I think you haven’t found any info because there isn’t really any
“Acceptable” means different things I guess. Basically the tree will hold the amount of fruit it wants to - it will drop fruit mid-season as a way of self thinning. So there’s that.
But folks usually thin for 2 reasons: larger fruit and easier harvesting.
Fruits in a cluster don’t ripen at the same time, so trying to pick one ripe fruit out of many in a cluster can be difficult.
Since I’m not in the business of selling fruit or seeds, I thin nearly all clusters to one fruit.
This also allows me to bag them to catch their fall.
Size and age of the tree could be considered in the context of “acceptable.” You don’t want a small/young tree loaded with fruit in my opinion. The self thinning takes care of some of that, but if the tree is under 5 feet tall and or very spindly, I would allow 0-2 fruit period.
In my view premature fruiting or overcropping can slow the long term growth of the tree.
My recommendation is to knock off any clearly small or deformed fruitlets and then wait a bit to see what the tree wants to do.
I gave my trees a close look today…found a crap load of scale bugs on them. Well the worst tree had like one or two per branch but they’re still squishy and super gross. They can’t walk anymore once they build their scale, right?
More than half of my KSU sticks — shipped bare root with taproot snipped — seem to be pushing foliage growth in 14" tree pots. So is my Titan, though not my Balarama (likely my fault, given how long I put it in a pot before I transplanted it, not Blake’s).
I was gifted a pawpaw cutting from a Very old tree from SC before it got cut down . the farm sold 10 acres at a time and then when my friend susan passed they cut down the old tree and turned her property into a dog park… so i have a piece of her heart and family with me According to susan her Great grandfather took his grand daughter to go find pawpaws in the wild and found a sapling so they planted it . here is a pic
Thanks for the feedback. The tree in question has 32 fruit clusters, most with 3-4 fruits about the size of a really big lima bean. I think ill go with one fruit on half of them and two on the other half. The tree is 10 ft tall planted in 2014.
This could be vascular wilt but this looks more like hatched out eggs. Several species of insects including peduncle borer make tiny lacerations in the twigs and then deposit eggs that hatch in the spring.
I’m happy to share that my pawpaw orchard is setting a heavy crop of secondary blooms. Should be a good harvest is pollination is good. Hand pollinating now.
here is Oreo in 2025 getting ready i am the only 1 in florence oregon who has pawpaws and i just have the 1 tree. but looking . so Oreo is self polinating ? i see bees flies and ants all over her sometimes a slug or snail but the chickens take them out . looks like a huge crop she started flowering at 3 yrs old but she was a cutting so ?
I could be wrong but I don’t think any pawpaw is reliably self pollinating. Add a graft of any other variety to it would be the easiest way to pollinate it.
that’s her first yr to fruit after that i’ve not taken many photos since she caused a stir with her being a one of a kind . i’ve sent in leaves and all i got back was the guy wanted to buy seeds from me and asked me to name my tree . so i did Oreos templeton after Susan’s family or templetons Oreo . she was a cutting that came to me from a friend who gave me 2 one died but oreo made it before the tree was cut down and susan wanted me to remember her . thing is she never told me she was stage 4 cancer i found out 3 months after i got Oreo
Spray it on the plant . everywhere you see scale and every where you dont . . i leave mine on the first 2 times and then go out an hr later spray again and then whip off . scale do not like vinager and its great for the plants
