I am glad I have to buy very few trees mail order. You seem to pay quadruple the price of what it would cost if you could have bought it locally. And many times, it is even more than that!
Here is a review of an KSU Atwood Pawpaw from One Green World. (I wanted a KSU Chappell, but they were all sold out.) I had bought an American pawpaw for $31 as shown in the last photo and needed a pollinator for it.
That did a good job packing it. Nice communication. Only thing I don’t like about it is, it is twig like. But that that seems to be how it is with mail order. Overall, happy with their service, just not what one gets for the money when buying trees mail order.
It’s best to get pawpaws really small. They have a long taproot and will quickly outcompete a root bound or damaged bare root that has a larger whip or scaffolding. Now if I had it to do over again, I’d have planted my own seeds, planted them and grew them out a couple years then grafted them myself. Likely the best and most cost effective method for getting a healthy long lived variety of your choice.
I’d be shocked if after 2-3 years the smaller one isnt much larger than the bigger one.
We will see. Can you grow the KSU varieties from seed or is that verboten due to patent?
I’m old, so I like to buy as big a tree as I can. No wonder the $31 American pawpaw was small compared to the 6 - 7 foot fruit trees they normally sell. I was wondering why it was so small as that nursery specialized in big trees.
I ordered 5 trees from restoring Eden. All different varieties planted in two rows. Mine are about 1 to 2 feet tall. Sounds like we have a Pawpaw race on our hands!
You can grow the names varieties from seed but there’s no guarantee what you’ll get. It’ll be improved though over wild but the characteristics aren’t guaranteed.
Unfortunately buying a big tree doesn’t give you a big tree every time. There are certain types that it actually harms your intent by buying large, paw paw being at the top of that list.
Just to give you an idea of the tap root size …grew some seedlings, and the tap root was about 8 inches long, when they were only about 4 inches tall above the soil. It basically looked like a carrot going straight down from the seedling. You also don’t want the tap root to J either which is where it starts to grow up because it hit the bottom of the pot.
last year, i ordered 2 paw paw trees from OGW and they were so tiny and fragile, they will take forever to grow, i might have to keep them in pots for several years. had i known they were that small and couldn’t be put in the ground right away, i would have ordered elsewhere.
Jamie, a reliable seller does not sell large pawpaw trees. I’ve seen large pawpaw’s set out and promptly stop growing for 5 years. Smaller trees can and will thrive. Also, the sooner you get them out of the container and in the ground, the faster they will grow. Pawpaws love to send a taproot down 3 or 4 feet deep then start growing up very fast. They can’t do it in a container.
Yes they have to be small, don’t keep them in a container this will stunt or perhaps kill them eventually. As Darrel said you shouldn’t want/expect to purchase a large paw paw tree as it will never thrive.
That’s likely the problem I’m having with my 2 grafted pawpaw trees. When I bought them they were about knee high and in a squat 1 gallon pot. The tap root was likely circling the drain on the bottom. At the time I’d had no clue about the importance of a healthy taproot. They’ve only grown a few inches in 3 years. Do you know if they ever get themselves sorted from a bad start? If they don’t show significant growth this summer I’m likely going to remove. Last year I planted some seeds and two came up.
I’d say the best thing to do is graft over those seedlings you planted. But get those seedlings in ground asap. For some reason pawpaws seem to struggle for a while out west from what I gather. So it may be inevitable of them growing outside of their ideal climate.
They’ll be fine! I bought 5 KSU Atwood from OGW this time 2023, but they were smaller yet (their little 3" square pots about 6" deep). The trees only put on a little growth their first year, perhaps a foot. Last year they grew much faster, they are probably 3 to 5ft tall now.
I planted the seeds directly in the ground after learning about the tap root issue. They took long enough, but eventually pushed up in August.
I’ve also read that pawpaw can be temperamental out west, but they do succeed at least sometimes. My neighbor has an impressive specimen, about 10 feet tall, very bushy and nice yields. So I know that I’m not completely spinning my wheels.
I’m going to keep the stunted ones alive for at least another year, hoping to harvest the budwood when my new seedlings are ready for grafting. Hopefully that will be next spring.
I’m hoping they feel like doing what yours finally did. They are so sad, surrounded by all the large trees I planted at the same time. They are surrounded by apricot, nectaplum, and fig all towering over them. In the made up scenarios I have in my head while tending to the orchard I imagine they are riddled with shame for not growing properly like all their friends did. lol
I bought a pawpaw from OGW a couple of years ago and was disappointed by the size, but i planted it anyways. The tree never leafed out, but they quickly refunded my money and i got a persimmon instead.
ok, i just didn’t want to plant them out because i’m afraid they would get stepped on and get broken because they’re so small and fragile. i had gotten bigger paw paws from another nursery last year and they seem to be growing okay, albeit slowly compared to my other trees, two of five (those two in full sun are growing faster) already flowered this spring.
I’ve bought 3 pawpaws from OGW. 1 Tallahatchie was in the smallest (quart?) size and a Susquehanna in gallon (it was lost in the mail so I got a replacement Wabash gallon, after which the Susquehanna did arrive.)
The tiny Tallahatchie has done better than the other gallon ones. It’s 7-8 feet tall and fruits well (as a side note I’m disappointed n the tiny fruit size despite thinning).
The Susquehanna is only 3-4 feet tall. The Wabash was hit with ambrosia beetles but had been pretty vigorous. I cut it down and will graft on the sucker I have trained.
So tiny pawpaws can work just great(including from other nurseries where they are now some of my biggest trees).
My limited experience also agrees with others that larger pawpaws may not be good investments.
Of the 3 seedlings I had growing in 1 pot, I repotted one and it stopped growing the rest of the season (about 4 inch tall) the other 2 I didn’t mess with ended up about 12-14 inches tall after 1 season.
So from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, they are very temperamental about their tap root as well.
