The good news is that I believe I have Allegheny on one of my trees at my mother’s house. Although its growing extremely slowly.
Neil Peterson said that Allegheny and Shenandoah are the two earliest ripening when he sold me scions of them nearly 10 years ago, before they were available as trees from nurseries.
The other two varieties I have there are Pennsylvania Golden and Wilson to which these were grafted.
I don’t recall which varieties I have at my new place (not Peterson’s), but if I could get a big potted Allegheny, I’d probably plant it and be more aggressive with supplying it with a conducive growing environment.
That’s interesting. PA Golden tends to do well for those living further north and with more limited growing seasons so maybe in the northwest it ripens better than others. Sorry if I made things confusing. They still tasted pretty good to me, just not as good as any of the other varieties I tried. I grafted one of my young trees with PA Golden this year so it’s nowhere near fruiting age and I obviously still value having the variety for its earliness.
I tasted and bought a few from a festival last year. Shenandoah was great. It was pretty mild but unique and easy to eat. Shenandoah really doesn’t taste much like a typical pawpaw. It’s doesn’t have much banana or fruity flavor to it but has a nice vanilla type of flavor that makes it taste like a tropical vanilla pudding. No bitterness. PA Golden does taste like a typical pawpaw so it has a good amount of banana and melon flavors to it with maybe some subtle fruity flavor. I think that NC-1 gives a similar flavor profile as PA Golden (but with a stronger banana flavor) and didn’t have any bitterness.
I don’t think my Allegheny has fruited yet. I actually don’t live at the house, the soil is poor, and it probably needs to get fertilized. It’s grown very slowly.
These are my terrible pictures from a visit to a paw paw orchard Ian Merwin planted at a site in Lansing that Cornell owns. Merwin is known for his work on apples, I haven’t had a chance to chat with him about the paw paws. This site has all the older varieties like Taylor, PA Golden, Overleese, etc.
I gathered a grape lug full of fruit that was on the ground last week. This week and next they’re probably at peak. Unfortunately, I’m pretty certain that this will be the last year for these 30 (?) year old trees. I believe half of this orchard was sold, and the paw paws are on that half.
Shelve life trial. It has been 5 weeks in the fruit refrigerator and holding up real well. Shenandoah. wabash. and Susquehanna.
Let see how long they can hold up before turning black.
Very nice! Who says pawpaws don’t store well?!
Are they getting bruised on the bottom from the rack? Some of mine got brown lines on the bottom that way so I put a piece of cardboard under them to give them some cushioning.
They easily hold for 2 weeks. Possibly much longer.
I don’t understand why they are said to be extremely perishable. My summer figs don’t last more than 2-3 days in the fridge and are far more perishable.
Vincent,
I think this is who Seattlefiggirl meant.
My friend had planted 13 of varieties of pawpaw in Washington here. He said PA golden is best quality he had tasted so far even with Peterson varieties he had ordered from Earthy .bb
@Bradybb@Seattlefigs
He doesn’t have an account here with us yet.
On the fb page he is living in Puyallup WA
His name is Byron Hummel . It’s easy to see him on fb pawpaw fanatics . He just ordered more pawpaw from Earthy . There are not all of his pawpaw fruiting yet after the 6th year of growing. This year 3 of his pawpaw varieties fruiting now but maybe they are not ripen yet. He said he didn’t have much experience about pawpaw tasting yet and his Pennsylvania Golden pawpaw fruits were tree ripened on the 3rd week of October (last year?)and tasting the best so far to him.
We went to a farm where the lady has been known as a Pawpaw Lady. We just found out about her this summer.
She planted her first pawpaws in 2005. Her pawpaw grove consists of 3 Person’s varieties, Shenandoah, Susquehanna, Rappahannok and a few other good tasting seedlings that she has kept.
The Shenandoah is the one in front, the far right is Susquehanna. All others are behind them.
She is in zone 5 b, a bit colder than mine. Some of her Shenandoah have ripened but many have not. She is concerned that most of herpawpaws may not ripen in time.
Among the varieties she grows, Shenandoah is earliest ripening (glad to hear as I have this variety). It is the largest, the most productive and the best tasting, according to her. My friend and I tasted it. It was creamy, sweet and fragrant. We both like it. He bought a dozen. I just got one fruit.
The first Pawpaw fruit I’ve grown,an Overleese,fell from the tree a couple days ago.Small,still firm,but getting softer and displaying a fruity aroma.bb
Mine did the same thing. I wonder if our pawpaw old and time for ripen. They should fall off the tree without stem . Unlike ours stem attached with the fruits.
