I desperately want to try a pawpaw. More specify I want to find a place to pick pawpaw. Does anyone know anywhere to find them in the northern NJ area?
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A similar question came up on Houzz.Maybe this thread will help. Brady
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Your state DNR will be able to tell you.
Dax
Integration Acres sells wild paw paws online. If you are able to make it up to Rhode Island, Rocky Point Farm in Warwick sells improved/named varieties on Saturday mornings in October. Looks like NOW is a good time to buy from Integration Acres.
Edit I know you specifically asked for where you can pick them, but ordering them online can save you the frustration of not finding any. I just ordered 2 pounds of paw paw and 1.5 pounds of black walnuts from Integration Acres. Rocky Point Farm up in RI is expecting a good crop this year, last year I went up twice and didn’t get any paw paws. The 2nd/last time I went they sold out of the fruit a few people before me and the person right in front of me got the last bag of frozen paw paw pulp. I had better luck up there in 2015. If you do go to RI for paw paws, make sure you’re there a bit before they open.
I think this is a really neat interactive map. It shows the location of various types of fruit trees all over the country, mostly accessible to the public. Looks like there are a lot of Jersey trees, including some paw paws. Perhaps one will be near you.
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If you are heading through Wilmington there are lots of wild ones all through Alapocas park, then there is a small patch that was planted on the south bank of the Brandywine river, 100 yds west of I95. The planted patch had some nice ones when I lived there, it is cool to see the ones in Alapocas as a natural understory but there is hardly any fruit and it is not all that good.
Tony can’t help but keep rubbing it in with pictures​:joy:
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Do you grow any pawpaw? I liked them and I hope you will too. Wabash, Mango, Shenandoah, Halvin, and Susquehanna are my favorite.
Tony
No, I grow a lot of things but not paw paw. Although your pic convinced me to grow them. Are they easy?
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Yes, but they are slow grower. All mine are 7 years old and at 7 feet tall
Tony,
Do any of those varieties stand out over the others? What’s the ripening order? I have Shenandoah, KSU-Atwood, and Sunflower from Rolling River that were planted in 2016. No fruit yet for me.
I liked them in this order: Mango, Shenandoah, Halvin, Wabash, Susquehanna. Ripening order are Shenandoah, Mango, Halvin, Wabash, Susquehanna.
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That’s interesting. England’s web site says that Halvin ripens “3 weeks earlier than all other pawpaws”, and I’ve read that Mango’s an early one. Sounds like Shenandoah is super early. England also states that the KSU Atwood is early. That leaves Sunflower as a late variety. I wonder if there will be any gaps in between them? If so, it’s an excellent excuse to plant another variety!
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Shenandoah and Mango are about one week apart and Halvin follow about a week later.
Thanks. I guess I’ll wait until I find some more data points on the KSU Atwood and Sunflower. It’s too bad there isn’t much information on this, like with other fruits. Halvin might be one to get. Also, it’s interesting that you pretty much like whatever comes first with paw paws. You’d think that a variety that holds its fruit on the tree longer would produce a better flavor…
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NJ Paw Paw tasting event found !!!
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I bought pulp from them before and I was not impressed. But did bite the bullet and order some fresh fruit this year. ETA today.
The pawpaws they sell at Rocky Point Farm in RI are the real deal. They have the Peterson varieties and some others like Wilson and NC1, but the best I had from them was a chance seedling from a wild selection in Indiana. It was very big, had light colored flesh with good flavor, and very few seeds. I know it was wild because the farmer told me that it was the largest pawpaw he’d picked all year when I bought it, and I emailed them to ask what the variety was. I tried growing the seeds from that one pawpaw and had a tree growing until I killed it in the first season by leaving out in the sun for too long.
If you’re in the area, they sell the pawpaws at their farm on Saturday mornings in October. You need to arrive well before they open to get a good enough spot in line to guarantee that you’ll get to bring some home.
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