Whew, most of them if I am being honest. Peterson’s, KSU’s and some of our own have me spoiled. I only like to eat the very best at this point. I can’t stand the ‘wild pawpaw flavor’. Maybe my body is sensing high acetogenins or something.
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I wish, went up to an orchard in north central IN that has a few advanced selections that have reached fruiting age. HI 1-4, HI 7-1, and Hy3-120 all pretty close together…seedlings will hopefully be excellent.
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The new 2024 release originated in the semi-wild in Versailles, KY. It is a nearly white fleshed variety. Medium seed weight with nice creamy flesh of pleasant texture. Very good flavor and attractive, blemish-free plump medium-large fruits. The tree is a vigorous grower and was one of the only trees in the orchard that had fruit in 2023. Zero disease on this one so far.
I wish I had done some flavor notes on it, at this time I cannot say much about the flavor except that I thought it was superior and all things considered worth releasing into the nursery trade.
Name: ‘Balarama’. (Ball - uh - rom - uh)
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Is Balarama an early, mid, or late season fruit?
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@Blake I believe this is the one i sent you a few years back? If so i found it in Florence Ky. I haven’t been able to get ripe fruit from it since then so ive grafted it in my yard. I spoke to Neal Peterson and he really wanted to try this one but i haven’t been able to get any fruit sent to him.
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I’m also narrowing my selection to only the finest. I live in an ocean of wild pawpaw and I don’t eat any of them. The aftertaste is to much. So far my best is an improved seedling. It’s white flesh with a vanilla marshmellow taste and no aftertaste. I’ve got Peterson and KSU varieties, but this seedling is not the standard flavor. Unique flavors are my latest kick in fruit growing.
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Which would you say are the finest? To put it another way, if you could pick 5 pawpaws that you think would be most likely to be on anybody’s top 15 list, which would those be?
Several of my pawpaws killed above the graft by a late frost this year, and I need to choose what to try to graft this spring.
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That’s hard to say, I only have 7 varieties and a couple improved seedlings. I’ll let the others chime in on that. As stated above I’m searching for the ones that break out of the standard pawpaw flavor.
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I would pick KSU Chappelle; Susquehanna; Sunflower; Overleese; and my own seedling “Steve’s Best.”
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HI Preston, yes, indeed it is. Ok, Florence Ya’ll not Versailles. Got it! Nice find and thank you very much for sharing this superior pawpaw with me and soon the world.
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It seems mid season. Although this year it was hard to tell!
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Im glad to see it being introduced. Maybe Florence will soon be known for more than that silly water tower. Well atleast in the pawpaw community.
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Any room in your top ten for Wabash and a Lehman? Would you please share with us something about "Steve’s Best’ pawpaw?
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Ahhh Shucks. Sorry to hear that. 
. oh well, fortunately you grow many other fine fruiting plants; and for this I am Happy.
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I was just listing Top 5. Have not eaten a Lehman but bet they’re excellent. Ditto Wabash. Steve’s Best is a Select Seedling from Edible Landscape around 2008, tastes tropical to me.
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I had a nice long talk with Neal Peterson last night and he informed me he has sights on a new pawpaw release in 2025, hopefully. Will be interesting to see what that’s like.
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I wish I could find a Paw Paw fruit to try locally.
I ordered two grafted trees last year and neither woke up from dormancy.
I have ordered two seedlings for next year; hopefully I will have better luck with those. If I don’t like them, then they will be useful to the wildlife and if I do like them, then they will still be useful to the wildlife (against my will ha ha) and also, the suckers will be a variety I like instead of rootstock.
Isn’t there anyone I can buy fruit from and have it shipped on here? I really would like to try Shennandoah, Susquehanna and Allegany.
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How does Marshmallow taste?
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Good but not great. It’s a little milder than some of the better ones. No weird flavors or bitter aftertaste though. Just not a whole lot of depth.
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