Hello, I was getting bored of growing Common Pawpaw (Asimina Triloba) and wanted to dabble into other Pawpaw varieties that are lesser famed. Does anyone know of any Pawpaw variety that is a broadleaved evergreen like Southern Magnolia, Live Oak, and Hollies?

I’ve been planting seeds all over the place this fall! My area in NY is on the edge of their range and there isn’t many in the area, no wild ones that I’m aware of. To change that I’ve been planting with vigor.

However, Im fairly new to paw paws and their cultivation. In what conditions (soil, sun, moisture) have folks had success when direct sowing? How deep did you plant them? What was your success rate?

I still have a bunch of fruit to eat and seeds to plant before the ground really freezes!

Just got in five young pawpaw trees. The instructions on the box just to say plant immediately. But wondering if it’s the right time to put them in the ground or if I should pot them for now. I’m in NW Louisiana (Bienville Parish)

Hi, I've been dreaming of planting some pawpaw trees for a while now. I rent from my aunt, which is cheap for me, but unfortunately I don't have my own garden to plant out trees (I can use her greenhouse and stuff though).

She does have a large horse pasture where I would be allowed to plant trees, but they would need to be safe for horses as far as toxicity goes. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find good information about this topic online (one source says they are good pasture trees, one says mammals usually don't eat them at all, one says they are highly toxic to mammals) so: Are pawpaw plants (the leaves and bark, etc) toxic to horses, and are they stupid enough to gnaw around on them?

https://youtu.be/sweIH8Eg7K0?si=VKmB6BBA5CtASsXm

I bought a small pawpaw saplings the other day, but I'm not sure if it will live through the winter, should I keep it inside for the winter or plant it?

Hi, I will be in Cincinnati on nov 10th weekend for work. Have never tasted the fruit. If anyone in this area still has fresh paw paws left, would love to buy!

So I am going to be a first time planter of pawpaws. I bought 3 different species of pawpaw trees ( Ksu -atwood, Allegheny, and Maria's joy). I am looking for all tips, tricks, or hints you guys can give.

I am in zone 6B and will receive them in a couple days. I am unsure if I should overwinter in their banded pots or just plant and insulate with mulch. Let me know some tips either way. Thanks in advance and I am excited to start this pawpaw journey!

Update: I have them in the ground. I have about 4-5 inches of mulch on top with none of it touching the trunk of the tree. I planted with manure compost, earthworm castings, and some organic sea and land soil mixed with my natural soil. Now it's water and hope for making it through the rest of fall and winter. They are about 5.5 inch grafted trees so hoping because so small will reduce some of the transplant shock.

Hey guys, I’m going to be making ash cakes while camping, the method I always used involved wrapping the dough in leaves before putting besides the fire, assuming you don’t want ash on the cake.

Would pawpaw leaves be acceptable to do this with? It’s the only leaf large enough that I know of nearby and I don’t want to buy grape leaves

Hi all -- sorry if this is been asked before but struggling to find good first hand information. Will a triloba set fruit in zone 9 or does it need more chilling hours? If it won't set fruit would you recommend a parviflora or other more southern species to try?

Thanks!

Which one has better yield? Larger fruit? Grows faster? More shade tolerant? Am thinking of donating one to the community garden, where there's already a seedling growing.

Hello all, I'm looking for some variety recommendations for pawpaw trees. I've never actually eaten one but it seems like a fruit I'd enjoy based on what I've read/heard. I'm thinking 3-4 varieties to start out with, suggestions very much welcomed. I'm in northern Spain, very temperate, rainy, coastal climate. Roughly zone 10A without the heat, typically a handful of days up to 80-85'F, majority of summer being 60s-70s and only a handful of frosts during winter. Not a ton of sun however, many rainy/cloudy days. I'm very rural, with cows nearby and plenty of flies around.

There's a grower a few hours drive from me that seems to have a decent selection with the following varieties:

Allegheny, Benny's Favorite, Halvin, Honeydew, Kentucky Champion, KSU Atwood, Maria's Joy, Marshmallow, Mary Foos Johnson, Prima 1216, Rebecca's Gold, Shenandoah, Summer Delight, Sunflower, Susquehanna, Tallahatchie, Tropical Treat

I'm also open to other varieties that can be found and shipped in the EU, if anyone has other recommendations outside of these ones and suppliers too.

I’m not looking for anyone’s secret stash, but I’ve very really wanted to try papaws for several years after I learned of them. Does anyone have suggestions for finding the fruits or are they willing to share locations for finding the trees in Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, or Will counties? It sounds like it may be getting late in the season but I would love to buy some this fall and begin the search for the flowering trees in the spring with my kids. Regardless, thank you in advance for the help.

PM me if you are interested. $10/lb. I am around on Sunday.

Hello! Just wanted to say that I'm grateful for this community! I moved back to Ohio after a long time away, and the first thing I did at the house I bought was plant 5 pawpaw trees from the Arbor Day foundation. Last winter, I planted dozens of pawpaw seeds out in my woods for a surprise in a few years, and this spring, I ordered 10 bare root plants from Coldstream farm, which have all somehow survived the summer! I even adopted a kitten and named him pawpaw.

ALL THAT TO SAY...I've still NEVER tasted a pawpaw... I'm hoping that when I get my first fruits it will all seem worth it...If not, at least I'll have a great place for butterflies to live and food for my chickens! I'll keep you all updated!

Good article by Anna Phillips. I didn't have any apples or pears and only one persimmon probably all due to a late frost, but still got my first 25 pawpaws this year....after reading the articles it kind of makes sense to me. This year I learned that pawpaws taste awesome, but learning that this native fruit tree could also help adapt to climate change and that they are getting more and more popular is even more awesome, pawpaw awesome.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/10/18/pawpaw-trees-climate-change/

The resilient, native fruit has a cult following and could be small farms’ hedge against climate change in a fast-warming world

By Anna Phillips October 18, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

LOCKPORT, N.Y. — When Kyle Townsend and Mitchell Gunther decided to start an orchard in this town just east of Niagara Falls two years ago, they quickly dismissed the idea of growing conventional fruit. Warmer winters, followed by snap freezes, were devastating apple and peach crops. They nixed grape vines and berries, which invasive pests were targeting.

“Just hear me out,” Townsend told his business partner, “we’re putting in a pawpaw orchard.”

Pawpaws are North America’s largest native fruit — and are exceedingly rare, found mainly in the wild across 26 states or in small orchards in Appalachia, where the trees have historically thrived. Praised for their flavor, which is sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana, the custard-like fruit is an ideal spoonable dessert. You won’t find them in the supermarket — but some plant breeders are trying to change that.

Western New York is considered the very fringe of the pawpaw tree’s northern range. But as climate change brings warmer temperatures and more erratic weather to the region, a small but growing number of farmers are drawn to pawpaws’ low maintenance and adaptability.

In the wild, they grow from northern Florida to southern Ontario, tolerating a broad range of conditions and often spreading to form thickets. They are the only temperate genus of the otherwise tropical custard apple family — a traveler that made its way north long ago and, farmers hope, might be a way reduce their risk as climate change increasingly threatens their crops.

“Their popularity is really exploding,” said Blake Cothron, owner of Peaceful Heritage Nursery in Stanford, Ky., which sells pawpaw trees. Pawpaws are vulnerable to snap frosts, like apple and peach trees. But unlike them, pawpaws have the unusual ability to produce more flowers if they lose their first set of blooms to a cold snap, he explained, making them hardier.

Pawpaws have developed a cult following among some backyard farmers and horticulturists, for whom the idea of restoring native fruit and nut trees to an overheating planet is urgent. Now the fruit’s resilience is giving it a wider audience in places it wasn’t common before, among both hobbyists and those who make a living growing fruit.

“Backyard growers are planting pawpaws all over the country, that continues to grow. But small farmers are also looking at growing pawpaws as a supplement to their income or to diversify their offerings,” Cothron said.

The reasoning has as much to do with farmers’ bottom line as the climate: The unpredictable bouts of extreme weather that have made pawpaws an appealing alternative are hurting some traditional crops.

Last year, a record-breaking spring frost killed most of the Northeast’s peach blossoms and hurt its apple crop, prompting agricultural commissioners in 10 states to ask the federal government for aid. The University of Vermont described it as “the worst freeze/frost damage observed in more than 25 years in the industry.”

Anya Stansell, a Cornell University fruit-production specialist, said she knew farmers who are giving up on their peach and apricot trees “because you get a good crop so few years.”

When the latest agricultural census surveyed pawpaw production for the first time in 2022, it tallied only 65 farms in New York state. More than 1,600 farms grew apples. Yet Stansell, who works with pawpaw growers in the state, is confident their numbers will grow. Demand for trees has soared, she said, doubling or even tripling the cost over the last several years.

Brandy and Nigel Sullivan know this problem too well.

The couple bought a 64-acre orchard in Mexico, N.Y., a town about half an hour north of Syracuse, with the dream of drawing in pick-your-own enthusiasts and selling fruit at farmers markets. After discovering many of their apple trees were diseased, the couple attended a pawpaw growers conference hosted by Cornell University and quickly pivoted. They planted 20 pawpaw trees two years ago and are now on a wait list to buy more.

“We’re sticking with things that, as the weather changes and we get more floods and warmer temperatures, are going to be the best for our orchard,” Brandy said.

Townsend and Gunther said they also see growing pawpaws as a hedge against climate change. Several years after they first sketched out the idea of an orchard on a coffee-stained piece of graph paper, it has become real: Swiftwater Farm is growing 60 pawpaw trees today, with plans to quadruple that number. The pair hope to fill the rest of their 44-acre property with a no-till vegetable garden, a native plant nursery and a wild landscape where visitors can walk through a food forest planted with American persimmons and Canadian plums, as well as pollinator-attracting shrubs and flowers.

As temperatures warm, and growing zones in the United States shift to reflect the changes in where plants can survive, Townsend and Gunther anticipate their orchard will become as favorable a place for pawpaws to grow as Kentucky or central Pennsylvania.

“We actually have the same growing zone now as some orchards in Ohio,” Townsend said, “so I think that’s a tell of what’s to come.”

Though people in rural areas have long foraged for pawpaws, inspiring the nickname “hillbilly banana,” it’s only in recent years that the fruit has become a sought-after star of farmers markets. From mid-August to October, the height of the season, pawpaw lovers flock to festivals in the Midwest and East Coast, eager to sample the fruit before it disappears.

As word gets around that he’s growing pawpaws, Townsend said his phone is ringing with calls from interested buyers. Earlier this year, a chef contacted him looking for 500 pounds of fruit. Craft breweries are eager to buy huge quantities of pawpaws to make sour beers and meads, he said, and there’s already a market for frozen pawpaw pulp for smoothies and ice cream.

“Sometimes it feels like a race to get trees in the ground, to get fruit production to where you want it — as fast as you can,” he said. The trees can take three years to produce fruit, sometimes as long as eight. Would-be buyers “are kind of just waiting,” he said.

But if growers are eager to bring pawpaws north, farmers further south are beginning to wonder if climate change will hurt their crops. A severe drought in Ohio this year has farmers complaining of earlier-than-expected harvests and small, sour fruit. Some have also attributed the poor crop to heat stress, raising questions about whether the fruit can survive the effects of climate change in Appalachia, its cultural heartland.

Pawpaws have their share of skeptics. For as hardy as the pawpaw tree is, the fruit bruises easily and can go from ripe to mush on the counter in several days. Refrigerating them extends their life by a few weeks, but not enough to counter their reputation as a fragile oddity.

“They’re almost ephemeral,” said Adam D’Angelo, a plant breeder who is working to develop new pawpaw varieties that have a longer shelf life, while preserving the unique flavor. Project Pawpaw, his crowdfunded effort to bring pawpaws to supermarket produce aisles, has a research orchard in New Jersey and is planning another in Wisconsin, where D’Angelo is based, and where it has historically been colder than pawpaws would like.

Yet, “they grow just fine up here,” he said.

D’Angelo said the United States needs more commercial pawpaw orchards if the fruit is to survive its increasing popularity. Otherwise, he worries pawpaw fanatics will continue to forage for them, picking wild stands clean and damaging the trees.

“If we’re trying to get more people into this, then we need to start growing them, we can’t just decimate wild stands,” he said.

In Lockport, Townsend and Gunther said they see themselves as part of that effort.

In late September, Townsend pointed to a section he calls the orchard’s northern research plot, where they were planting sweet-tasting pawpaw cultivars from Appalachia grafted onto northern pawpaw rootstock. Mixed in were a handful of wild pawpaw trees they were growing to ensure their genetic survival.

“We’re trying to build a little refuge here,” Gunther said. “We have every intention of preserving as much of the ecology of western New York here as possible.”