I would also add that sus. is much sweeter and has a more dense flesh compared to shen.
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Do you know if “Halvin” and “Halvin Sidewinder” are the same or different trees? Maybe you can ask Halvin since i see from this post i replied on that you are friends with him. It would be nice to find out.
Cliff I think puts them listed as separate varieties on his page. This is the info I found about them. Seems like they both very early pawpaws, but maybe Halvin has better/larger fruit?
Halvin - “Pawpaw found by Tyler and Danae Halvin in Iowa. Fruit is 8 to 14 ounces. Great flavor (very sweet, no after taste), has a hint of pineapple flavor. Original tree was growing as an under store tree. Stated to be the largest native pawpaw fruit to be found in southwestern Iowa, not far from Bedford, IA. It is 3 weeks earlier than all other pawpaws.”
Halvin Sidewinder: From Tyler Halvin: “I have a selection called sidewinder that ripens in July. It’s an oddity. The fruits aren’t big but very early to mature. That patch has since been cleared for road development.”
I remember when information about the Halvin variety was being shared.Then Tyler showed a section of trunk,because the tree had died.
Halvin Sidewinder information was published a few years later,in my recollection.
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@CAvocado – I have limited experience but I’ve read a ton, including Blake Cothron’s book.
FWIW I picked Allegheny, Wabash, Sunflower. Before any research, I also bought Tropical Treat.
I bought Allegheny for its early ripening and good reported flavor. I bought Wabash and Sunflower for good flavor and low toxicity, though Sunflower may be too late here. Presumably, early ripening is not an issue for you.
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They are different, but I dont think that sidewinder actually ripens in July….I got these fruits from Cliff atbthe end of August, and there was still unripe fruit on the tree.
last two photos of cut open fruit are sidewinder
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Yeah, I think thats correct. Sometimes get an early freeze around mid November, but we haven’t really gotten anything serious until late December/January in a few years. I don’t think we’ve gotten a decent freeze yet this winter; just too busy getting rain.
I’ve kinda been planning on getting my plants in the next couple weeks. If they’re slow growing I’d better get started right?
I hear they like water, so I’ve been planning to plant them near a creek bed were we dug a hole that never runs dry. Good sun, decent heat, and better soil than most places, but lots of weeds and bigger green junk growing around there.
I do have other options, unless I grow them in a cold, damp silt pit, it’ll be hotter, likely with a clay hardpan on top that tamps down most weeds. The trees should be able to find water but it’ll probably take longer.
I’ve mostly heard about KSU pawpaw, but I’d love to learn more about Lehman’s pawpaws too.
Check out the book. It has brief reviews of dozens of pawpaw names.
Supposedly pawpaws are sensitive to intense sunshine in the initial ya or two. Be prepared to shade your for a while.
This is a question about pawpaw sap. I cut a large lateral branch from our 4 year old pawpaw 2 months ago (10 feet tall and producing). We are in 7a. Now that it is warm outside, the wound is generating a lot of sap. Much more than any tree that I have seen. I worry that this means the tree will not get nutrients to the branches above. I tried to clean it with the garden hose. My wife says that the sap, if I let it flow, will act as a sealant and eventually will form a scab so the bark can grow over it. Any comments?
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Very interesting - I thought (from what I read so far) that it takes years and years to get blooms and fruit set. Did you end up getting any fruit?
It can be as few as 4 years from seed.
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That’s really exciting. Gives me hope that I can get a grafted 1-2 year old plant and see some fruit sooner rather than later.
Any recs for specific varieties for Southern California Zone 10?
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Really sorry to hear that. Wish you all the best on your recovery. (Just seeing this).
Cherimoya?
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Sorry - Paw Paw varieties.
Also looking into Cherimoya and Sugar Apples separately so I’ll take any variety recs and advice from more experienced folks here on basically anything 
…. (And I saw that they are related).
Like any tree, the thicker the cut, the longer it takes to callus over. It wouldn’t worry too much about sap leakage, unless we are talking about Black Walnut or Mulberry levels of sap flow, where it never dries and the bark below stays wet for entire weeks, then you should be fine. Even the wild pawpaws I’ve seen others graft to don’t have excessive sap flow when grafted.
Just curious, but do you have a picture. Where are you located? If the pawpaw is 10 feet tall, how far up was the lateral branch? How big are the leaves right now?
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Halvin’s Sidewinder is consider heavy and despite the relatively deep yellow in @treefrogtim’s picture, Halvin’s is considered light to medium.
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Pawpaws natively are often found near stream banks, creek beds, where presumably the seed has washed up. They won’t grow in standing water like plums though if that is what you’re thinking. Prunus americana and myrobalan, cerasifera can tolerate flooded areas, where you have days or maybe even weeks of standing boggy water. Pawpaws they’ll do fine next to a lake or other body of water though, they just won’t like standing water. I assume anywhere with a 1’ water table might need a raised mound for planting.
If the soil is really acidic I don’t really know what the long term effect of that will be. Most of the pawpaws native range is fairly neutral or at least close to neutral, so I suppose acidic depends on your relative definition.
I do know that in hardpan clay soil pawpaws can sometimes have a hard time putting down their long tap root, but this just means they grow more dwarfing and shrub like. I’ve seen this first person several times in several states.
You pawpaw heads are nuts. Just call up Cliff (@KYnuttrees). No online sales. Cheaper scion, cheaper shipping, bigger selection. RFF and PH have interesting pawpaws seedlings in their own right which they have grown out, but I having tasted several of them them, IMHO (caveat taste differ from person to person) I still don’t think they are better than KSU, those from Woody Walker (“freestone” series + Kentucky Champ, K. Legend, etc…), and certainly not better than Lehman’s latter releases.
Woody Walker sells scion for $1 a bud last I checked. You can contact him via his pawpaw planet FB page. His shipping is at cost + maybe a dollar. He sold as late as early May last year if I recall correctly. His trees were 35 bucks in treepots (I think).
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Some great points, and I agree on pawpaws not really liking super heavy clay. My backyard patch is basically super sticky clay subsoil(gray, sticky, and tough to dig), and those trees are about a year behind my front yard trees that have just regular clay based topsoil(not hard to dig at all, but will hold together).
You mention trying some of the varieties from RFF and Peaceful Heritage. Do you happen to have any photos or any notes on them? Seems like the RFF selections have lots of hype but very little in the way of data. I even went to their farm a few years back but I wasnt able to taste any of their selections.
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I have off the cuff notes but nothing like detailed analysis if that is what you’re after. The photos are on my other travel laptop in a massive pile of travel pictures, but I haven’t sorted through that folder of photos yet.
This isn’t specific to RFF and PH. I had photos of Cantaloupe, Marshmallow, Honeydew, Halvin, Kentucky Champ, Orianna’s Orange (which isn’t orange btw and its not a mistake/mislabel according to Cliff), and a bunch of others I took last year. Honestly, I could switch them all around with probably Lehman pawpaws and you couldn’t tell the difference (in appearance, taste another matter) unless one cultivar was known to be very dark fleshed like Susquehanna or very pale like Al Horn’s White. Though, I’ve seen some years with a paler but not pale Susquehanna.
Even size isn’t reliable to judge since you can get relatively larger pawpaws from pawpaws that have a tendency to be smaller by thinning, and vice versa. I.E. a large Allegheny or a small Susquehanna, and I guarantee that the nurseries are picking the fattest biggest pawpaw of that entire harvest to show online when they sell scion or trees.
I had a really really big Allegheny last year that anyone owning an Allegheny wouldn’t have thought possible.
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The book is a good guideline. I believe two of the Lehman pawpaws have the wrong number code associations (I think it’s benny’s and something else) listed, and to be completely fair to all the pawpaws, the grades of many of the pawpaws were not tasted first hand, relying instead on consensus of others like Cliff and Neal.
If you need someone to advise you on pawpaw cultivars and has tasted them first hand, I would send an email to Cliff or Neal and tell then what you are looking for and they will respond and send you some suggestions that suit your palette. What they like may not be what you like and vice versa, but they have a good idea of the pawpaw taste matrix that may guide you if you know what you are after.
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