I am thinking of growing pawpaws. I have heard that they require a certain symbiotic fungus or they will not grow fruit. I can’t find the name of the fungus. Have you have trouble getting pawpaw to survive and/or bear fruit? Will growing pawpaw fruit really work in a Central Texas yard? I have heavy clay soil, but I can amend a large hole/mound of soil around the plants.
1 Like
They should do fine in your area if you provide enough 1st year shade and water. You can always get a soil sample and make amendments but they do surprisingly good in clay.
1 Like
Pawpaws fruit way outside their native range including in Europe so I cant see this special fungus claim to be true.
There are successful growers in Sacramento, CA. I dont know how that compares to your climate. I agree with planting in the shade and plenty of water.
A texas grower posted on Facebook a picture of her dwarf parfivola that is doing great for her but she mentioned that triloba doesnt do as well and runts out in her location. Wish I knew her location so you could maybe compare growing conditions.
2 Likes
I think pawpaw doesn’t tolerate any salinity in soils, and I know many places in Texas have salty soil, or salty well water, even away from the coast, so that might explain the other person’s failure. As long as you don’t let it dry out and don’t have salt issues, there’s no reason I can think of you can’t grow pawpaws in Texas.
Pawpaw can be finicky they like shade early on and they like water. They don’t like wind. If it sounds like I described a place other than Kansas your right so this is what I did Pawpaw in Kansas - it's a lot of work but can be done! - #86 by clarkinks . Pawpaw can be grown anywhere but it’s not always easy.