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Growing Pawpaws Naturally

 
Steve Thorn
steward
Posts: 2890
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I wanted to make this thread to help me keep track of and document growing my pawpaw trees, with hopefully minimal work and maximum harvests!

They won't be irrigated, fertilized, or sprayed with anything, not even organic fertilizers or sprays, just naturally healthy soil, rain and sunshine!

They will be minimally pruned, if pruned at all. With minimal care, they can be truly enjoyed to the fullest! Bring on the yummy harvests!

Hopefully it can be helpful to others also!

If you'd like to stay up to date with the latest videos of what I'm growing and see monthly food forest tours, you can subscribe to my Youtube channel HERE by clicking the red subscribe button! I'd love to have you join me for this journey!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
Steve Thorn
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This paw paw is a few years old and is really starting to get big and putting on a lot of new growth. I hope to get the first fruit next year.

Paw paws have a neat kinda tropical look to me.
20200710_182957.jpg
Tropical looking pawpaw tree
Tropical looking pawpaw tree

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
Steve Thorn
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This sucker is coming up from the roots of the paw paw above. It has grown a few feet already this first year.

I hope to transplant it to the food forest once it goes dormant this fall, to have a new paw paw tree.
20200710_183010.jpg
Young pawpaw sucker creating a new tree
Young pawpaw sucker creating a new tree

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Diane Kistner
pollinator
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Steve Thorn wrote:This paw paw is a few years old and is really starting to get big and putting on a lot of new growth. I hope to get the first fruit next year.

Paw paws have a neat kinda tropical look to me.



When you say "a few years old," exactly how many years are you talking about? I planted mine last year when they were about a foot and a half tall, and they don't look anywhere near as good as yours does. They've put on maybe six inches of growth, but they haven't leafed out much at all. Now I'm wondering if I should be worried about them.
 
Steve Thorn
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I wouldn't be worried. It seems like paw paws take a while to get adjusted after being transplanted.

The one above is probably 5 years old I would guess.

It was about year three before it really started to thrive, if I'm remembering correctly. It seemed to really like a good leaf mulch.

It's finally growing pretty fast now, and hopefully will produce some paw paws next year.

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Diane Kistner
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Steve Thorn wrote:I wouldn't be worried. It seems like paw paws take a while to get adjusted after being transplanted.

The one above is probably 5 years old I would guess.

It was about year three before it really started to thrive, if I'm remembering correctly. It seemed to really like a good leaf mulch.

It's finally growing pretty fast now, and hopefully will produce some paw paws next year.



Ah, good. I'm relieved. I've got three pawpaws for my pawpaw patch planted in dappled shade, and by the time they get big enough to need more sun, I'm hoping to have saved up the money to get more pines down. We've already had 46 trees taken down, some of which I was able to do myself but most of them $$$ endeavors. I'm really, really, really looking forward to having pawpaws!

 
greg mosser
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i'm starting to see next year's flowerbuds on my pawpaws - at this stage they're very obvious round buds as opposed to the long thin leafbuds. have you been getting flowers yet, steve?
 
Steve Thorn
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I had a handful of flowers two years ago and they fell off. This spring, there were about 30 flowers or so, and a handful of tiny paw paws started forming but they fell off. I think the tree still wasn't big enough to support them, but it should be able to next year.

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Steve Thorn
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The pawpaw flowers started to open a little about a week ago!

This will be the second year this pawpaw has bloomed. The first year they had just a few flowers. It seems self fertile and had a few tiny fruit begin to form, but the fruit fell off since the tree was still pretty young.

I hope to get my first harvest this year!
20210328_174729.jpg
Pawpaw flower buds opening
Pawpaw flower buds opening
20210328_174745.jpg
Pawpaw flower bud opening
Pawpaw flower bud opening

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
Steve Thorn
steward
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Who knew pawpaw flowers could be so beautiful!
20210331_184429.jpg
Red pawpaw flower after a light rain
Red pawpaw flower after a light rain
20210331_184413.jpg
Pawpaw flowers opening
Pawpaw flowers opening

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
May Lotito
gardener
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Location: Zone 6b
1486
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I am so excited to find flower buds on my 4 year old pawpaw grown from seed! This is the biggest one of the two dozen I planted in 2021. It is such a slower grower, gaining less than 1 ft tall in the frist year; 2.5 ft the second year with two short side branches. Then it took off from the third year on. It's a beautiful structural tree with side branches always coming out perpendicular to previous year's wood. Also, I started to see zebra swallowtail butterflies since last year though I couldn't see the caterpillars.

Here is the backbone of the tree in January 2024, I colored it to demonstrate the growth annually.
thumb-20240115_160936.jpg
Pawpaw tree from seed
Pawpaw tree from seed

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
May Lotito
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My paw paw tree is blooming and I counted 18 flowers. I hand pollinate the flowers and they seem to be taking except the very first one. I don't know what variety this tree is but even if you have one tree, it won't hurt to try. Timing is critical since the male and female parts of the flower don't mature the same time. I collect pollens from flowers that are mahogany in color and the petals starting to flare, and pollinate flowers beginning to change color from green to red.
20250423_132022.jpg
Flower at male stage
Flower at male stage
IMG_20250428_085153.jpg
Self pollinated pawpaw
Self pollinated pawpaw

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
May Lotito
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Last year the young paw paw fruitlets dropped after heavy rain. Here it comes back again with more flowers, even after a deep freeze in mid March killed 1/3 of the buds. Hopefully I will get some fruit this time.
20260405_075257.jpg
Paw paw bloom
Paw paw bloom
20260405_084219.jpg
Over 10 ft tall
Over 10 ft tall

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
May Lotito
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Finally I got my one and only ripe pawpaw from a seed started in 2021!  Two days ago it started to turn a light yellow-green. The night before I was reminding myself to take a picture and the next morning it had fallen on the ground! Skin was slightly soft to touch and I could smell the aroma. It had some missed pollination giving the peanut shape and there were 7 seeds inside. And it did taste like mango! So sweet and flavorful! I only had pawpaws once and wasn't impressed. A local farmstand sold them for $2 a lb but it was pale, insipid and full of seeds. Now I doubt those were picked unripe.

Pawpaw is such an amazing fruit tree it's totally worth the wait growing one.
20260808.jpg
Tree ripe pawpaw
Tree ripe pawpaw
20260809_pawpaw.jpg
Orange flesh with intense mango flavor
Orange flesh with intense mango flavor

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
Joao Winckler
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That's a long wait but a good result. Seven seeds from one fruit too, plenty to experiment with or pass on. Hopefully now it's fruited once you'll get a proper cluster next year.

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May Lotito
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A bit more info on my pawpaw from seeds. I saved some of the farmer's market pawpaw seeds, plus online ordering 5 seeds and they got mixed up. I planted the seeds in the pots in February 2021 and several seedlings didn't come up until late June. I transplanted one in a raised garden bed, one in a less fertile spot and two by the edge of the woodland. I have to say fertility matters a lot for pawpaw trees. The one in garden bed is the tallest and flowered in 2025, next one up has flower buds developing this year, making it 7 years starting from seed. And the two under mature trees barely grow bigger than pencil size.

I did save the seeds. But this fruit is totally self pollinated, I am not sure if it's a good idea to plant those seeds. By next year I will have two flowering pawpaws for cross pollination and that will help with fruit setting as well.
Resized_20260601_124410.jpeg
Same age 6 yr old pawpaws in poor soil
Same age 6 yr old pawpaws in poor soil

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
Carla Burke
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Wow! That's a HUGE difference, between the good and not so good soil. Do you think they will catch up, in a year or two, with some good compost?

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May Lotito
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I don't know, the roots of mature trees around them can take everything away.
I haven't been to the state parks to check out the pawpaw trees and their surroundings. Tree species are definitely different by the water and upland. If you have a variety of terrains, it's better to start the pawpaw tree where it's similar to its native habitat.
20260810_174615.jpg
Pawpaw tree
Pawpaw tree

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
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