Growing Pawpaws ( Asimina triloba )

General Fruit Growing
#1

To all of you interested in growing pawpaws, I have created a website to assist with picking named varieties and provide some background information on the Asimina triloba species. I was frustrated with the apparent lack of an updated list of available cultivars. There seems to be a huge influx of improved cultivars in the last ten years and I didn’t like going to 5+ websites to get information about all of them to make my decision on which ones to get for my 1/4 acre lot.

As a novice I am sure there is pertinent information I have left out and other information which may be helpful to expand upon. If anyone has any questions or comments, PLEASE let me know how I can improve the site! Disclaimer - I have it set up as a free website via webnode for now using a shoe selling website format. I have nothing to sell (although I may do so in the very distant future) but it seemed to be the best format for being able to tag each cultivar with different qualitative measures (early season, best taste, fast growth etc). Also, I have yet to actually taste a pawpaw other than in liquid form so all of the information on taste is from other sources cited at the bottom of the page. I am very excited to change that in the next few years and be able to write my own taste reviews to standardize the formatting. I hope this helps some of you to make better informed choices on cultivars to pick! I know there are a few named cultivars that are children of @RNeal Peterson’s varieties which are not yet included on my site, and probably other good cultivars I have not heard of. If you have information that would assist me in adding them, please post it here! Thanks in advance.

Also a shout out to @Blake for having (in my opinion) the best descriptions of the cultivars that they grow which are available on their site.

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#2

Thank you for the shout out and support of our pawpaw work at Peaceful Heritage Nursery. We continue to acquire new superior cultivars and in the next few years will be making some new releases. Also, in March-April 2021 my first horticultural book will be released via New Society Publishers. It is called Pawpaws: The Complete Growing and Marketing Guide. In it I have very detailed growing information and also a compendium of over 50 cultivars with descriptions and names, all in one place. Hopefully it will be of good use to the pawpaw fans, growers and enthusiasts out there.

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#3

Does that mean previously frozen pulp or in a milkshake?Good job on the website.I couldn’t get the left sidebar links to load pages though.

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#4

I mean in the form of beer :joy: Do you mean the links to other websites I used as references?

#5

I think I fixed the reference links, there was a formatting issue.

#6

They were under the Categories heading.It looks like they work now,thanks.
There is one listed on the Early Season Fruit page, VE- 9 (Valley East 9),that has late ripening in the description.Should that be there?

#7

I am not sure, I will do some more research on it to confirm. Out of the Jerry Lehman cultivars I’ve included, that one does not have as much information (that I can find) online as some of the others.

#8

I got that description from England’s. Cliff seems to have an excellent grasp on the pawpaws he sells so I’d imagine it is an accurate description. If you find contrary information please let me know!

#9

Bravo! Well done @disc4tw . Yes, Blake is the master of descriptions.

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#10

Nice idea for a website - I think the format works just fine.
Off the top of my head I can’t think of any named varieties that are Peterson seedlings. Do you have any of those names? I try to stay on top of things :rofl:

While I’m at it - I have it from a discerning source that Jerry’s Delight is soft, juicy, and complex.

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#11

Now that I think of it, KSU Chappell may be a Susquehanna seedling. Though it’s not advertised as such.

#12

I believe I have seen that as a very likely assumption from a few sources but I don’t know that it has been confirmed.

That is good to know! Would that discerning source have any other varieties that would benefit from an updated flavor profile listing?

Thank you! I appreciate the support! At this point I am trying to make a better resource than I could find in any one place.

#13

Same fella has tasted Al Horn on many occasions and consistently reports coconut flavor.
The one time I tasted Chappell it had a clear-as-day pineapple flavor (among others).

But I will say it may be quite challenging to amass flavor descriptions of pawpaw varieties.
There is of course the wide variety of human palates and abilities to discern flavors.
But mainly it seems to me that pawpaw is highly variable in flavor, whether from year to year, place to place, tree to tree and even - I’ve heard - branch to branch.
Most flavor descriptions you find are pretty vague, probably for this reason. Even Neal doesn’t say a whole lot.
The core flavor of pawpaw itself is nearly impossible to describe. That’s why folks like Cliff refer to “true pawpaw flavor.” In my opinion this is best described to the uninitiated as Tutti Fruiti. Others have used this descriptor too.

Maybe the best you can do is list the various impressions people give you “as-is”

Also check out the Pawpaw Planet Facebook page - Woody is doing a little of what you’re going for.

Good luck :four_leaf_clover:

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#14

The first fruit I tried came from Bill Merrill’s trees in Fremont,CA,before he moved to Hawaii.Here’s a video of him describing the taste and some other things.

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#15

Ryan, thanks for doing this and sharing. I will let others contribute in my place. The problem I see with adjectives for flavor is the difficulty any of us would have attaching descriptions to peach flavors or apple flavors. And as someone said, each person tastes things in a different way. Good luck and keep me posted.

Neal Peterson

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#16

I love this idea. I live in Ohio and there is a Paw Paw festival here every year. I was planning to go this year. I was so super disappointed when it got canceled. I was looking forward to tasting different types of Paw Paws and had put aside money to buy named varieties if they were going to be offered to add to the collection that I just started last year. Oh well, hopefully they will have it in 2021, in the mean time, I will continue to learn all that I can about Paw Paw growing and propagation from sites like this and yours @disc4tw . Thanks for posting your site link!

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#17

I have come across the Pawpaw Planet page in my searches. I have not visited since making my website, so that may be in order to see if I can get a few more accurate taste profiles listed.

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#18

You should check out the offerings on England’s Nursery, Peaceful Heritage, and Edible Landscaping that I linked at the bottom of my site. Named varieties are a bit pricey but for someone like me who just has a few trees on a small lot, quality far outweighs quantity in importance. I currently have Shenandoah, Susquehanna, and KSU Atwood and am trying to source a few more cultivars for the upcoming spring! I have a list but the trees I am looking for seem to be the ones everyone else also wants haha.

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#19

Thank you Neal! If it wasn’t for your work I would not know about this awesome fruit. Your contributions to this community cannot be overstated. I appreciate the support!

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#20

I have already made most of my shipped purchases for 2021 (one from Edible Landscaping, but not for paw paws). I really don’t prefer buying things by mail. I like to be able to choose my own plants, instead of being at the mercy of whatever the company wants to send, that’s why I was excited about attending the Paw Paw event. Besides that, I bought 10 seedlings from my local Soil and Water Conservation last spring that I intend on grafting named varieties to myself. That said, I really appreciate your company suggestions, thank you! :slight_smile:

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