Are pawpaw trees hardy enough to survive in Wisconsin?

Rob, you also will not find them until late September into October.

It's not just nursery hype, they really are exotic and delicious. If you don't like Mango or Banana, than maybe not, though.

duane wrote:
hi Rob,

i've been growing pawpaws for about 20 years here in west pa (north of Pittsburgh)
pawpaws remind people  like a lot of things banana, mango , mellon, pear, pineapple, but really  taste unique.
each tree (unless grafted) tastes different. the mix of flavors may be more mango (some varieties even use the name) while others favor banana or some other flavor. but they all taste like pawpaw.
Pawpaw are members of the custard apple family. the texture of a pawpaw is custard or pudding like. I tell people "it's banana pudding on a tree" and when they're really ripe, that's a good description.
they ripen like a banana and people may or may not like them depending on degree of ripeness. imagine trying to sell bananas to someone who has never had one and all you had were overripe black bananas.
some people are also turned off by the "pudding like texture" and richness. (who can each a bowl of banana pudding pie filling?)
making things like ice cream, smoothies,pies ,etc allow you to dilute them but still enjoy the flavor.
freezing is the favored way of preserving them,as the pulp freezes well with little loss of flavor. I froze a number of them whole last fall and were giving tastes of them and free seeds to plant at the local Earth Day this past weekend. (about 300 people found about the word "hugelkultur" for the first time also)
I give talks at local fairs promoting pawpaws as the perfect backyard fruit tree, no spraying, little pruning, not bothered by pests, small managable tree for backyards

Perfect, that’s exactly what I needed! Ive heard that the grafted ones are not as good as the native ones; I really don’t know if that’s true since it seems they are more expensive. Ive also seen a lot of nurseries say that it needs help with pollination, have you found that to be true? I can’t imagine that a native species to our area would need any help with pollination but I could be wrong.  Do you have any suggestions for sources in our area so we can try them out with spending $18 on a full size tree? Thanks for your input.

Thanks Duane they looked exactly like you described, I think the ones I had gotten earlier probably didn't have good roots (they were in pots and likely were cut and stuck in the pots..) but these looked like tan thin carrots with a straight top ..so I'm hoping that they grow and grow well..they are planted, getting tons and tons of rain right now and are well marked and protected..

I had one that did manage to grow a top on it from 3 that I got as plants 2 years before..I'll leave it where it is..

I had a gob of seeds and ripe paw paws that I planted here and there in the garden ..they say  they take about 2 years to sprout from seed, but so far I haven't seen any growth from where I put those in..but they still might form??? we'll see.

the person that sent me the seeds and ripe paw paws sent some that were ready to eat and I tried them and I liked them..which gave me more and more desire to get some growing here.


I'll keep working at it

The site PapaShane gave (http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/KSUstory.htm) has tons of info on pawpaws.
Some (cut/paste) highlights:

We have found that some major points to remember about propagating pawpaws by seed are:

1) Never let the seed dry out; this greatly reduces the germination rate.
   Keep pawpaw seed in ziplock bags containing moist peat moss, and then store in a refrigerator until you are ready to
  use it.
2) Pawpaw seed has a chilling requirement that must be satisfied for optimal germination rates.
   You should store seed for at least 100 days in a refrigerator (in moist peat moss) for optimal germination.
3) Do not let pawpaw seed freeze, it will kill the seed.
4) Start seeds in tall pots (12”), as the seedlings have strong taproots.
   Since the roots of field dug pawpaw seedlings are easily damaged, we usually recommend starting pawpaws in pots,
   or buying them from nurseries in pots, and then transplanting them.
5) If you are growing seedlings outside, keep the plants in moderate shade their first year (we use 55% shade cloth)
   for maximum growth of the plant. Seedlings will grow well in whitewashed or even unshaded greenhouses.

Also, a link to their "Pawpaw Planting Guide":

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/ppg.htm

Rob, although the paw paw is native, it usually grows in stands with many other paw paw.. which in turn will attract the proper pollinators, i.e. blowflies, marsh flies, and flesh flies as mentioned in the kysu.edu site that John reposted. At the university, they have an orchard that does well attracting these flies.. however, if you are only planting a few, I've read you may need to pollinate them to get higher yields.

Perhaps a guild using plants that attract these flies would be advantageous, but I'm not sure what, or if there any flowers that do.

Dead horse arum lily is an attractor of Blow flies, and is native to the northwestern Mediterranean so I don't know whether it grows well where you are? Dung attracts flesh flies, so using manure as a top dressing around trees could work? Marsh flies prefer wetlands, and their larvae eat snails and slugs. If you happen to have a constructed wetland, or a natural one for that matter.. this may also help?

if you have just a few small trees, hand pollination is an option.
a bucket of manure or food scraps set underneath the trees will bring flies in.
for those in an urban settings, this might not be the popular, but explain to the neighbors that it's only for a few weeks while the trees are in blossom. and give them some fruit in the fall
if you live where there are flies, such as farm, pollination usually isn't a problem.
I don't "do" anything to increase pollination and most of the blossoms do not get pollinated. but i still get a lot of fruit.
if all were pollinated, the fruit would be smaller (with the same number of large seeds) i prefer fewer larger fruits as this make processing and handling easier
if one were really in the production mode:
the "gold standard" is hanging roadkill in the limbs.

Thanks everyone, that is helpful. I have 2 pond areas, with one being more natural. I live next to farmlands and woods, so I think I should be good. Right now its just a rather large investment of $50 for something Ive never tried.

even if you don't like it (which is doubtful), someone you know is certain to like it. They are yummy!

I planted a bunch of pawpaw seeds in a bed in late October 2009 (I'm in the Missouri Ozarks near the Arkansas border). Approximately half germinated, although I never kept track of the exact number of seed I plated so I don't know exactly.  They waited until some time like late June to come up, I had pretty much given up on them at the point they finally came up. In December I transplanted them to the places I want them, being as careful with the taproot as I could. A few I think are dead because they haven't broken dormancy yet, but over three quarters have and seem fine as of now.

So my local nursery carries wild ungrafted pawpaws, but only "one variety". So I am assuming I need to buy another kind from somewhere else?That doesn't make much sense seing that they are wild and not grafted, so technically they should already be genetically different, right? Cant I just buy 2 of these wild varieties?

Thanks.

hi Rob,

yes, two seedlings , even if the seeds are from the same tree, are able to pollinate each other. two grafted trees, if the grafts are the same variety (clones) will not. so a seedling or different grafted clone is needed.  so 2 seedlings or 1 seedling + one grafted variety.
or better yet 10 seedlings!!

btw, what nursery is that?

Thanks Duane, that is what I thought. I think I will go back and buy 2! I wish I could do 10, I only have 1/3 of an acre with 12 fruit/nut trees already. These 2 will fit in nicely. Next on the list is jujube, elderberry and possibly persimmon. Thanks again. Oh and the nursery is

Village Farm Garden Center

I bought two named/grafted varieties from Raintree (I think, maybe Miller nurseries??).  They both "made it", although on one, the grafted top portion died, and the root stock took off.  They replaced that one, so now I have two named varieties and one "wild" one.  The first couple years, plant a couple bush beans around them to give them a bit of shade.  They like that.

I am located in the banana belt of Michigan, ie the southern edge.

HTH,

troy

i got my newsletter from the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association today
there's a grafting workshop coming in May, if any are interested

http://www.ohiopawpaw.com
check them out

They`re hardy in S. Ontario and you can get them from GrimoNut.ca.
Pollenation can be low as with all Anonaceae but you can leave somthing unter the tree to rot during flowering and that should attract flies to the flowers. Memory vage I hope thats right.

See book Pawpaw, 2015, by Andrew Moore for lots of good info.
https://permies.com/mobile/t/3913/plants/paw-paw-hardiness?foo=a