Pawpaw Varieties

I got my original from perfect circle farm. I may have a stick of it if you are interested. I can send with loquat scion later this Spring.

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I’ve only had a few of the Peterson varieties, but Allegheny is my favorite despite being the “small seedy” one. Sweet, creamy goodness.

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Oh I’d love it but I don’t have any pawpaw in ground yet, ordered two in September and it must have been for spring shipping even though it didn’t state that so it will be another year before I could put a graft as I’m sure they will be small. Thanks a lot still

I’d definitely include Chappell.

Whats the cheapest source for a KSU Chappell tree now (thats in stock)? OGW has 5.5" starts for $32.95 (plus shipping). debating scionwood but may want individual tree.

The OGW one will be 4-5 inches tall. I bought one. Wasn’t worth it and it died.

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Mine is twice the tiny size it started from. I am hopeful it will grow a lot this year.

I babied mine and put it in shade with a cage year one. I was 50/50 at the time whether it would make it.

I’ll look for other sources 1st then.

I always check Peaceful Heritage first, but you have to be quick because they sell out fast. Can’t be called inexpensive, but great quality trees.

In defense of OGW: My experience is also that if you order from them, you are going to get small trees for the price. However, they have an excellent selection, are a well-run nursery and ship things out fast and with good packaging, with fair prices on shipping if you have a substantial order.

I bought more than a dozen pawpaws from them years ago and planted them in the middle of winter in North Georgia. They were indeed tiny, but they had a 100% survival rate, and after a few seasons, several were big enough to start flowering. (I eventually lost some to 2023’s surprise late freeze, but that can hardly be blamed on the nursery.) I should note that I didn’t bother planting them in the shade – they got the full Georgia sun experience starting in their first season in the ground.

For taproot-forming trees with uniquely delicate roots like pawpaws, there’s some argument for planting them small. The little whips don’t seem to do much for the first couple years, but then they really take off and seem to deal well with periods of low rainfall even though they have those gigantic tropical-looking leaves that have to be costing a lot of water. I think this might be due to the deep central taproot – I have dug up a couple small wild specimens and was really impressed with how deep the taproot can go – more than the height of the tree, even into Georgia clay. For whatever reason, it seems that pawpaws are genetically programmed to spend a lot of energy in their first years sending down that taproot.

If you plant a larger tree, you might end up with a compromised taproot, and who knows if one will regrow? The presence of a taproot probably doesn’t matter if the tree is regularly watered, as nutrient uptake probably can only occur in the presence of oxygen in the roots near the surface, but it could be that the taproot provides an advantage to the tree in obtaining water when the surface soil dries out.

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In general I prefer small trees for this reason, unless they are to remain in a pot. I’m also cheap so smaller plants typically cost much less, I’m relatively young so I don’t mind waiting for anything to fruit haha

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I moved and planted in ground in August some trees that the taproot grew through the bottom of their pot for a couple years. Broke off most of the taproot. Trees lived…with water once every 7 days or so rest of year.
I’ll find out this coming year if they do ok minus their taproots.

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In case anyone wants them, Red Fern Farm just opened their scion wood sales. Not all seem updated, but you can still grab some Canopus and a few others as they are adding inventory. Hurry if interested…

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My anti-virus software is showing an insecure website,possible malware,when any part of it is tried.Wonder why?

Screenshot 2024-01-09 184445
The site is using HTTPS with a valid certificate.

Well, shucks. That didn’t last long. They are all sold out of scion wood.

Only Maria’s Joy left at this point for pawpaw. I was way too slow.

Yes, they went very fast as they always seem to each year. Several varieties (Regulus, Sundog and maybe some others) never seemed to show in inventory so I don’t know if the trees just didn’t grow well enough to produce much scion or if they do some pre-sales to nurseries before they open sales to the public.

I was able to get Canopus and Iowa Golden. I’ve never heard any reviews of Iowa Golden, but I like the idea of a variety that ripens in a very short window and shows a good color break. It would make it much easier to just be able to harvest and process them all at once.

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I emailed Sheri Crabtree of KYSU to ask her about Spilt Milk:

I have heard of ‘Spilt Milk’, but only seen pictures online, we don’t have it in our collection and I have never seen it in person. Tobacco Ringspot Virus has been found in pawpaw, and I contacted the people who have done that research and they have not tested Spilt Milk for virus. Variegation can be caused by virus, so it would be interesting to check it to make sure, but from the sound of it and what I have seen in pictures, I would lean towards it being a genetic mutation rather than virus. The virus tends to be seen only on some parts of the tree and usually along the same vascular channel- like one branch will have symptomatic leaves, while the rest of the tree doesn’t. Also the virus tends to change some over time and the tree will usually grow out of the symptoms. Virus infected trees also tend to have distorted leaves (curled, bumpy, etc), which Spilt Milk does not. That all leads me to think it is a mutation and not a virus causing the variegation, but can’t say 100% without it being tested for virus, it is still possible.

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This seems like an interesting project @ZinHead .
Did you end up buying the land? the greener one?
If not, what happened to the 25lbs of stratified seed from 2022?
Hoping you were able to get something going be4 the seeds become less viable.

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