How long are pawpaw seeds viable?

About five years ago, I bought 30 paw-paw “twigs” about 12” long with tiny roots from the Forestry dept. I planted them in a forest in central KY as understory trees. I have no way of knowing their cultivars.  Now, they are a little taller with small branches and leaves.  Is there a way to know at some point if they are all the same variety or different?

Also, last autumn a kind lady gave me a paw-paw so my children to have their first taste. I saved the seeds. Lost them in the house. Found them last week. Could they still be viable?

Did you ever get an answer to this Angela? My research indicates the seeds have pretty short viability but how did yours do?

if the seeds dried out and we’re sitting around at room temperature, i wouldn’t hold out much hope for them, but it couldn’t hurt to get them in soil outside, just in case.

generally forest dept. pawpaws are seedlings. pawpaws do graft pretty easily, so you can get cultivars going on your trees if you want them. the seedlings should pollinate each other, though, they’ll just make wild-type fruit.

Nancy Reading wrote:Did you ever get an answer to this Angela? My research indicates the seeds have pretty short viability but how did yours do?

Nancy, thank you so much for asking. I learned that once they dried they are no longer viable. If I had kept them moist in the fridge I would have had some hope.

Thank you for the 🍎