Тhis are fruits from my pawpaw seedling trees from Wilson variety seeds,trees are not grafted.
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Someone said Shenandoah tastes very mild not like a pawpaw at all. Thank you for your post. I have 3 NC1 and might replace one with Shenandoah . What do you think about that? Do you have NC1 and how is its flavor vs Shenandoah. I don’t have any perterson varieties yet Tony?
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Looking very good. What is its color inside?
Shenandoah looks to be early. I got one thanks to a pointer from Vincent. I hope this one will ripen in time.
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I just went to flowers World to get a couple more last Shenandoah , will give 1 to my cousin and keep one for myself. After reviewing information i feel like them a lot. It might performs better than Susquehanna pawpaw in Pacific Northwest Ram.
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Thanks Vincent.
Looking at the GDD calculator-- we are quite marginal and will have a tough time with most pawpaw varieties.
BTW: I found this website extremely useful to calculate historical GDD numbers, actual vs projected for this year.
http://uspest.org
Tony lives in Omaha NE. His Shenandoah ripened on or around Sept 6, 2017. By Sept 6 of that year he had accumulated 3190 GDD-50 hours. In a typical year he will accumulate over 4000 GDD50 units.
This year our entire projected GDD accumulation will fall below 2500 units. We almost never accumulate over 2500 units even in the best micro climates in the Puget sound area.
There is a grower in the Facebook Pawpaw group who ripened Pennsylvania golden in October in Puyallup WA. Their climate/heat units are comparable to Puget sound.
I feel we should mainly grow very early pawpaw varieties like Pennsylvania Golden and NC1. None of the Peterson varieties including Shenandoah will be reliable.
I sincerely hope I am proven wrong on this.
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Here is a document showing all the pawpaw varieties under cultivation at KSU and the GDD required to ripen them.
http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/PDF/Pomper%20et%20al%20--%20April%202008.pdf
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I have PA golden and Mitchell pawpaw as well but very small trees and the reported said theirs fruit quality aren’t superior. Summer Delight pawpaw is the most early ripening one. Information said we can pick them in right after the first frost and place them on the counter in room temperatures for ripening be ok too. The good thing for most of Pawpaw from early to late ripening time is about 1 month different. Not like Apples the difference is about 4 months. @Bear_with_me his Sunflower pawpaw performance well last year. Thank you so much for all your information, it’s very helpful Ram.
Below my tiny Taytwo pawpaw planted in Spring this year.
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Hi Ram
Thank you for pointing out a ability pawpaw fruit ripening In our areas . I found some good reporting but mostly in or close to Oregon areas .
I have some good fruiting size pawpaw trees in the ground with 4 different varieties: NC1,Taytwo, Sunflower, and Wells ( I just know Wells is late ripening variety, it’s the most beautiful pawpaw in my garden )it will take me at least a couple more years to find out the answer . ( Base on my pawpaw fruiting experience in my garden )
I also raised that concern in the pawpaw FB page and get this question: what would be the particular start date to begin accumulating growing degree days ( GDDs ) in the areas?
All I can hope pawpaw will flexible with the weather, heat… and not like the amount of measuring chemical in the lab room. If you find some different answer could you share with us . Thank you so much Ram .
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I liked Shenandoah a lot. A very productive tree and ripened in the middle of September. I enjoyed the mild flavor but if I let the fruit turn brown then tbe flavor is more intense.
Tony
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Hi Vincent.
I’ve been trying to find suitable varieties for our area. Just like you, I don’t want to be disappointed to see fruit set but not be able to ripen by the time the cold weather sets in. Or ripen a very small crop and most of the fruit on tree doesn’t ripen at all.
Oregon and south west Washington is warmer than us, especially the Willamette valley area. They receive more sunshine and heat units than the Puget Sound region. What ripens well there is a good but not perfect indicator of what will do well here.
Neal Peterson has also pointed out that the PNW is climactically challenged for growing pawpaws. This does not mean they will fail here. We need an excellent location/microclimate that is sheltered and ideally on a southwest facing slope. Maybe next to a tar or concrete road/driveway with 100% all day sun will help beat the averages and ripen more fruit.
Still it makes sense to grow earlier varieties vs the later ones in my opinion.
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I just read this from Pawpaw planet FB . They have a lot of information useful for us.
Sept. 15 at 3,000 ft elevation in the mountains of NC, and I got my first ripe pawpaw fruit yesterday off a seedling tree at about 2,100 GDDs. We haven’t had a 90F day in over 3 years. Last year my two oldest trees had one pawpaw fruit between them, and this year they exploded. One is a seedling of the first tree I ever tasted in Lexington, KY. It had 16 fruits, and it tastes as good as the parent tree, but the fruits are much earlier and a little smaller. The other is an NC1 that I grafted and it had 23 fruits in its first year of production. They are quite plump, and I’m really impressed with it. The tree itself is small…
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This is nice to know!
NC-1 is another variety often recommended as early.
For us PA Golden and NC1 might be the most reliable varieties.
I heard from @Bradybb that Summer Delight from Cliff England might be quite early too.
We should certainly try others but having a few reliable ones is nice.
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Summer Delight pawpaw is not available for order yet. My PA Golden still very little, ordered from Raintree last Fall. Mitchell is a late variety. Raintree and One Green World recommend as early variety. My PA golden picture below:
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I see your profile says Seattle. But, the mountain valleys of NC are more conducive for pawpaw growing, I suspect. I’ve had pawpaws off 6 different trees now, this year. 1 in July in Somerset KY and 5 in Berea, KY in August. I’ll visit a tree this coming week I planted for someone else in 2009. And I have another customer who has some that get ripe a month from now here in Kentucky. (I first sampled them in 2013 or 2014 in October after a frost.) Wild ones planted by a previous homeowner it would appear. I’ve been promised some from Rogers, KY…an area seemingly attractive to the Doomsday Preppers.
Sorry I wandered…I actually can’t identify the Peterson pawpaws, so I am ‘listening’ to your all’s descriptions.
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I will try to order some very early varieties to grow here in North of Seattle areas.
Thank you so much for all information. It’s very interesting to me.
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I don’t want to sound too discouraging. Some of those mid season varieties may still do well in a very good location. We still need to test these here.
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@ramv, @Bradybb
My FB page : US Pacific Northwerst home orchard garden
just get some good information below :
Jason Norton There are 3 trees at the WSU test facility in Mount Vernon, wa. Taylor, Davis and Overlees. They seemed to be pretty much ignored so if I see fallen fruit I’ll grab some before the wildlife gets them. I’ve had ripe fruit from Taylor and Davis every year for the last 4 years. Overlees is later and seems to want more heat. The fruit from Davis has been the best. They will ripen more on the counter with a banana but get a tiny bit bitter. The larger the fruit, the less bitter as the bitterness seems to come from the skin. Larger fruit are only bitter right next to the skin. If you eat them slight under ripe you really get the yellow banana flavor. Fully ripe, they are more mango custard. Probably my favorite fruit when fully ripe.
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This year the Shenandoah was the first pawpaw to ripen here in Omaha Z5. 8-30-19. So there may be hope for Seattle.
Huge and mild tasting Wabash is not that far behind. A must have!
Halvin is still rock hard
Susquehanna is also huge
Sunflower
Tony
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WOW! Paradise… Congratulations! 
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