Any PawPaw growers?

I have never grown one but I would like to. Has anyone here grown pawpaws here?

Godbless,
Anwar

i have put in dozens of mail order plants unsuccessfully..well one of my plants has a sprout from the root area this year..it is only about 6 to 8 " tall but you better believe i'm protecting it..i left the other whips in the ground..who knows..maybe they'll sprout next spring???

There is a couple decade old one on our place that finally fruited last year.  The fruit was edible, but I wasn't impressed. 

I have also planted alot this decade.  Some from Oikos tree crops that suppose to be seedlings off a good tasting cultivar, and also have bought some  from the missouri state nursery for pretty cheap, which aren't from improved cultivars, but will be a nice for the wildlife around here.   

This year, I have also bought a grafted one, so if that grows and fruits in the future, then I'll have better idea if I like this fruit.

They tend to grow not that fast though, so patience is in order. 

well it doesn't sound encouraging..but the area i have my paw paw whips in..won't be worsened or bettered by the paw paw if they do or do not grow..i certainly won't be buying more whips of these..as i have had less than favorable results..wonder if they are self fertile..as i have just ONE that shows signs of life..i'll baby it and we'll see if it makes it..it is in a mixed bed with asparagus south of it..and perennial flowers to the NORTH and around it..so it won't hurt anything if it grows there and then doesn't do much for me..but it was a trial anyway..

I think paw paws are cross pollinators, like apples. You need two to set fruit.  I think you'd have time to perhaps try another few from a different vendor, or perhaps that vendor had a bad batch.

well i have tried them in the past..not sure if it was the same vendor..but they also refused to grow here..i might try to see if i can find them elsewhere with better results..

also i ordered mulberry trees and there was a crop failure so i never got them..my sister has a mulberry that grows well..wonder if i could get cuttings from hers...anyone try cuttings or growing from the berries?

Are you doing mail order? Or local?

I found this on another forum http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/60158.html :

Pawpaw seed is slow to germinate, but it is not difficult to grow seedlings if certain procedures are followed. Do not allow the seed to freeze or dry out, because this can destroy the immature, dormant embryo. If seeds are dried for 3 days at room temperature, the germination percentage can drop to less than 20%. To break dormancy, the seed must receive a period of cold, moist stratification for 70-100 days. This may be accomplished by sowing the seed late in the fall and letting it overwinter; the seed will germinate the following year in late July to late August. Another way is to stratify the seed in the refrigerator (32o- 40o F/0o- 4o C). In this case the cleaned seed should be stored in a plastic ziplock bag with a little moist sphagnum moss to keep the seed moist and suppress fungal and bacterial growth. After stratification the seed should be sown 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep in a well-aerated soil mix, pH 5.5-7, with an optimum temperature of 75o- 85oF (24o- 29o C). Use tall containers, such as tree pots (ht. 14"-18"/35-45 cm) or root trainers (ht. 10"/25 cm), to accommodate the long taproot. The seed will normally germinate in 2-3 weeks, and the shoot will emerge in about 2 months. Germination is hypogeal: the shoot emerges without any cotyledons. For the first two years, growth is slow as the root system establishes itself, but thereafter it accelerates. Trees normally begin to bear fruit when the saplings reach 6 feet, which usually requires five to eight years.

If you can't get seedlings to take, you may try seeds. I think seeds are what I'm going to try.

i know of no paw paw trees around to get seed from..and if it has to be 3 days fresh..then i doubt if i'll find them around here..someone want to send me some fresh seeds???

some of them can be self-fertile, don't know what percentage would be.    But the one that had fruit last year is our only one around that flowers.

I just moved back to my hometown this year (Paw Paw, MI!) and have a few Pawpaw growing trees in the back yard of the house I'm renting. One is probably 20ft tall, one is about 14 and the other maybe 10ft. My landlord says that they've fruited well in years past, but this year there probably aren't more than a couple dozen fruits on the largest tree. (he recently cut down a few nearby trees, and I've heard that they do best in partial shade...plus we've had a strange weather season this year).

They're just coming ripe now, and this was my first time tasting them...the fruit is interesting, ranging from a few inches to maybe 5 inches in length, some shaped like pears and some oblong, soft and sweet kind of like a ripe mango or avocado in texture, pale orange in color, with several kidney-bean sized black seeds in each fruit. The taste and smell are unusual, slightly musky and almost perfumey. They seem to have a short "shelf life" once off the tree, and are easily bruised, hence their obscurity as a readily-available market fruit.

One benefit of not mowing the grass very often is that quite a few seedling Pawpaws emerged in mid-to-late summer throughout the yard. There are probably at least 10 of them, some just a few inches and some 6-9 inches tall. I tried digging a couple of them up at first to pot them, and noticed that they weren't formed from seed, but rather as suckers (?) from the parent tree; they didn't have a root system to speak of, just one taproot connecting them to a horizontal root underground. One friend has suggested watering them with "willow water" (or aspirin water) to stimulate root growth before digging them up and potting them. One of the two I potted is still living, the other one died; I haven't dug up any more of them since, thinking of letting them grow a little larger first, but who knows what would be best...

There aren't many fruits on the tree, but if a few people wanted to, I could carefully wrap up a fruit and ship it to you, if you wanted to try your hand at planting the seeds fresh from a fruit (and sample the fruit). I have no idea what variety of Pawpaw this is, I know there are over a dozen named cultivars, but they did grow in abundance in this area at one time...few are left now, I'm probably one of the only people in town with a fruiting tree as far as I know. If you are interested in this, send me a message and maybe you could Paypal me the cost of shipping. Otherwise I could drop a few seeds in an envelope, though it sounds like they germinate better when fresh.

Here's a picture of the blossoms:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjchmiel/3544380307

PJ in southwest Michigan

"Suckers" is the right term.  That sounds a lot like the method Paul has related for propagating apples from Sepp Holzer's farm.

sent you a pm..would love to try some of the seeds..would try the suckers if you could get them up and pack the roots in some moist wrapped paper towels..i would dip them in rooting hormone and put then up..in my greenhouse over winter..

PJ, my paw paw fruit arrived today ups..about 1 pm.

the package contained one green fruit and one larger and 2 small brown fruits (drops as you said).

we tried all the brown fruits..the larger drop had a bruise on it..but we opened it up and tried the pulp away from the bruise..it was fairly strong flavored, very soft, musky, and kinda like a peach in flavor, maybe mixed with strawberry.  The seeds were black and appeared ripe..

the two smaller fruits we cut open like a peach, each had 2 seeds in the center, they were a bit firmer and hadn't started to bruise..the fruit was much sweeter in the two smaller ones and less musky and soft..i think i liked them better firmer..so if they grow i'll plan on eating them at that stage..(i'll probably have gobs as i planted about 9 hills of seeds to see what will come.

the green one is still on the counter, i'm feeling it might not be completely ripe yet..it is a larger one too.

kinda funny when we opened them..they look a lot like taters.

was surprised by the taste, excepted them to taste a lot different..they had a fragrance that was nice too..Ron felt the riper one reminded him of muskmelon as it had that muskiness..and i guess it did a little.

ok i'm excited about them growing..and someday i'll be wanting all kinds of recipes to use the fruit in..

i tell you i think it would make wonderful baby food !!

good site about paw paws

http://www.petersonpawpaws.com/Facts.php

Nutritional Value

Pawpaw has a high nutritional value.
The water content is relatively low, 75%, comparable to banana. Most fruits have water content of 85%.
Pawpaw's nutritional value exceeds that of apples, peaches and grapes in vitamins, minerals, amino acids and calories. (See table at Kentucky State University website.)
Antioxidants (flavonoids, etc.) are probably present in the fruit but their quality and quantity have not been studied.
The pawpaw tree contains many bioactive compounds that may be either beneficial or toxic in the human diet, depending on the amount consumed by the individual, and on an individual's sensitivity.
The bark and seeds are high in acetogenins, potent compounds that are poisonous to most insect feeders and many fungi, and that are also potent anticarcinogens. The leading researcher on acetogenins has been Dr. J. L. McLaughlin, formerly of Purdue University

wow that is some great information on that site Leah, thanks..i saved it to my laptop.

i'm wondering..it said that it is best to not heat it too much..but i wonder if it can be frozen..wasn't mentioned in the article

i have a ways to wait for fruit anyway

I am looking forward to my paw paw.  I have wanted to taste one for years, ever since I first moved to Missouri and found out about them (they grow wild around here if one knew what to look for).  My pay pal e-check cleared today.  I plan to look in my woods for some...I have yet to go back there.  Maybe today.

I got my friut today!  We just came in from lunch so to be fair I am not going to try it till I am over yummy chinese food. 

PJ, is the big one ripe and ready to eat?, or should it sit a day or two?  It looks green but smells ripe.  So Cool, Thank you again! 

I think the big green one is ripe and ready to eat, yes. I'd eat that one and not the others (those were just for extra seed, unless you're adventurous!). There were many that fell off the tree in the same state as the large green one, and I'm assuming that means ripe! Tasted good/ripe to me anyway. There seems to be a short window of time between not-quite-ripe and overripe, like a matter of a few days to a week at best.

I went to my grandparents' house today and they have probably a couple hundred Pawpaw trees growing wild in their back woods...however, very few had any fruit at all and the small number of fruits I saw weren't as big as the one on my tree...I haven't tasted them yet because they felt very firm and not yet ripe, but my grandpa swears that they're "bitter" and no good to eat. I brought them a good one from my tree to sample and my grandma liked it. I'll report back once these new "wild" ones are ripe and I've tasted them... I did note that both on my tree and the wild ones, the fruit were found on the sunnier side of the tree, FWIW.

PJ

PJ,
I had my paw paw for breakfast today, I would say most like a mango, maybe a bit of an-not-quite ripe mango.  I remember the first time I had a mango, didn't eat too much, kind of an aquired taste... love them now.  I bet the more I get to eat the better I will like paw paws.  I put the other half in the fridge in a bag for later.  Thanks again for the oppertunity.  I plan to bury one of the "falls" at the edge of the woods today.  no really, I AM going to the woods today.

Well I made it to the woods yesterday and took some photos http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018734&id=1391592328&l=2984f1fd7a ... could this be a sickly paw paw tree?

LTH,
While the overall form and size looks a lot like a seedling Pawpaw tree (I just went and looked at the ones in the yard for comparison), I suspect you're looking at something else, because the Pawpaw leaves' edges are smooth and not "serrated" like the ones in your photo. My seedling Pawpaw leaves are anywhere from 2 to 7 inches long, most being on the larger side of that.

Looking at a tree identification book I have, other tree leaves with similar-looking (but jagged) edges are:
Hickory, Pecan, Bitternut, Hornbeam, White Ash, Slippery Elm, and some Walnuts (yours is probably not Walnut). The book also notes that Pawpaw leaves have a distinctive smell when crushed. I'd look around to see if there are any larger trees in the area with similar leaves and maybe that would be your answer? These leaves look fairly shiny...about how large are they? That might help narrow it down, it's a bit hard to tell from the photo.

Thank you PJ, I have been studying your photos, comparing the two, and it is so hard to tell.  I miss my old cheap camera...need to see about finding it, the display is broken ( a saddle was dropped on it) but it still takes great photos...just don't know what of till they are downloaded, lol. 

It is raining here today but when I can I will go out again and collect some leaves to take to the extension office for identification.  I really hope to get some to grow if I don't have any, even if I do.  They are pretty yummy, again like a mango.

i have heard that paw paws do vary in quality from type to type..so it will be interesting to see where these all go in the future years..i have your seed planted and then a seedling growing from a boughten one..we'll see what comes of them..they will be marked separately.

PJ..you really got us all going on paw paws !!

I planted two Paw Paw slips, each about 18" tall, last week!  I purchased my babies from One Green World in Mollalla OR; they are grafted named varieties.  OGW was offering tastings of their crop of Paw Paws the day I bought the trees, and the fruits we tried were yummy. 

I noticed in the article Leah posted that one of the reseach sites is my home -- Corvallis OR!  That means someone at OSU is doing trials -- cool! 

Thanks for posting the photo, PJ!  I will look forward to the year my trees bloom; those are unique and lovely flowers.

Patricia

Brenda Groth wrote:
i know of no paw paw trees around to get seed from..and if it has to be 3 days fresh..then i doubt if i'll find them around here..someone want to send me some fresh seeds???

Do they sell them at localmarket or supermarkets, to remove fresh seeds from?

I lived in Kzoo for a while but wasn't wise to the plant world at that time. Would love to get a paw-paw stand going, planted two 12" trees from Oikos a few weeks ago. Looks like PJ should go into the sucker-selling business.

Paw paw fruits become rapidly over-ripe, and apparently do not refrigerate well, so they do not appear anywhere out of season, and only near paw paw growing territory for the very short fall season. I know of no wholesaler that ships them, and I've been looking! I am going to try to establish paw-paw stands using seed balls thrown in the fall (next autumn) along wooded waterways (I'm in a mountainous area with lots of soggy but rocky creeks flowing through forests). We'll see how that works out in the decade to come!

Seeds can be preserved for months if kept cool, moist, but free of mold. (I have failed this advice all three ways.) The place I'm going to try for bulk seed next year will be F. W. Schumacher. Roughly $35/lb (450+) of seed. Gentlemen, start your seed drums!

http://www.treeshrubseeds.com/
http://www.treeshrubseeds.com/details.asp?id=1122
http://www.oikostreecrops.com/store/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=108&strPageHistory=cat

here in Dawin Austalia paw paw can grow like weeds, its one of my fave, fruits but i still pull the buggers like weeds, even if i didn't grow my own they are as cheap as chips to buy at markets, they make great smoothies mixed with mango and banana, sorry to brag but these are also prolific here

Bird, what you call Pawpaw and what we in N. America call Pawpaw are two different (unrelated) fruits. Ours is scarcely available and has a shelf life of a few days, produced only during a month or so each autumn. I believe yours is more like what we here call a Papaya?

PJ

Wow that's awesome. They are not cheap here in northern Appalachia (at least $3/lb in season) and have a short season. There are prolific suckering colonies here but they are not usually very delicious varieties. Your subtropical climate must be ideal. I'd like to see some photos of these fruits in market!

Update: I seemed to post this just as PJ made a comment. Well, papaya that grow like weeds isn't such a bad problem either!

Post a photo Bird, let's see for ourselves which it is. You can see a North American paw paw at Oikos:
http://www.oikostreecrops.com/store/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=108&strPageHistory=cat

Australian paw paw are papaya family - Carica Papaya- and an expensive one here is around $2 towards end of season.

Yeah, ours is Asimina triloba, very different. We have papaya but they are usually shipped from great distance and suffer a bit with the travel (I lived in Hawaii for a while!) but not as much as the "Michigan banana".

Thanks ajmot

A quick google and your variety will grow here as well, looks like i'm hunting paw paw's

am working on new section of my property and aiming for rare and exotic fruit trees such as mangosteen, black sapote, budda's hand, magic berry, kakadu plums ect
most should grow here just need to sorce them when time comes

If I could I would grow cherimoyas.  I would grow them as I like to eat them.

http://www.calimoya.com/about/about-cherimoyas.html

Hi Jennifer

They look and sound great, another one to look into might be to humid here but might grow as they can be grafted onto custard apple stock more googling for me

Thanks
Bird

Bird wrote:
looks like i'm hunting paw paw's
am working on new section of my property and aiming for rare and exotic fruit trees

Bird,
when you find something that fits your criteria, but requires too much chilling for your climate, drop me a line. 

Something that likes conditions like apples amd cherrys.  I am a blank slate now and plan to be here long enough to see what happens with many things.

Jennifer Hall wrote:
Bird,
when you find something that fits your criteria, but requires too much chilling for your climate, drop me a line

Heres something that might fit the bill ?

www.growinggroceries.com/?tag=fruittrees

Cold tolerant fruit trees might be a topic for a new thread, you would gleen more knowlege from the people that live in your area than from me down in the tropics. just googled it and was quite a collection

Paw paws grow wild here in Missouri... I don't know anyone that intentionally grows them...

The fruit must be harvested and eaten at just the right time... if it is under-ripe or over ripe the taster will swear that (s)he hates them... if it is just the right ripeness they are very good.

try google green paw paw salad, you may be suprised

They may be talking about the oriental paw paw (papaya).

I cuda swore i tried an under ripe Missouri Paw Paw and was very bad..

I can tell you for sure that i tried an over ripe Paw Paw and it was enuff to make a person swear off Paw paws fer good.

Just right ripeness and the Missouri banana -Paw Paw was pretty good.... I dont really know anyone that goes out and collects them to eat.

I do know of folks who have tried them and DO NOT like them...

Have any of you tried marketing pawpaw? Its something I'm very interested in growing regardless but it'd be nice to be selling native fruit. I've never seen it in grocery stores here and wouldn't really know where to start in terms of who to sell to.