I am interested in your products Mr. Frost. Any currently available for shipping out of California?
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All of our potted fruit trees comprise a repository for study. When I’ve finished with a particular group I’ll try selling them on Etsy and if that fails I’ll give them away locally. An exception will be the figs which will be sold on a dedicated site, in part to recoup costs of the genetic testing underway.
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You could always plant them in a state park to try and naturalize them. One day someone could be eating a wild california pawpaw. Others will wonder why Cali wilds are so much better.
I’d hold on to them, but I’m sure you will have no problem finding someone to take them.
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So it looks like we may get to read it soon! Very exciting!
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CC: @Richard, @JustPeachy @TrilobaTracker @Vid @disc4tw, @Blake
Saw that you’ve also been growing and fruiting PawPaws from other threads and I posted on the Bill Whitman thread and am getting a bunch of advice but thought I’d cross post here as well in case you have more advice.
I’m intrigued by what I’ve been reading about Pawpaws. I love sugar apples and mangoes and sapodillas and suspect I will like Pawpaws too! Am going to find a way to try some varieties. In the mean time, like any good fruit growing addict, I’m thinking about how to grow them in my yard 
Any suggestions on varieties or approach to take?
I have a good spot that gets Sun until about 2-3pm in the afternoon that I currently have a large Redbud in that I’m going to take out. Or can grow them in some space on the side of the house where they will get 4-6 hours of morning Sun and then shade all day. However, this will need to be in a large pot. (At least for now). Will post a pic once I’m back home next week.
Thanks in advance!
-MB
Hello @SoCalBackyard !
I’m glad to see your interest in pawpaws. If you are a serious fruit lover, especially with an appreciation for tropicals/exotics, I think you’ll like pawpaws.
I’ve seen your posts but haven’t responded, honestly, because I don’t know anything about growing plants in your location.
As for general pawpaw variety recommendations, I would say Jerry’s Big Girl, Susquehanna, Wabash, Benny’s Favorite.
I’m not convinced that there would be a significant difference in performance of one variety over another for your zone/conditions.
Lastly, in their native range at least, you want full sun for maximum fruit yield.
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Thank you so much! Really appreciate the note. Some folks were telling me to shade them for months during summer which TBH is going to be harder since I was going to plant them in the front of the house.
Do they do ok in pots? I would do like a 25gal pot maybe. I can plant one or maybe 2 into the ground but if I want to do more trees, I’d have to put them in pots
Also was wondering how to think about tree sizes for them. Folks seem to indicate that it takes 5-7 years to get fruit. Wondering if it’s better to splurge on an older tree (assuming I can even find one).
Finally, I was wondering about online nurseries for them. I saw that One Green World has some, and then of course there are recs on the Nurseries list page along with Peaceful Heritage. Any places you would recommend or would recommend against?
Thank you again!
I planted small trees spring of 2020 from Stark bros, and a few from peaceful heritage. I got fruit from several of them last summer. I would have had a lot more fruit if we didnt get a late frost/freeze. Definitely recommend KSU Chappell, Prima, Shenandoah, and Susquehanna are great options too. Planting in pots might be ok but I doubt that youll get good production if at all.
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Thanks! That’s encouraging. Though it seems like you are more in the “natural range” for the tree
Good to hear that 3 years can be enough to fruit.
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They will benefit from a tree tube while they are young if you are in cali planting in the full sun. Pawpaws are natural understory trees. In a forest succession, they would be the 2 or 3rd in order. They would grow in the shade of larger trees, when those trees die off the pawpaws getting to a mature age would then be exposed to full sun.
No not really if you trying to plant in a pot long term, they have really long tap roots like a carrot.
Look at this post - Why it is hard to transplant pawpaws?
If you can afford it, that’s probably the most optimal choice. All the online nurseries, OGW, Peaceful, Raintree, starks, sell small potted grafted pawpaws (they are small precisely because they don’t like being in pots too long, much like nuts). The only one that sold bare root was Cliff (@KYnuttrees ), but he only does pick up now. You might be able to find some larger like 5 gallon size pawpaws at a large nursery, I know they occasionally stock them. I believe that is how @Vincent_8B found them in the seattle area.
stark uses 4x10 band pots and larger, which are bigger potted pawpaws than you would usually get from OGW and RT who uses smaller 3’ or 3.5’ band pots. They also usually come larger than I have seen them come from Peaceful. (Perfect circle farm - another decent source - also uses 4x10 band pots if I remember correctly) That said, it would still be considered unusual to get fruit from a starks transplant within 3 years. Pawpaws don’t really runt out, but if you let them fruit early, they will stall in their growth and take longer to get to appropriate size.
A pawpaw in a 4x10 pot would usually be 10" tall at least: a 2-3 year grow out - 1 year from seed, 1 - year grafting, maybe another year to grow out from grafting. From seed pawpaws usually take 6-8 years, so a potted/grafted may get lucky and shave off about 3 years and bear within 3 years from planting. Though usually it would be 4-5 years because they are so fickle about being transplanted they need a year to settle in the new spot. There are no dwarfing rootstock for pawpaws, so really no way to “cheat” and get early fruit. Everything is full size and slow to bear, one of the downsides if you end up not liking the fruit. Once you put at least 4 years into growing it, any sane person putting that much time into growing a tree will feel aggrieved to cut them down ( Removing fruit trees: what and why? - #298 by Bigdoug03)) even if they want to make room for something else.
As far as cultivars, you ask 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers. It’s like asking about favorite apples. Some like tart, some like not tart, some like sweet, some like not sweet, etc… Cliff (@KYnuttrees England Nursery owner), Buzz (Perfect Circle nursery owner), @marc5 (Valley View pawpaw orchard owner) all seem to prefer mild pawpaws. Same as me and @TrilobaTracker . @Vid @ramv enjoy heavier flavored pawpaws it seems. @disc4tw @TrilobaTracker seem to gravitate toward mild to medium. @IL847 @SMC_zone6 seems to enjoy them all. You’re not going to get a single straight answer on this. The other thing is that since pawpaws are so slow to bear fruit, most people that try pawpaws have tried only either heavy or light, so they are making an early judgement call on whether they like the fruit. They may hate heavy but have only tried light-flavored cultivars and just assume they like them all and plant a bunch of heavy flavored ones. Conversely, they may have tasted a heavy-flavored cultivar and decided they hate them all, when they would have enjoyed light-flavored pawpaws. I find pawpaws to generally be probably the most polarizing fruit that can be grown in temperate climates. You either LOVE them or you HATE them. There are some people that are indifferent, but they are much fewer in comparison (like as a percentage) compared to apples, pears, citrus, etc…
Another consequence of it being slow to bear is that cultivars take time to get shared around. It’s just within the last 5 years that Shenandoah is like the most common pawpaw you can find growing in a backyard orchard, but it was patented more than 20 years ago in 2001. All popular cultivars are at least 15+ years old. The latest and greatest stuff which do taste much better imo, rarely get mentioned simply because they are new. This doesn’t happen with say apples.
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If you have a tree over 18” it doesn’t need to be shaded. Shading is really only necessary for 1st year trees from seed. Or if you have extremely harsh climate that is hot and DRY. If you have a redbud doing well, pawpaws will be just fine.
I don’t like the tree tubes because they cause more issues than they prevent. Just mulch and water them consistently.
Cultivar selection is important, not just for flavor, but also fruit size, percent %,and vigor.
Agree 100% that everyone has an opinion on them and they are definitely polarizing!
I have yet to talk to anyone who likes pawpaws to say they don’t like Shenandoah(even most folks trying for the first time like it). KSU Chappell is pretty much the same, flavor is stronger, but not overpowering, very vigorous and has very few seeds.
I’d stay away from Mango, Sunflower, and Pa golden. There are so many better cultivars that it really doesn’t make sense to graft them other than germplasm preservation.
I’m also betting KSU will be releasing new cultivars in the next few years.
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