Yep, 1000 feet up on the far southeast side of Newfound angled west, so a long day of a southwestern exposure (do you run the Bristol/Newfound twitter accounts I’ve long followed?). My dad cleared some trees to unblock solar panels on the roof and is thinking of putting an orchard there; I stumbled across pawpaws while looking for unusual fruit in this area, and fruit that could take some shade up in the back.
Thanks for the tip on the nitrogen. I always sucked in chemistry and my fertilizer game lags all my other horticultural pursuits. I don’t need them to produce fruit anytime soon, I just think it would be fun.
I tend to think in spreadsheets when researching a new hyperfixation, so I was thinking of creating a Google Sheet that would have a row for every cultivar, and a column for attributes like:
Name of cultivar
Season (early, mid, late)
Annonacin levels (if known)
Plant notes
Tasting notes
Does something like that exist already? If I made it, would people in this thread be interested in contributing to it? I’m finding it hard to map all of the cultivars since they are spread across so many nurseries and I haven’t yet found an ag school with a comprehensive directory like some of the California schools have for citrus.
There is a pawpaw cultivar list on this site listing when breed or discovered, by whom & who sells it.
However, understand there are numerous mistakes even in some of the scientific literature.
Like NC-1 might not be a (Davis x Overleese) hybrid & is only a genetic distance of 2 from Potomac, but a distance of 7 from Overleese. Shenandoah is a distance of 11 from Overleese.
Susquehanna is 86.2% identical to Wabash, but only 70% identical to Potomac its presumed sibling.
If you do publish something, then the flaws in current documentation need to be corrected rather than proliferated.
More genetic tests need to be done!
BEF#53 was most likely pollinated by BEF#30 to create Susquehanna(11-5)
BEF#30 was most likely pollinated by BEF#53 to make Wabash(1-7-2)
Potomac (4-2) most likely had the same pollination parent as (2-10) else they would not have a genetic distance of 2.
I’m growing a handful of types that I think will do well here, we get pretty extreme weather. and the pawpaws I ate in the woods as a kid aren’t going to taste the way these named ones will.
Looking good man. Unfortunately the third and final tree I bought in 2019 just died back this year. It had lots of flowers but the late frost did it in. I will have to re-graft Shenandoah; fortunately the rootstock is taking off like the other two did and I should have a short turnaround until fruiting.
If you are growing in the Northern USA early ripening is important.
Early pawpaw cultivars:
Allegheny, VE-21, KYC, Summer Delight, (2-10/Summer Delight), 2-10, WindStar, 166-20, Caspian, Avatar, Lehman 2015, VE-5, Taytoo, RLG4, Sundog, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Atwood, Benson, Maria’s Joy, Regulus, Rigel, Marshmallow, Danae’s Creekside, Shenandoah, SAA Overleese, Pennsylvania Golden #1 & #2, Halvin, Zimmerman (SAA & SAB & SAC), Lehman’s Delight, Benny’s Favorite, (2-10 x Mammoth).
A number of people have early wild selections that are unique to them.
Scott Cox, David @Vid, Hansel, Tom Wahl, @Osteen, Woody Walker, Ron Powell, Clifford England.
Hi Petey, In my book Pawpaws: the Complete Growing and Marketing Guide I have over 150 cultivars listed with as much info as I could find. That may help you in your endeavor. Buying a new copy of the book supports my work as the author.
They may be near some of my friends. They’re 1100’ up on John Smith Hill Rd with a SW exposure as well. And no I don’t run those Twitter accounts, but I know my friend does run some up there so it may be him. He’s a big weather enthusiast.
Didn’t you say in one of your videos that you have massive amounts of high pH Calcium in your soil causing Magnesium deficiency in the leaves even though soil tests didn’t show deficiency?
Couldn’t this excess high pH be the reason for slow growth in the soil?
Yes, something like 10k pounds per acre. This of course does result in alkaline conditions but also conflicts with magnesium and potassium directly, not just due to the pH.
Magnesium is actually slightly more available at higher (alkaline) pH if you believe those charts.
So this also tells me it’s a cation competition issue.
The pawpaw cultivar "Mango’ which is widely available in the nursery trade today, likely originated as a seedling from Corwin Davis seeds which were sent to the University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton Ga. for trialing in that part of the country. There was reportedly a mother pawpaw tree found by Major Collins (circa 1960) growing ‘wild’ on Billy’s Island which is located in the Okefenokee swamp in southeast Georgia. This tree became known locally as the mango pawpaw tree. Seedlings of this tree became known as Collins pawpaw trees. The relation (if any) of the Billy’s Island mother tree and her progeny to the ‘Mango’ pawpaw sold in the nursery trade today is unknown to me.
