Pawpaw (Asimina Triloba) seeds for breeding

Hello!

I read about this forum in the book "For the love of pawpaws" and am contacting you on my search for pawpaw (Asimina Triloba) seeds to use for further breeding.

I would like to contribute to the pawpaw breeding by trying to breed some individuals a little better suited to where I live in Norway, than what is currently in the commercially available cultivars. We have rarely colder than -20 C in my coastal city Trondheim, but also cool summers and many hours of daylight. I think I should be focusing on finding and developing early ripeners due to the cold summers, and also cold hardy ones for regions further inland in Norway with colder winters. I'm thinking about crossing the earliest ripeners out there with each other and with the most cold hardy ones.

As a starting point to breed from, I would like to find the best genes already produced for this purpose. Does anyone of you work, or know of others work, on cultivars, or have any pawpaw individuals that are not commercially available yet, that are more early ripening or cold hardy than the commercial ones? I would be immensely grateful for the opportunity to purchase seed from these.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Wow Magnus! What a great project! I can't help you, but would definitely be interested in your results!
The only thing I can suggest is that last year the Hardy Plant Society had Pawpaw seeds in the seed list. Unfortunately the one I got didn't germinate (yet), but fruit that ripens in the UK may be worth a thought. I know Andrew Williams has planted some in Caithness but I don't know how they are doing. He's a member here, but you might find him via youtube - his channel is Cairn of Dun Croft Permaculture. Maybe he can tell you where he got his starting plants from.

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