I’m so glad I asked you last year what your order of preference was. I never would have guessed I would have liked mango nor go out of my way to try it.
1 Like
my mango pawpaw doesn’t really taste like mango to me. It has a mild flavor, pretty sweet and creamy, not all that different from the wild pawpaws I’ve had, just less of that unique skunky pawpaw flavor. They tasted excellent this year, but not like a mango. I guess I could have a mislabel, but my tree is super vigorous and the fruit are extremely soft. These are known characteristics of this variety, so I think I’ve got the right one. The flesh is much lighter color than my susquehanna.
1 Like
Sorry it took a while for me to remember which town her farm is in. It is zone 5 b.
@jcguarneri, another thing to consider, the pawpaw lady told my friend that because of a mini drought we had this summer. She hand watered her trees and they did not get enough water. She believe that has contributed to her pawpaws not ripening on time as scheduled.
She may not have many ripen in time this year. My friend is looking to buy some from her but has to wait.
1 Like
@mamuang In new england 5b? Or like Penn 5b? I have a friend in PA 5b that gets susquehanna producing. Shenandoah for whatever reason seems to outproduce all the other petersons if north of 40 degrees lat. (my sample size is small though, maybe just off 3-4 people I know).
5b Central MA.
PAnseems to have more warm days than MA. It could be because it is further south.
This lady has both Shanadoah, Susquehanna and others that I could not recall. In normal years, they ripen in time. In not good years, some don’t.
We seem to have more and more unusual years lately. People can grow what they want and take risk. It could be worth an effort when they are rewarded with the fruit.
2 Likes
Had more Wabash, NC-1, Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Wilson, Potomac, Allegheny today.
Honestly, after a while the distinctness of each paw paw starts to disappear, especially when you go from stronger tasting back to lighter tasting ones. I kept going back to spoon out a previously tasted pawpaw after scooping out something different to compare it against. Some of the differences are really nuanced.
After thinking more about, here is my breakdown.
@Barkslip NC-1 - Rich isn’t the word that comes to mind. Balanced with depth. Not really fruity/melony. Strong[er] but not sharp. Some aftertaste. mid to late. Nice smooth texture.
Wilson - Rich, somewhat sharp. A little fruityness. Lingering phenolic aftertaste. late
Susquehanna - strong flavors, rich. Noticeable phenolic aftertaste, some grit. late
Potomac - balanced. somewhat rich with depth, creamy. not fruity. some grit to it. Aftertaste. late
Wabash - fruity (melony), sharp flavor. Somewhat rich tasting. Clean taste. smooth texture late
Shenandoah - Clean, very light tasting. Slightly fruity. Clean finish. early to late
Allegheny - Small fruit. Strongly fruity flavor (but not overpowering) with a clean finish. No sharp flavors. Clean finish. early to mid.
Mango - Fruity like Allegheny, but not as pronounced. Less phenolic flavors, clean finish. Mellow. Large fruit. Early.
PA Golden - No idea which PA this is. It is slightly sharp but it’s quite strong. It doesn’t have a strong aftertaste or anything, but the pawpaw flavor is definitely there from the first spoonful. Mid.
Wells - Fairly balanced. Similar to Potomac but more fruity. Size mostly same if not smaller than Allegheny. Clean finish. Mid.
I can eat multiple NC-1 without a problem, but Susquehanna, PA Golden, Wilsons, and Potomac for me are probably have me set for the day after eating one.
Wabash has kind of the same effect but it’s really not the aftertaste that I dislike, it’s the sharpness/slight astringency that comes with every bite even though that goes away really fast for me. I think part of it is also the fact that Susquehanna, Potomac, Wilsons, and Wabash seem to be starting to achieve peak ripening at the end of September and here in Chicago-land it’s getting quite chilly by early September so flavors may not be as good as they would south of 40 degrees lat… The rest of the Susquehanna, Potomac, Wilsons, and Wabash, probably need another 2 weeks to finish complete harvest.
Honestly a lot of the Jim Davis seedlings here are as good if not better than the Peterson ones and are among the earliest ripening. Neal’s friend plans to name them once he gets a few more years of harvest to eval.
15 Likes
Thanks for that report.Is Jim Davis related to Corwin?
I found this article from Kentucky State U.,listing a lot of older varieties,on up to some of Peterson’s.bb
1 Like
Jim Davis is the one who runs Deep Run Pawpaw Orchard in Maryland and is I believe friends with Neal (links on Neal’s website) and has supplied a lot of fruit for the Pawpaw festival in years past. No idea if he is related.
I like this article because it sorts some of the cultivars based on genetic proximity. I grafted a couple of these unnamed KYSU selections. Hoping to try them in the coming years.
9 Likes
Thank you for your tasting report! If you had to pick a favorite…?
There are two unnamed seedlings here which are suspected Shenandoah x Allegheny crosses. Names are still being decided.
Lighter flavor (relative to Susquehanna). Both are fruity, but not as strong as Allegheny, with a tad more complex flavor than Shenandoah, no aftertaste. I probably enjoy those two the most. If I had to pick named cultivars, Shenandoah, Allegheny and Mango in no particular order.
2 Likes
Also, does anyone have any tips on mailing pawpaws? Do you guys ship still slightly hard pawpaws?
Individual bubble wrap? Layering packing material and pawpaws like lasagna? I just mailed like 4 pounds about 500 km/300mi away. Hope they hold up.
1 Like
I’ve tasted about 10 different named varieties, probably about 6-8 together at one tasting, and although I feel like I’m fairly discerning (but not especially picky) with differences in varieties of other fruits, I’m like your neighbor that thinks there really isn’t much difference between selected/names varieties of pawpaws. (I have eaten some wild pawpaws that are very much inferior in taste, as well as some wild pawpaws that are quite good in taste but all smaller.) The difference I notice between selected varieties of pawpaws is size and seediness, so the best pawpaw for me seems to be the biggest pawpaw with the fewest seeds.
6 Likes
KSU Chappelle- Eager to taste it as Cliff England (nurseryman, friend of Jerry Lehman’s) raves about it.
3 Likes
I bench grafted a Prima 1216 last year and is seems to have survived and done well this year (still in a container). However according to peacefulheritage.com, it ripens very late. They recommend not even trying it in the northern end of paw paw regions. Bummer. I’m not interested in pushing the ripening window at all. Does anyone have an experience with this variety? If I can’t confirm that it will ripen in time in Ohio, I’ll probably sell it or trade it. It is in a tall Stewie pot right now. I got the scionwood from someone on the North American Scion Exchange facebook page.
I have the asimina web worms here.
I control them on most little trees by hand pulling and smashing .
They can cause a lot of damage on young trees , so need control.
I have several trees that are out of reach for hand pulling them off.
And the worms mostly feed on the top ends of shoots.
So some are out of reach, and I never got around to pulling them out.
Looking at the trees now, I think the web worms just summer pruned the tree tops for me, where I could not reach, twigs I would have wanted to cut anyway just to keep the tree short enough to reach fruit by hand. It looks kind of bad, dead shoots on the top of big trees, but the percentage of damage on a big tree is insignificant overall.
So I am feeling better about being to lazy to cut them out !
4 Likes
Same. I’m fairly picky about flavors.
If I was making generalizations, I think I could use choose two words from a bank of four to describe 95% of all the pawpaws I tried so far (light, heavy, fruity, wild). I think I prefer all those that intersect with the fruity light with some in the heavy fruity descriptor area.
I need to disclose that pawpaws would not be the first fruit in my mind if you told me that I was only allowed to grow one type of fruit. I like them in occasional doses, but there are other fruits that I would prefer if I was stranded in the middle of a temperate deciduous forest/island.
@hambone grafted that one this year along. We’ll see how it goes next year.
@ztom I grafted prima received from friend just lives just north of Cliff England. He told me it tasted bland or at least not remarkable this year for him, first year trying it. He has all the peterson, ksu, and about 20+ other varieties.
3 Likes
So, flavor profile question: I just had a fresh cherimoya (bear with me) and thought it was great. The only thing that made it hard to eat it in one sitting was a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Is this similar to the bitter aftertaste I’ve seen some pawpaw varieties described as having? If so, I’ll know to knock those down a few spots on my list of pawpaws to graft.
Yes, I’ve noticed the same bitter after taste with several pawpaw varieties.
The Peterson varieties are a lot better in this regard.
3 Likes
I emailed Tom at Red Fern Farm about when Atria, Betria, and Rigel ripen, and this was his answer:
These three ripen after the PA Golden series, Taylor, and Taytwo, and after Susquehana/Shenandoah, but before Overlease, NC1, Potomac, and Sunflower.
1 Like
It is good to know about a ripening order in Iowa.
However, I have learned that sometimes same fruit in vastly different climates may have a different ripening order.
Based on pawpaws ripened at the Pawpaw lady farm in Hardwick, MA, Shenandoah and Susquehanna ripen in time where we are.
1 Like