Some pawpaws are reliably self fertile. The catch is smaller fruit and smaller harvests. None grow from cuttings (suckers, yes).
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Do you know of a list of self-fertile varieties? I’ve heard Sunflower is one, which seemed to bear out last year for me.
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Shenandoah seems to have some self fertility.
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Two years ago,when there wasn’t a pollen source,my Overleese had 3-4 fruit.
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Could you post a closer, more clear photo?
All of my pawpaws have awakened except my first year in ground Chappell planted last fall. The limbs are limber, but I see no sign of bud swell. Is Chappell known to break bud late?
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My Chappell is one of the first breaking bud.
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Just looks like minor slug damage to me, not disease. Mollusks are strongly attracted to pawpaw foliage.
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So the other evening I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with Neal Peterson as I was out in my pawpaw grove. I wanted to ask him a number of questions regarding pawpaw pollination. These were the Q and A of the talk, with my questions and his answers:
Q: I noticed immature flowers of pawpaw tend to have sticky, shiny stigmas within the green or pink petals. Are these immature flowers actually viable to receive pollen? A: YES
Q: Do you notice any characteristics of seedlings you start that tend to show a genetic predisposition for high quality fruit. A: NO. However, he did say that specimens with wider leaves tend towards large fruiting potential. (I notice this with KSU Benson).
Q: Do you use insect proof bags (nylon nut milk bags, etc) or insect netting to prevent cross pollination via insects when performing hand pollination for selected crosses? A: NO. He says when pollinating a fresh flower, he just completely covers the stigmas in pollen so that it would be ‘almost impossible’ for any more pollen to come in contact with the stigmas.
He also shared that pawpaw pollen can be dried and then frozen and will stay viable for up to 1 year! That was a surprise. He said fresh pollen can be dried with dessicant in a jar (the dessicant cannot contact the pollen). He uses loose, sand like dessicant. Within a ‘few days’ the pollen is dry and then can be sealed in bags and frozen. 
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He also shared that Susquehanna and Shenandoah were especially weak and slow growing seedlings. He said he ‘sure was glad he didn’t toss them because they were slow growing’. He pointed out, what is the goal? Is it excellent fruit or vigorous seedlings.
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I have seen evidence of this too, as well as its inverse: e.g. Lehman’s chiffon has narrow (beautiful) leaves and quite small (tasty) fruit.
Likely a valid correlation.
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We’ve had a long stretch of cool, raw, rainy days lately. A few days ago I tried something with seedlings I hadn’t done before and that is pinch off some of the lower growing growth to try to direct most of the energy upward. Well 3” of rain and 48hrs later I have some issues with some of the early leaves on potted grafted and seedling trees. Have any of you had small spotting like this? Is this an excessive water issue and have you seen it go away as the pots dry out a bit?
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So I was looking at these again today as they germinate. I’ve been trying to pull them out and pot them up before they J root. I found it interesting that most of the sunflower seeds have had their radicles emerge and many are already 3-5” long and have feeder roots starting. The others are much slower behind. There’s 1 GRB that had a good 5” taproot, but the others are either just starting or nada. They all have had the same stratification and germination conditions.
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I see this tiny black spotting every year on my mature trees in the same growth stage and weather conditions you describe. It never seems to amount to anything. 
Unsolicited advice but I used to pinch seedlings like you said but decided that was not good. Others have told me this too.
It does push growth up but long term it makes for smaller trunk diameter and possibly wonky branching. I don’t do it anymore. YMMV
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Yeah I think I’m going to stop doing that once the tree is in rapid growth mode. I’ll just stick to pruning off in the late dormant season like I had been. Doing it before a 5 day rainy stretch wasn’t the brightest idea either. They’re enjoying the full sun today though.
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nice, update us in June on this!
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My in ground pawpaw are leafing out, and I was considering starting to graft them today. The weather shows highs in the 80’s thursday and friday, but then 60’s for the following week.
Should I be waiting for warmer weather, or will pawpaw grafts callus ok with temps in the 60’s?
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