Time to hand pollinate the Shenandoah, Susquehanna, Sun Flower, and Mango pawpaws to ensure more Fruits set. Can’t relied on those carrian flies.
Tony
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Nice bloom! Most of mine got frozen off.
Sorry to hear about the freeze. Hopefully, next year you will get double the amount of Fruits.
Tony
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Nice looking bloom Tony! I planted 4 pawpaw seedlings on an aunt’s land, but none are growing very fast. I think this is their 4th year in the ground and biggest ones just grew past their 2’ tree-tubes last year. Probably partly because they are in nearly pure sand.
There is also a lonely pawpaw about a half mile up the bike trail that runs past my back yard. It flowered last year and was just starting to flower Monday. Every time I run or walk past it I contemplate the gorilla grafting I could do to get it to produce fruit.
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Yes,
That will work. Just do some cleft graft at several branches and in a few years you will Harvest some pawpaws.
Tony
Does your mango pawpaw flower later than your others? Mine is far behind my others. My seedling , Wabash, and Susquehanna flowers were all killed in mid March, my Mango was not harmed and is only about halfway though flowering right now. I had one or two late flowers on the other varieties that I used to pollinate the first Mango flowers and looks like I will have a decent crop.
All of my pawpaws bloomed at the same time. I guess I am lucky.
Tony
I was able to pollinate one flower on Potomac from Shenandoah I have planted nearby. I planted them Fall 2015. Potomac is about 4 feet tall. Should I take the fruit off or see if it will carry them to ripeness? The one flower has made 6 fruitlets :-).
Let the fruits get a little bigger then thin them to one left. Hopefully, you have the chance to taste the pawpaw fruit in September.
Tony
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Tony,
When is a good time to graft pawpaw, please?
During bloom time? After a tree leafed out?
Mamuang,
My pawpaws just started to leaf out. I did several grafts on them today.
Tony
Thanks, Tony. So, I should wait then. I am about two weeks behind you.
I think I saw flower buds on one of the two pawpaws. That tree ( if I could call it that) is only about 1.5 ft tall.
@tonyOmahaz5 - You’ve probably described it before, but could you tell me a little more about you pollinate them by hand? Do you use a small paintbrush or a q-tip? Do you basically just try to get some pollen on whatever you use and then rub it on the inside?
You see, this is the first year I’ve had any of my pawpaws to bloom. I only had about 2-3 on each tree. I knew it was highly unlikely that such a few would pollinate each other. But when I looked into the blooms, they don’t look like other flowers. I could see pollen dust on the surface of the smooth, flat area that I guess is the pistol. But if I scraped some of that pollen up, does it go in the same location on the flower being pollinated? Also, how do I know when a flower is receptive? I assume the donor flower is ready whenever their is pollen present, but what about the receiving flower?
I was afraid to attempt it because 1) I didn’t know how or the answers to the questions I just asked and 2) I was afraid I’d knock one or both of the flowers off while trying to pollinate them.Is that fairly easy? Thanks Tony!
I used a very small paint brush. I spin the brush lightly from one flower of the Mango then to the Susquehanna. Don’t be afraid to spin or brush the flowers, they are pretty sturdy.
Tony
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cool. i grafted while they were still dormant but both grafts have pushed out.
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Thanks, Tony. I’ll thin to one in a few weeks and see if the tree will carry it.
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they say don’t mess w/ the roots and i did… should graft when leaf comes out but i grafted before it. call me stubborn but its worked out for me most of the time grafting.
normally i leave the tree in the soil but in order to get to a more solid part of the stem i had to remove it from the soil. it was too spindly above the soil. these were 1 year old pawpaw trees grown in pots from a friend.
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My pawpaws few days ago finished flowering for this year and i have a lots of fruits, i hope some of them will stand on plant and get ripe.
Last year i had same lots of small fruits but all fallen of about 1-1,5 months later 
Well, I didn’t have a good feeling on how to thin the fruit, so just let it take it’s course. It dropped two of the six and has progressed nicely to this point. As long as no critters take notice, I hope to taste these in a month or two!
I noticed in my prior post I stated that the tree is 4 feet tall (maybe it was 5 feet tall??)… it’s now 6 feet tall. Potomac has been a really strong grower for me.
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