I just saw a post by Cliff England that Jerry Lehman had a tractor accident and is in bad shape in the hospital. Cliff asks his friends to pull for Jerry. Jerry is a national treasure.
6 Likes
My thoughts and prayers are with Jerry and his family. Thanks for letting us know.
5 Likes
I hoped he pulled through. His wealth of knowledge of the American persimmons is only second to Mr Claypool.
Tony
5 Likes
I am very sorry to report that Jerry passed away yesterday. A giant sequoia has fallen. Like many other fruit, nut and tree lovers, I learned so much from Jerry. .
Rest in peace, Jerry.
8 Likes
Is there a list of past taste winners from the Ohio Pawpaw festivals?
I considered attending the Ohio PawPaw festival last year. But, the scheduling and coordination of things I wanted out of the trip didn’t all come together. You can Google for their website and previous winners.
There is a post on here by nik_umesh with a link to the Ohio festival winners. Scroll up about 14 posts above yours.
2 Likes
Hello everyone:-)
I am new here and i am trying to pick the best varieties for myself.
I plan to plant 4 trees (pawpaw), 4 persimon and 3 jujube.
The option of varieties which i can buy:
Lehman delight, maria joy, overleese, ruby keenan, summer Delight, sweet virginia, ve-21, allegheny, belle, prima, convis, ford amed, pensylvania golden 2,3,4, Sibley, sunflower
So not an easy pick.
From what i read lehman delight, allegheny looks interesting.
Prima (i have a positive feedback on this one because its pretty common here) and it should be self fertile and not sure what else.
I will be happy if you can advice (especially taste and yield 
)
The last one is hand pollination, to be honest i am scared little bit… I dokt intend ti di that, i still hope that it will work without that
2 Likes
Just plant the paw paw trees 7 feet apart and the flies will help pollinate for you. Your picks are good so far and I would add Sunflower because is also self fertile. For Jujube, I would go with these if you can find them in your area: Honey Jar, Sugarcane, Li, Contorted So, Autumn Beauty, Massandra, Coco, and Chico.
Tony
I like how you are picking low care fruit. Most people join and ask about apple, peaches, plums a lot more work. I can’t offer any advice mine are too young to have tasted.
1 Like
This is what i can buy and is on stock.
ga-866, halina, ja-tsao, kitajskij 2a, koktebel, konfetnyj, lang, li, shaanxi-li, sihong, sugar-cane, gigante then red lands (i would want it an many others but issue is that they will have it next year, everything is sold out already 
)
I wanted to pick ga-866, shaanxi-li and then sugurcane or gigante (this one have also very positive feedback from people in my area) and i wanted red land #4 but its not available now.
Btw. For persimons i have already geneva red, nikitas gift and i want to get new hybrids Sosnovska and cucupaka (here i have huge amount of plants which i can pick either from europe or from america)
Would you mind telling us where you are located? From the selection you have, it looks like you are not in the US.
Where i live… Everywhere are apples, pears, cherry, plums, walnuts…
I can pick it whenever i want… Its just on tree and no one will harvest it. (In our country they always plant it everywhere, around roads, fields …)
But the more important for me was, that i simply dont plant things which i can simply buy in the supermarket:-)
So i planted the ones which arent common (you can buy them sometime on farm markets but not very often)
Actinidia arguta, actinidia kolomikta in total 15+ plants) amalanchier, ficus carica, Lonicera kamtschatica blueberies, raspberries, blackberries, goosberries (around 5 from each)
My wife telling me that i am crazy and i will harvest everything by myself
I hope that children will help me lol
3 Likes
Yup yup you are right …lot of varieties from ukraine and prima from italy for pawpaw (not sure if its a available on us market)
I am from czech republic (central europe)
Pawpaw is something new here (10 years) and its not that bad from what i read from people here. You just need to survive first year (it doesnt like direct sun in first years) and also survive first winter. But other than that its relatively good. Varieties are limited here and experience with them too because it simply take time before you get first fruit and taste it.
I also read posts from people who taste pawpaw and dig it out because they simply dont like it (it was 10 feet trees already). Hopefully I will like pawpaw or at least someone from my family
1 Like
I’ve visited Prague only for a couple of days in 2016. Love it. Wish we had more time to sight-see outside the city.
I wonder with different soil and climate, would the same varieties grown in the US and your country produce different quality of fruit.
I personally do not like Shanxi Li. The pro is fruit are large, the con is the taste, dry and spngy. It will take Sugar Cane and Honey Jar anyday.
2 Likes
I live close to Prague (just 40 km )
Here in czech we have pretty cold in a winter (-4°f or even less (on per 10 year aproximately) and every year there can be something like 5°f at least one day during night)
And during summer its from 70 to 95.
During last years even spring and autumn are pretty hot.
So we have pretty huge difference between summer and winter weather so i need to pick varieties which survive winter.
Btw. I went through discussion… And thanks fir mentioning shaanxli because i read exactly same opinion from someone in czech dry and taste is much worse than li.
Btw. Does anyone have ga-866 or red land? I tried to find something but i only find ine article where is written that it have high suger cintent and thats all.
I will pick li and gigante (same nursery) and i wonder if i should pick honey jar (very very positive feedback from people who have it in czech) or redland (for both i would need to wait till next year)
Now i can pick sugar cane or ga-866 (but i have no idea if they are good or not. Didnt find anything)
Btw sorry that i jumped to jujube from pawpaw
1 Like
The only think I have heard about GA866 is it’s non productive.
I don’t have it. I have a Sugar Cane and I like it a lot.
1 Like
hello everyone:-)
So at the end I just picked what was available … as usual I simply dont want to wait and who knows what will be available in one month.
I am very curious if my pick was good or bad… time will tell.
My pick is Prima, Belle, Allegheny, PA golden 3 - I tried to pick the ones which should be productive based on reports. (I seen there convis for example and 6 year tree looks really nice. I was pretty surprised )
I also picked persimmons Nikita gift, Geneva Red, NB-NO2 (Zima khurma), Nikita bordo, 2x nikita bordovaja x taishu (I originally want to pick sosnovska, chuchupaka etc. but I didnt want to travel 200 km there when I have nursery with already tested persimmons just few kilometers away. (everything is grafted on lotus (based on report if its grafted on virginiana it drops fruit like crazy)
I need to pick Jujube later, because its sold out everywhere right now
1 Like
Pawpaw is my wife’s absolute favorite fruit, but my oldest daughter who will eat any other kind of fruit, even very low quality (sour, seedy, etc.) fruits, doesn’t like to eat it at all, not even good named varieties.
The taste of jujubes from the same tree has been quite variable for me from year to year and from the beginning of the season til the end, but based on the average fruit I’ve gotten, of the varieties I’ve gotten samples of fruit from so far, for fresh eating appeal I’d rank Li tops, then Lang, Coco, Honey Jar, Shanxi Li, and Sugarcane all very close together, and finally Sherwood at the bottom (although a small percentage of my Sherwoods are sometimes pretty good.) I have Redlands, too, but I haven’t gotten a good sample from it yet.
thanks to @tonyOmahaz5 for sharing some notes on pawpaw for my next planting.Think I’m settling going with Shenandoah.
But putting this out there as future reference for others and myself.
Ohio PawPaw festival Best PawPaw Contest (I would love to know the missing results for 2016 and 2015.
2018
First Place, Variety: Bennie’s Favorite (Homebreed), AJ Lehman
Second Place: Open pollinated Atwood, Mark Lehman
Third Place: Green Gem, Justin Woodruff
2017
First Place: Jerry’s Big Girl, Jerry Lehman, Terre Haute, IN
Second Place: Shenandoah, George Hale, Columbus, OH
Third Place: Berkeley, Joe Kostka, Natrona Heights, PA
2014
1st place: Deanna Powell, Variety: Lynn’s Favorite
2nd place: Barb Lehman , Variety: 275-48
3rd place: Mark Lehman , Variety: 250-30
2013
1st place: Jerry Lehman, variety 250-39
2nd place: Barbara Lehman, variety 250-48
3rd place: Maddy Singh, variety IXL
2012
1st: Jerry Lehman, variety: #cu 166-13|
2nd: Dick Glaser, variety: Overleese|
3rd: Dick Glaser, variety: Shenandoah|
2011
1st: Deanna Powell for Overleese
2nd: Charles Colgate for NCI Harvest Gold Butter Sweet
3rd: Dick Glaser for Shawnee Trail
2010
1st: Sunflower, Charles Colgate
2nd: Scooby, Andy Campbell
3rd: Marina, Kelly Bock
Brix References:
Hi 4-1 is KSU Chappelle and Hi 7-5 is KSU Benson according to an FB post. Not sure what hi1-4 or 7-1 are. Article
Only nonKSU reference point: Sunflower - (8.58 seed percentage (highest)
KSU Chappelle - Brix 25.64 (highest), 4.39 Seed percentage,
KSU Bensen - Brix 19.67 (lowest)
separate article with atwood
Jay Little’s Excel Spreadsheet on Paw Paw varieties.
FB post on PawPaw fanclub on tasting notes by Tony Levri. Preserving for future reference
As someone who greatly appreciates detailed flavor profiles of different varieties of fruits, I’ll leave my opinions here of the named varieties I’ve tried.
I went to a pawpaw festival in York, PA last year and got to try some named varieties for the first time. Had some named varieties at the Ohio festival a few years ago but they weren’t labeled so I didn’t know what they were. I’ve also tasted a lot of local wild pawpaws over the past 3 years.
I typically taste 3 main flavors in a pawpaw: banana, melon/cantaloupe, and a tropical fruity flavor that reminds me of tutti-frutti or bubblegum. (I’ll just call this flavor: fruity) Some seem to call that flavor mango but I never really taste mango. Most wild pawpaws I’ve tasted in western PA are a combination of banana and cantaloupe flavors with a small amount of fruity flavor.
I took notes on the varieties I tried from the York festival and here is what I wrote:
Shenandoah - creamy texture, mildly flavored though still very good, not too much banana flavor, banana & fruity flavors are subtle, no melon flavor, has a vanilla flavor to it that makes it taste a lot like vanilla pudding
NC-1 - banana/cantaloupe, flavorful, tastes like most wild pawpaws though a good version of those, not much fruity flavor, a lot of banana flavor, fairly strongly flavored overall
Susquehanna - very sweet, firmer, smooth texture with light orange color, a lot of fruity flavor, a bit of cantaloupe flavor, hardly any banana flavor
PA-Golden - tastes similar to most wild pawpaws (banana/melon), has noticeable bitterness to pulp, especially near the seeds, not as good as the better wild ones I’ve tasted
Allegheny - difficult to pin down in terms of flavor. Came to the conclusion that it has a very well balanced mix of all 3 flavors (cantaloupe/banana/fruity). Hard to taste any 1 flavor distinctly. Some bites did have a stronger cantaloupe flavor to them
Looking back at this, my conclusions are that:
Shenandoah is more uniquely flavored than most, more mild than most, easy to eat, and generally pleasing.
NC-1 is a typically flavored pawpaw that is good for those who like the ones that are more strongly banana flavored.
Susquehanna is a good for those who like a sweeter, richer, and more tropical flavored pawpaw.
PA-Golden isn’t one that I would recommend for flavor due to it’s bitterness and NC-1 tasting like a better version of it’s flavor profile.
Allegheny has a well-balanced flavor profile. I wish more wild ones tasted like this, since the banana flavors tend to dominate, but with Allegheny the melon and fruity flavors shine through better.
I didn’t pay particular attention to textures with these fruits, mostly noting that Shenandoah was softer and creamy, Susquehanna was firmer, and the others were somewhere in between. I know that the Mango variety is known to have a softer, pudding-like texture. One of my favorite wild trees has fruits on the extreme softer end that have a texture like wet pudding or (for a better descriptor) a very soft, juicy, non-fibrous mango.
9 Likes