I have two pawpaw trees growing. PA Golden and Shenandoah. I hear that Shenandoah is quite agreeable, but I hear differing opinions on PA Golden. I’m wondering if I should keep growing it or if I should replace it with a better tasting variety. Both trees are pretty small at this point, only about 2 ft tall.
Can anyone who has tasted a PA golden weigh in here? The thing I am particularly concerned about is aftertaste. I heard that PA golden is one of the particularly bad offenders in this regard
I know there are a few PA goldens and I’m not sure which one I have… I got it from Burnt Ridge Nursery. I’m assuming it’s a #1.
Neal Peterson has a poor opinion of Pensylvania Golden, but I imagine varieties may perform differently in different locations. For one thing, it is supposed to be early, and in a short growing season, something that ripens will be better than something that won’t.
You will want cross-pollination for your Shenandoah. If these are your only trees, why not let them both flower as soon as they can so you can get fruit. If you don’t like PA, you can graft most of it to something else later, but why not let it flower too for more pollinization options.
They seem pretty forgiving on how close together they are as long as the water and sun are present. They are naturally understory trees after all. Stick a third in there somewhere. Of the few I’ve tasted, NC-1 and Tropical Treat made me the happiest. I did not bother with cyphering things like tannin or aftertaste or trace-chemical XYZ and such. Those two made me wish I could buy a basketful whereas the others (in comparison) just left me glad to have the one each I got. Can’t even recall which offhand. I’m fairly sure I missed the Shenandoah, or that it was small and eaten under-ripe.
There are 3 PA Goldens. Actually called 1, 2, and 3. Everyone that has tasted PA Golden says it’s aftertaste is pretty bad. I think Murky gave pretty good advice though.
I manage an orchard with a single paw paw tree- it is productive. I wonder if some paw paws are self-fertile while others are not or if the literature just gets it wrong. I’m thinking the former is most likely. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the paw paw, but it must have been Lee Reich’s favorite about 25 years ago because he was the consultant for the orchard plan. I wonder if he had suggested two varieties. Maybe one died.
Yup, it was available and I grow it. It is the best flavored one I have, the other is PA Golden. Not really very good here. Maybe early give it less time to get up sugar, but it also has more of that slight toxic flavor that turns some of us off to paw paws.
Recent studies by KSU suggest all pawpaws are self-fertile to some degree. Some more than others, Sunflower being an example of a more highly self-fertile one.
There are lots of stories of lone pawpaw trees setting fruit.
Some bad pawpaws can definitely have a “toxic” flavor. Also referred to as “resinous” or “phenolic.”
That off taste is why I recommend folks tried named varieties if their only experience is with wild fruit. I’m confident you have more experience than me with both accounts
That’s super interesting. I have a PA Golden (not sure which one) in a pot and it seems to have fruiting buds on it. We’ll see what it does in the spring.
100% … I saw those posts. PA Golden to the max it seems. Ha.
Yea I have no idea which one this is. I got this plant at the OC CRFG plant sale in April 2024. I will see if anyone at the next CRFG meeting I end up going to knows who might have grown/grafted it and if so, will try to track down the specific variety.
I have a Pennsylvania Golden from Stark Brothers. It has more of a wild taste than Sunflower. It has a bit of an aftertaste for me unless it happens to be perfectly ripe. This year I protected the tree with an electric fence and waited till they fell, but picked them up soon so they didn’t cook in the sun. They were good, much better than last year when I tried to guess when they were ripe on the tree. Based on last year’s taste, I was going to either get rid of the tree or graft completely over it. Based on this year’s taste, I’ll keep it because they were decent. Since it is a grafted tree, the suckers it sent up are a wild variety. Those fruited this year and they were about a month later than PA golden and didn’t completely ripen before the first frost here in NE Ohio. PA Golden is fairly early and seems like a reliable producer.
So you believe they ripen more fully when left on the tree until they drop. When I pick them (including whatever version of PA Golden I have) they are just starting to soften and I let them ripen the rest of the way at room temp… keeping the ones I will give away in the fridge until I give them. When fully ripened I haven’t observed a difference between the ones I collect off the ground… but I’ve never done a careful comparison. I’m no true paw-paw lover.
Have you done a careful comparison like that, where the earlier picked one was allowed to get just as soft as the one off the ground? Once they are that ripe they don’t keep long.
@alan : I’d usually pick a small handful off the ground every few days for a few weeks, and set them on the counter for a few days before I ate them. I would say thay were best after sitting out for 1 or 2 days. Between PA Golden and Sunflower, I was eating 3 or more a day last year and they were probably a little under ripe and they upset my stomach quite a bit. This year I ate one a day … properly ripened (but not over ripe) and my stomach seemed fine. My wife seems to tolerate them better than me and liked them at every state of ripeness we experienced.
My summary this year → pick them off the ground immediately after falling … let them sit on the counter 1 or 2 days … then eat one a day.
Nature is cruel sometimes. You obviously love your paw paws but your stomach does not. Some of us always taste a touch of bitterness in them and maybe that is the component that your stomach objects to. It is only my palate that does.
My theory has long been that paw paw fanatics do not taste that slightly toxic twang. I’ve never put it to a test by asking those fanatics if they taste what I do… do you? Or is the pulp all delicious sweetness to you? I wish I experienced paw paws that way… without stomach objections, of course. .
Well. Whatever version of PA Golden I have, it’s flowering and the flower actually stayed so far. Last year, the flowers looked like they were coming and then nothing happened.
I feel like I’ve heard of there being up to 7 although 1-4 is what is in most of the circulation. Fruitwood claims to have 7 there…that’s the only place I’ve seen any past PA Golden 4.
… I saw those posts. PA Golden to the max it seems. Ha.