Pawpaw Varieties

[Janne.L]

A quick note: Celsius GDD are different than Fahrenheit GDD, and sometimes people just say the numbers without the F or C . I found a calculator :https://www.spikevm.com/calculators/orchards-vineyards/celsius-to-fahrenheit.php

I hope this helps others also in the Celsius-range

[Blake]

KSU has done a lot of research and sometimes pawpaws develop a pinkish discoloration of the flesh and they are not sure if it is bacterial or what, but they say don’t eat it. Often when the fruits fall or get handled roughly they get subtle bruises which end up discoloring the flesh inside. Possibly what happened here, although i see you handled it nicely. Weirdness happens. Not a big deal, but shouldn’t eat the discolored portions.

[luxin]

Who’s Brady and what varieties of seeds does he supply?

[Luisport]

My sunflower pawpaw tree open the first flowers today!

[haldog]

I have three seedling pawpaws blooming this year. One of them appears to be a genetic dwarf. It’s less than 2 and a half feet tall but has full size blooms. It could be because of the growing conditions that it hasn’t gotten very large, but all of my other trees planted at the same time are between four and eight feet tall. The two tallest are blooming, and then this little one.

[BlueBerry]

Interesting, I’ve noticed they usually begin blooming at something over 5 feet tall.

[Preston]

There is a Wabash pawpaw at an Arboretum near my house that has been in the ground 8+ years and its only about 4ft tall but was loaded with flower buds last yr.
Next to it is two big healthy Atwood pawpaw trees.
I wondered if the rootstock was some sort of dwarf or if maybe the roots have circled and girdled themselves
and caused it to stay so short.

[haldog]

I hadn’t thought about the circling roots possibility. Could be, the soil is hard clay, which certainly isn’t ideal.

[Luisport]

Pawpaw fruitlets…

[Luisport]

Sunflower pawpaw… just one example.

hand with 6 fruits

hands with 5 fruits

[Mikatani]

Pawpaw will have a stunted growth when grown in clay soil. Especially when the tree is also suffering from drought periods in summer. At my nursery which is in a valley the pawpaw mother trees are growing in clay soil. During summer we suffer real drought periods, especially 2018, 2019 and this year we are heading the same way… these trees are 11 years old and only about 1,5 - 2m tall. I also have some pawpaw in my garden at home. My home is situated uphill and the soil is sandy and rich in organic matter. It also never really dries out… The pawpaw in my home garden are the same age but they are about 7m tall. The difference in size is simply due to soil and water supply! A remarkable observation is that the trees in my nursery flower just as heavily as the large trees in my home garden.

[BlueBerry]

Well, I kept some in one gallon pots for over 5 year…and they stayed under 2 feet.
When I planted in good soil, they grew 3 to 5 feet per year.

[ClaireBear]

Hello, I was hoping to visit Jerry Lehman’s farm but sadly he passed away last year. Does anyone know what will happen to his farm and trees? Is someone going to sell his varieties? Thank you

[carot]

Jerry Lehman has passed

I was asked to post this in the general fruit growing forum to assure that all forum members see it. The man did great breeding work with persimmons and paw paws and shared everything he learned with extreme generosity to fruit growers all over the country, and likely the world. He died at 81 from a tractor accident on his farm. A great loss to us all, but, of course, especially those who knew and loved him, which is no small group. My condolences to those folks in particular.

There you can read about it. Cliff England is propagating his varieties. I do hope he saves all/most of the varieties.

[Barkslip]

Peterson’s Pawpaw varieties ripening order. You can also note that 10-35/Tallahatchie will be one of the earlier ones.

[Beetree]

c5tiger

I am about to start planning/planting an orchard in zone 8b in SC in Ehrhardt, SC. Was wondering what kind of success you have had with pawpaw and persimmon varieties. Or really what ar your top producers across the board?

[c5tiger]

Was wondering what kind of success you have had with pawpaw and persimmon varieties. Or really what ar your top producers across the board?

I only have 3 pawpaw varieties, Susquehanna, Wabash and Mango. I also have a seedling from Edible Landscaping but I can’t recommend it. I can’t give you much advice other than adding Mango to your list simply for its vigor. My 3 trees are very similar outside of Mango growing much faster. I have had problems with Ambrosia beetles, so you may need to spray a pyrethroid when the weather starts warming up around the end of February. My Pawpaws ripen last end of July, first part of August and in that heat they really don’t last long. I like to feel for soft fruit on the tree, fruit that has fallen is already over ripe for my taste.

Any persimmon will grow well in this area.

Is this a commercial orchard or personal use?

[Luisport]

Sunflower pawpaw fruits

[Beetree]

Thank you! Will be a personal orchard for its infancy at least. There’s a lot of different folks gonna be planting in it…so we will see what happens.

[barry]

My mango pawpaws have been exceptional this year. Very sweet and creamy. The tree had a light crop of around 25 fruits. Tree planted in spring 2016 and is 10ft tall and wide. My review on it last year was that it is only a little better than wild ones. I change my review. Its way better.

Susquehanna was not as good as last year and not as good as mango this time around. Sweetness seemed a lot less than last year although a couple were really good. I think i let too many fruits hang. I had 80 fruits thinned down to about 50, but its a small 8ft tree planted in 2014. Fruit size suffered too.

Still waiting on shenandoah tree to set fruit.