Thanks for this. Can you give me the name of the town your friend lives in? I’m a degreed meteorologist so I can get a feel for the different microclimates across the New England region. For instance I’m a zone 5 in NH, but there are parts of SE MA that rarely get below 0F that can pull off later spring freezes and earlier fall freezes than me on my hillside in C NH. Some of those lower areas from (using airport codes) OWD-TAN-MVY radiationally cool really well. As most people here know, not all growing zones are created equal.
Are there any other earlier ripening varieties you’d recommend? I’ve been discussing it with Blake as well, but I always like additional input from people who have tried the fruits. Vigor is nice, but I’m more concerned about the taste…and obviously nothing too late with ripening.
He lives in Marlborough,MA. He grows a lot of late season varieties that I wouldn’t think work there but they do. Susquehanna, Potomac, Tropical Treat etc. It’s hard to choose but I would go for a mix of early, mid and late ripening varieties from Peterson, KSU or Lehman.
Yeah…the tl;dr version of my long post of what I have growing right now is…
Shenandoah
Tallahatchie
Potomac
Allegheny
KSU Chappell
KSU Atwood
Nyomi’s Delicious
Maria’s Joy
Overleese
Mango
Al Horn’s White
Golden Moon
So I have a good mix of KSU and Peterson plants although I did consider Wabash and Benson. I wanted to dive into some varieties from other sources like Lehman, Halvin, Walker, England, etc.
Anything that doesn’t ripen until October in KY is likely not a good bet here. I occasionally get my first freeze in the 2nd half of the month, but it’s pretty rare. It’d have to be an exceptional variety to put in the care needed to only get ripe fruit 10% of the time (I assume Prima and October Moon are in that camp).
I think Susquehanna would grow here despite 2 deaths. I think it’s just coincidental bad luck. I mean one of them died in a winter where my coldest low was only -1F. Last season we were in the -10s a couple of nights. Maybe a thicker caliper plant from Blake would have better survival. But I think I’ll just take one of my coldest hardy, vigorous seedlings and just field graft a scion onto that instead.
As for Marlborough…that’s definitely warmer than here, but it would come down to his geography with regard to his freezing climo. The Worcester airport temperature climatology changed quite a bit in the 1930s when they made a site change from a lower elevation to around 1000ft. I may give a tropical treat a shot either way. As the kids say these days…“YOLO”. Or maybe in the pawpaw’s case it’s “you only die once”.
Oh you have a nice collection going already! I’ve been collecting for a few years and I am growing most of everything available from those guys. I also found several really high quality wild trees that I’m excited about. I just grafted them into my backyard orchard this spring. I also did a lot of scion trading this spring with members of this and other forums and grafted a lot of new varieties. I would give Susquehanna another try. I’ve only had a few but they were fantastic.
I agree Susquehanna is the best of the best!
Going to use her in (Asimina triloba x Annona Reticulata) interspecific hybridization.
She seems to be more heat tolerant than most.
Going for desert tolerant triloba too.
Maybe cross her with early triloba for cold environments too.
People like weatherandtrees deserve to enjoy her elegance also.
Anyone here ever get their hands on one of those variegated pawpaws? Heritage Seed has a couple of Spilt Milk ones available on Etsy for a hefty price tag. At the least it looks like a cool ornamental.
I would bet that any pawpaw grown in Kentucky full sun in an Orchard setting would ripen before October. I know some years I’m harvesting wild pawpaw’s well into October but they are in full shade.
I got a Jerry’s Big Girl, Windstar 275-48x275-50, and a Valley East 21. The VE-21 is really early so of all of my trees that one should consistently ripen every year. The other 2…we’ll see. I wanted some bigger Lehman genetics and the Cliff England cross is supposed to be a good one too.
I think from this point on I’ll be growing my own seedlings (already have some from the past 2 years) and grafting my own.
I think next year I may try direct seeding and being sure to protect them from voles. I’m thinking 3 seedlings in a growing plot and letting the strongest and hardiest survive. That will give them their own undisturbed taproots as well.
I was there and picked up 3 out of the 4 on my list. That sale was Stressful! …like the fig cutting season kind of stressful. The website was really bogged down and slow, so there must have been a lot of folks shopping. Stuff was selling out quickly, too. I’m really happy I was able to get what I did. I picked up Jerry’s Big Girl, Horn’s White, and KSU Atwood. I wanted Susquehanna, but I’m sure I will pick up in spring somewhere. I just checked back in and there are a lot of great cultivars still available
I have an Al Horn from him and it has grown well for me this year in z5b. But yeah, his site gets swamped each year when he opens up the pawpaw availability.
I wanted more, but I had to watch the budget with the price increases.
environments too.