The Red Fern Farm selections seem highly worth propagating and have excellent genetics. I have all of them but no fruit yet. SAA Zimmerman is one that I have in my collection, and after trying it have concluded it is very mediocre. I can see why it seemed like something quite good 20 years ago, but like most of the older pawpaw cultivars, it’s little more than a better than average wild pawpaw. It got the orange spray paint and I am topworking it in 2025.
That ties into my 2025 theme of Promoting amazing new pawpaw cultivars that should be much better known (and are WAY better than most of the old popular cultivars).
This is something many out there still don’t grasp. Nearly every old pawpaw cultivar has been surpassed by newer ones of the last 10 years. It’s hard to understand this if your pawpaw experience is very limited.
Pawpaws are not like apples. Heirloom apples are sometimes (usually) considered better than modern apples in terms of flavor profile, uses, storage, texture, etc. Pawpaws are a wild fruit that is at most only several generations from the wild. KSU Atwood, for instance, is merely a seedling from wild Maryland seed, or at most one generation removed. However, heirloom apples, even though ‘old’ are still hundreds of years or more removed from their wild ancestor apples. They were selected, cross bred, selected, again and again. So, they were developed and highly selected for certain positive traits over extended amounts of time (or were sometimes just really good ‘chance seedlings’ that came from highly selected parentage.)
Pawpaws, on the other hand were wild yesterday, so to speak. Most of the older cultivars are wild seedlings selected for decent flavor and larger than average size. And the fact is, the newer selections are proving to simply be a lot better eating. Drastically diminished seed weight, better flavor, better production, more flesh.
Of course, some people may be attached to certain old cultivars, and to each their own. But when I hear people are planting ‘Mango’ and ‘Wells’ and even ‘Sunflower’ I’m just left thinking they have no idea how much better the newer cultivars are comparatively.
For instance, I’ve been fruiting KSU Chappell for a few seasons now, and it is just an absolute winner. It’s crazy productive, grows extremely fast, and the large fruits are just luscious and amazing. Blows most older cultivars out of the water completely on all fronts.
I’m very careful when I release new pawpaws into the nursery trade. They have to be GOOD. VERY GOOD. I have become ruthless in my criteria, because frankly I can’t even eat most pawpaw fruit out there it’s so mediocre. It has to check a lot of boxes. That ‘wild pawpaw flavor’ I find totally nauseating, and so it has to not have that for sure.
As of right now a number of my releases have yet to catch on, in part due to the relatively small quantity of trees I can graft and sell each year, and the fact that it takes them years to fruit and get people excited, but I think in time my selections will gain more favor. I have been selling large amounts of scion wood the last few years, and this helps.
