So, even though I was born and raised in Mississippi and then later lived in LA, I never saw or even heard of a pawpaw.
I saw on this site people mentioning pawpaw so I was curious. I live in Italy and I see several places that sell pawpaw plants for about $35 each. Some are listed as autofertile and some not.
This is what I can get:
Not self fertile
Wilson, Taytoo, Sweet Alice, Prolific, Rebecca’s Gold, Taylor, Mary Foos J, Overleese, Mango, Davis
Self fertile
Sunflower, Prima 1216
Should I get only self fertile? If they’re not self fertile do they require hand pollination? Which taste best?
Do you have space for only 1 tree? Also consider that you can try to graft a scion from one type onto another, thus making any non self-fertile variety into effectively a self fertile tree.
In terms of which taste the best, the jury is still out
I recommend getting 2 different varieties.
You don’t have to hand-pollinate but it can help.
If it were me and I had to pick 2 from that list, I’d go with Overleese and Prima (or sunflower) based on flavor/quality/size.
Two trees can be planted in one hole, especially if there are pollination concerns and the person doesn’t want to graft. Alternatively, you can plant them 4 feet apart, if space is an issue.
I agree with @TrilobaTracker and I would also recommend Overleese and Sunflower.
I know OP said that they do not plan on grafting, but I just want to say that while not all trees are easy to graft onto, NA pawpaws are VERY easy. My 10 year old could do it. Will be teaching her in 2025, as a matter of fact.
A few years ago, while visiting Mr. Ron Powell (pawpaw expert), I noticed that he had some NA pawpaws planted very closely, so I asked him about it. He told me that it’s not an issue to plant them 4 feet apart or up to 3 in the same hole, especially if you are just planting a few and space is an issue.
Also, this year, while on a paw paw hunt, I noticed that there were plenty of pawpaw fruit on trees in a forested area where the trees were allowed to spread and left unchecked. These were growing in shade and had plenty of nice sized good tasting fruit.
That said, if you have plenty of space, I would plant them 8 ft apart and that is the spacing that I have most of mine planted at.
I’ve seen them in the wild in a forest basically in full shade, but I’ve read and heard they like full sun best. There have been some conflicting discussions about “the flies that pollinate them can’t fly too far so plant them close” and “pawpaws will grow big eventually, so plant 8 feet or further away”. I’m not sure if there’s any good conclusion, but I’ll have mine planted about 8 feet apart.
I’d second the recommendation for overleese, but that’s not based on any personal experience on taste or growth habits.
I think spacing, like many things, is a sliding scale of trade-offs. A lot of things are possible - like 3 in one hole - but based on the cost/benefit analysis you might choose not to.
Planting very close can reduce air flow and worsen fungal issues. If care isn’t taken on orientation, it can also cause some trees to be shaded-out by others, reducing productivity.
On the other end of the spectrum, planting too far apart may limit natural pollination.
If i could do it over again I would plant at least 8 feet apart and would be more conscious of the orientation to prevent shade-out. But back to trade-offs, this would mean fewer trees.
Roughly 6 feet.
My bigger problem is more the inter-row spacing and orientation.
I have trees too close from a north-south perspective where the tree to the south is shading the tree to the north.
The true issue is I planted too many trees
