I think Ross Raddi said it best in one of his videos where he said if there is a will there is a way but what expense are you willing to go. Someone could set a Paw Paw in ground and set the water to run moth morning and night at a irrigation system or wake up and do it early morning and late night. Like I said it will be expensive because of the water but there is a way. I even struggled with strawberries. I started last year with 25 in May but by August I had 12 and I was watering them every day or two. From what I heard strawberries do well in shade where I live. I am going to try raspberries this year. I am going to try Bristol, Caroline and Anne. I am zone 5 so I am one of the lucky ones who can grow black ones. I think we discussed it one of my forms where I am debating putting some raspberries in my cherry pots but am unsure if I want to do that or Lemon Balm. Everyone has mentioned that the raspberries may out compete or will cause stress on the cherry trees which is what I worry about.
That was me and i would just put them in separate pots because while the raspberries will take less light in a pot the roots will be competitive and need the same space where as strawberries or mint or other greens will not.
They would have made it if i was just willing to water them every other day or so in the summer but the winter watering requirements were too much for me also, the roots just do not want to go that deep and the top of our soil will always dry out here with the sun. Maybe in ten years i could have set up a grove but four was just not cutting it.
I have some pots with some oregano in the front so I may just put the raspberries in there with oregano and put them lemon balm in the back with the cherries. Winter watering is super hard is my experience because it is colder and you don’t want to go out as much in the cold. I have a blueberry in the front and CSU said that blueberries need special protection outside in the winter. I am hoping it just survives as I have blueberries in pots inside my garage and I bought some raspberries in the front that I bought from berries unlimited. I don’t have much confidence those raspberries survived the winter because I fall sowed them and have not watered them and they already looked dead when they came. In fact I am pretty sure they sent me a dead one and given the other two were barely surviving it will be a uphill battle with those raspberries. I could just have to replace them with the ones from double a vineyards anyway.
I think pawpaw has a lot of potential as a backyard orchard tree outside of its native range, with proper care. I know of a guy growing several pawpaws in Tucson. He got fruit for the first time this year.
shabou- Maybe 10 years ago i was in Madison, WI and they had a large pawpaw growing in their gardens you can walk thru (open to the public). They had fruit that year because they were laying on the ground and all squished. This was fall ish (maybe Sept/Oct). I think its possible.
We’ve have pawpaw here in south eastern Nebraska. The ones on my site are only 5 or 6 and are not yet fruiting (it’s possible they are clonal and need a second variety? of maybe just some wet cat food to draw in the flies, LOL) but there are 20 or 30 year old trees in town that produce quite well. We are rated zone 5 here. A few years ago we have a couple of nights that should have been zone 4 (-20 something), and the trees were mostly fine. A couple of the smallest / least established died.
If your pawpaws are more than 5 or 6 feet tall, and they don’t bear fruit-- lack of pollination or way too much shade probably the problem.
Agree - not sure if @MollyP was referring to size or age. If they are 5 year old seedlings especially, they may not fruit quite yet especially if they aren’t vigorous.
Seedling Fruiting maturity seems to be a combination of age and size/vigor.
Molly,
@tonyOmahaz5 grows pawpaws and has good production of them.
Not sure if your climate is similar to Omaha or not.
Madison makes its own microclimate with all the lakes and “civilization”. I lived north of there about 20 minutes for 45 years. Tried pawpaws and persimmons at least 5 different years. Winter always took them out…even the expensive ones from England’s Orchard
To clarify: 5 or 6 meant age of tree. Agreed- lack of pollination. Only one is in that height range yet, so my hopes are currently on lack of pollination that will be solves itself when its neighbors get bigger. If that doesn’t solve it, then I will seek other answers. They are slow growing- Tony in Omaha is about an hour north east of me and has a bit more rain than we do here. The “taller” ones elsewhere town are much older and generally top out around 10 or 12 feet (except for a few wetter, shadier locations). The university here has one of the National Agroforestry Centers attached and they were the (northern and or western-most) location for some pawpaw trials that happened in the mid 1990s. There’s a whole patch still on east campus that dates to that trial . The patch is, ahem, patchy- it’s clear some trialed varieties died out- but the ones that remain still load up with fruit almost every year.
I bought some seedlings of pawpaws 2003 from either Musser Forests or Lawyer’s Nursery…forget which without looking up old records…
put in one and 2 gallon pots, and never planted out until 2009. I 2015 had the first fruit.
Had a neighbor give me seeds in 2015, and threw them into a fencerow in the fall among blackberry briars. Had a couple of fruit in 2019. That’s a couple of my personal experiences. Has a lot more to do with the size of the plants than the age of them as to when they bear fruit.
Currently I have 3 year old seedlings ranging from 1 foot to 4 1/2 feet in pots. When I plant them out this spring I would expect they’ll be ready to bloom in 2022…the biggest of them I mean.
In my area I’m technically not warm enough to grow jujube but yet I am. A friend in nearby Lawrence Kansas is in a much warmer climate. Lawrence is like Kansas city which is also fairly close they are both warmer and wetter. What I can do is plant their seedlings which 10% or so can survive in my area. Same thing with pawpaw you need seeds from a colder climate 10% will live and you can grow those fine. Technically I’m 5b / 6a but I grow pawpaw.
NC-1 is mid to late. The farthest person north that I am aware of that’s actually close to you and is growing pawpaws is Buzz @ Perfect Circle Farm in Barre, VT. He has some early ripening cultivars from seed if I remember correctly, but he’s three or four hours south of you.
IMO, you need as early as you can get. NC-1 is too late. Benson should be earlier than NC-1. Chappell is probably right around NC-1 time. Atwood is probably too late for you.
You should be looking at probably Allegheny, Shenandoah for the Peterson pawpaws. Maybe Summer Delight.
The late ripening pawpaws just barely make it here in zone 5b before the cold weather hits. @tonyOmahaz5 is in omaha, also zone 5b and should be similar to me. Since your summers aren’t as hot either of us, if the early ripening cultivars make it, they probably barely make it. I think your summers aren’t hot or long enough to have success with any of the mid to late cultivars.
Since you are in Canada this might be of interest-
Make sure they are more than one year old…young sprouts don’t take kindly to full sunny locations.
