I’m a gardening enthusiast in west Berthoud on the Colorado front range.
Since 2025 I’ve been establishing a pawpaw grove and am looking into growing my cultivar collection, I’ve read that this forum has a good possibility of attaining cultivar ‘Garage West’ scion wood of which I am eager to procure, this cultivar should do well here being a mid-season ripening variety (I do have the Growing Degree Days needed for producing fruit reliably in my research).
I have established a decent microclimate for pawpaw trees, decent soil amending, mulching, filtered sunlight, drip irrigation, animal protection and very strong wind protection from our horrendous westerly winds.
Of what pawpaw trees I have in the ground since 2025, there is KSU Benson, Allegany & Maria’s Joy.
This year I have planted Summer Delight, Marshmallow & KSU Chapelle.
Next year, I’m going to plant Kentucky Champion, Shenandoah & a self done graft of Florence White.
If you already can’t tell, I’m very enthusiastic for pawpaws. But I’m also getting into American Persimmons, Elderberries, Plums, Peaches & Haskaps (Honeyberries). I also have a few tropical plants I bring into my indoor grow room each winter.
I look forward to my time in this forum and what conversations may be be derived here!
I recommend you start a thread for each cultivar you grow – staggered of course so it doesn’t become a chore. You’ll find your threads are useful records of past experiences, and others will benefit from them as well. Think of these threads as conversations with the future .
Welcome! We have a lot of pawpaw enthusiasts. Check out the “Pawpaws in 2026!” thread. It’s very lively. Lots of talk about grafting our own trees and growing seedlings for breeding and rootstock.
If you hang around and participate a bit, you will soon see the “trading post” pop up (it’s based on trust level). That’s where people trade for scionwood. The trading post doesn’t get too much attention until the end of Fall when harvest is winding down so there isn’t any rush.
Lots of people also buy scionwood and around that time - everyone likes to talk about all the different things they want to try!
This is awesome. I’m in golden and have 3 pawpaws planted and they seem to be doing well. I have Allegheny (2 years), Halvin (first year), and Shenandoah (3 years). My Shenandoah seems to finally be taking off this year. Wanted to try since I read on old forums about people being successful in northern Utah with them so I was like might as well try
I’m looking forward to this, hopefully I can get enough trust level in order to participate when the time comes. I’m excited for the pawpaw varieties that have a coconut flavor in their profile.
Such cultivars that are likely to do well for me are Florence White and Garage West.
Florence White I may be able to procure form Peaceful Heritage Nursery. Last June I tried to score some potted plants but was unaware of the agricultural laws prohibiting shipping of rooted plants this side of the Mississippi from Blake’s nursery, I was staying awake the whole night to get an early shot at the sale of grafted pawpaw trees and even had a friend in Wyoming trying to help me with the purchasing because I’ve read Blake sales out in a matter of minutes (and I wanted these trees pretty bad), during the event I was unable to complete any sale except for a system error of letting me procure Free Byrd and my friend was unable to get anything, the whole time I thought they were more popular than rare Pokémon cards lol.
After finding out about the agricultural law I called Blake and confirmed I wasn’t gonna get the Free Byrd, but he is a great gentlemen in understanding my frustration and informed there is no such restrictions on scion wood and seed. So I’ve got my ears set, paying close attention for any mention of scion wood sales his nursery is doing in November and I’ve already got my rootstock from Nativ Nurseries ready to graft next year.
As for Garage West, I’ve heard that’s even harder to come by, but God willing, It’ll happen.
Indeed, this is very exciting growing in the northern climate and seeing I have neighbors here!
Learning much about pawpaws over the past few years and the waiting for the initial 3 years of root development by “Sleep, Creep then Leap” feels very slow, but I imagine as you see with your Shenandoah, it is very rewarding.
After doing much scouring on this forum and finding out about Blue Stem Disease, I’m keeping an even more watchful eye on my trees with Azomite as a treatment at the ready.
I’ve heard from a neighbor near by that there is a person in Loveland who’s growing pawpaw trees and has had successful production.
I’m going to try and get more details and see what cultivars they are growing, how they treat their trees (and if they’ve encountered Blue Stem Disease) and maybe persuade them to join this forum
I realized the same with Blake. A bummer because I would’ve loved ones with his root structure. But yeah their leap at 3 years is nice but not nearly as crazy as something like stone fruit. It doubled in size this year but is maybe a scraggly 4’ tall. My Allegheny seems to be growing much quicker so maybe that’ll leap more next year than my shenandoah did
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