Thats because the tree couldn’t sustain the fruit. Its quite typical for young pawpaws to drop those fruits. Next year, if the tree did grow well this year, you might be lucky getting a fruit cluster to ripen. I had the same journey with my pawpaws. Flowers the second year, fruitlets the third year and one cluster of ripe fruit the fourth year. No fruit in the fifth year by the way, cause i wasn’t around at flowering time.
Hmmm. Two years ago same tree carried a nice crop of about 30 fruits that ripened on the tree per normal.
Oh ok, my bad, didn’t realize you are talking about a mature tree
Not getting an answer here I fished around and asked someone at the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association.
His answer is: if tiny fruits formed at the blossom, even though they all then fell off, that definitely means the blossom got pollinated. Pawpaw fruit abort and fall off for many reasons but apparently I do not have a pollination problem. Which means my catfish stink baits are working, very good news.
Thought I’d post the answer here if others search this thread in future.
Steve,
Did the Pawpaw guy give any of the reasons why the fruit fell off? Brady
Brady- He’s sending that information in a day or two after he gets home from a trip.
I had last year same situation, i have hand pollinated my tree with pollen from Sunflower, Prima 1216, and my other two seedlings and i had about 20-30 successful pollinated flowers with small fruits but about 20 days later all fruits dropped .
Same tree has started blooming year earlier and i had from few flowers one fruit.
Can Pawpaw pollen be collected and shipped?
Best to collect them in a sandwich ziplock and mailed first class so the package gets there in 3 days.
Tony
I’ve had pawpaw flowers for years and never get any fruit. This year I am grafting multiple varieties to a lot of the shoots I have. I’m hoping one of these years I will see some fruit. Was thinking out loud above about finding some pawpaw pollen sent from other sources… Maybe one day I will understand the fish head photo : ) Other than not get any fruit stinks!!
I have 3 mature not grafted seedling trees but this one is now almost finished with flowering and pollination and other two trees have small flowers not ready for pollination
Is it ok if i take pollen from male flowers on same tree and pollinate female flowers on that tree?.
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That may work.I read that Sunflower Pawpaw is self fertile and so I tried that with mine,when the tree was young.Fruit formed,but aborted,probably because of the age.
The pollen can also be collected and froze,to be used on the others later. Brady
I have collected pollen today from my first tree that bloomed and stored in freezer.
Is this pollen looks fine?, it falls from itself when i touch a bit with brush tip.
All pawpaw flowers have both male and female parts.
The male pollen matures first-- it’s the flaky stuff that falls out of the flower when you poke around its insides with a Q-tip. Collect that in a small bowl.
Eventually, the flowers mature further. That’s when the small greenish “pad” in the middle of the flower swells and becomes sticky. That’s where you should brush the male pollen from a genetically different tree against.
People wonder why the male pollen matures before the female organ is ready to recieve, but it turns out this is a staggered process so inevitably there will still be male pollen around when the female pads come on.
How the male pollen matures first?, isn’t flower in first stage female when the small greenish “pad” in the middle of the flower swells and becomes sticky (can be pollinated) and after that pollen matures on same flower and flower have ripe pollen for pollination.
On this picture you can see left (first flower) is female stage and right flower is stage later male flower stage with ripe pollen (right flower)
From what I’ve read,that sounds right.I remember it as,girls mature earlier than boys. Brady
I had it backwards. Girls first. Boys last. What else is new?
See this link:
Self-pollinating is unlikely to work (last I checked, we’re not even certain that Sunflower self-fertile), but it won’t hurt to try.
Attract Pollinator Flies with Bloodmeal:
Anybody use bloodmeal around pawpaw trees to attract pollinator flies? Not sure if I should scatter the bloodmeal on top of the mulch under tree??? Or rake into the mulch?
When I use bllodmeal and bone meal, some animals did a lot of digging around my plants and did some damage to the plants. I guess they were some night time hunters.
I will try using a soft paint brush to help with pollination instead. My trees are young and small so it will be very easy to do. Last year one of them bloomed. Hopefully this year both would bloom.