paws and also various figs, Wolfberry (Goji), Quince, Mandarin oranges, Kumquats, Citrangequats, Jelly palm (butia capitata), Pomegranate, Passion fruit (maypop), kiwi fruit (Chinese gooseberry) ,etc.
I'm even experimenting with hardy varieties of banana plants.
I do have some mature American persimmon trees, which are indigenous to this area, but still oddly very rare.

So I was all gungho about getting some of these. Then I found information on the web where it has been linked to Parkinsons disease. I never found any solid medical/scientific studies. Can someone comment on this or provide more information. I'm on the fence about getting them.

Robert Marr wrote:So I was all gungho about getting some of these. Then I found information on the web where it has been linked to Parkinsons disease. I never found any solid medical/scientific studies. Can someone comment on this or provide more information. I'm on the fence about getting them.

I've never heard any such thing, and I studied every bit of info I could find on them. I do know however that there is quite a bit of research going on with consideration of using paw paw extracts as cancer treatment.
http://www.pawpawresearch.com/