Great to see pawpaws in Kansas, Sir. Have you reintroduced the mighty ‘Sunflower’ pawpaw cultivar to its mother state of Kansas? I wonder if the Mother tree lives on through colonal suckering somewhere close to where it was discovered by Milo Gibson?
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@39thparallel has both the milo gibson apple and sunflower pawpaw. Some parts of Kansas are easier places to grow things like Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Lansing etc are easir places to groww things.
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Okay, thank you. Best wishes to you.
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Fruit at a local park. Seems like they’ll end up getting pretty big or would if people didn’t pick them like a month early.
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…Dutchess County NY Zone 6A…planted my first pawpaws (from Charles West in Jersey) in 2019 and 2020 (Chappell / Atwood / Shenandoah / Susquehanna / Potomac / Allegheny)…first fruit this year after 2 years when none of the flowers pollinated…my question is should I thin the bunch(s)
to at most 4 fruits per bunch…seems like 7 in a bunch could be problematic for the branch…see picture…unfortunately, lost my map so don’t know which variety this is…my bad…but I suspect Chappell by its vigorous growth rate…I am so looking forward to tasting them.
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First time a pawpaw is fruiting, it’s common for them to abort the fruits right? Is there anything that can minimize this, or is it just that the tree is too young (~6 years old)?
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Purely on an age basis, that’s not too young.
But depending on size (looks twiggy), it could be considered “unready” for holding fruit.
That being said, yes, it’s normal for them to drop fruit this time of year.
Did it drop ALL its fruit?
If so, could be some kind of acute stress such as heat, drought, drought followed by heavy rain, disease, etc.
IME if a tree is just not mature enough to hold fruit, it wouldn’t necessarily wait this long to drop them all, know whaddimean?
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There was just a heat wave, it is a little twiggy imo, and it didn’t drop all of them. For all those factors hopefully this year is still the year for fruit!
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…in general, how long would it take new grafts to flower and not only pollinate several non producing mature tress (apparently all came from the same root sucker) but also be pollinated by that same non producing tree…My friend on Long Island was given several rooted suckers many (15+) years ago …apparently they came off the same tree…so ZERO paw paws in all that time…I told him I would give him scions of named varieties that he should graft onto his trees and the pollination issue would be solved…I think after he samples my first fruit, he will finally give it a try…he is certainly capable to learn how to graft …what size scions should I provide?..when should they be taken?..I can provide scions of all 6 varieties I listed in my last post…thanks…Beemster
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1-3 years. Ive had branch grafts flower the following year, but more of a top working graft usually flowers in its 3rd season(if the graft is growing well, usually grows really fast on established stock). So if he grafted next spring, most likely, not going to see those grafts flower until spring of 2028(could be later). In the mean time hand pollination is a good option.
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…thanks…I will suggest that…he is 76 and may not think the wait is worth it…how can he hand pollinate?..I could cut off a branch off one of my trees that is in bloom…but he is in Zone 7B (Long Island) while I’m in 6A (Dutchess County)…I think there is at least a 20 day bloom time difference…is it possible to cut a branch with multiple fruit buds very early, bring it inside, put in water and kind of force it into bloom…If I got the timing right, would it work?..essentially forcing the flowers on my branch to open 20 days before they would naturally in my area.
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Larisa im in florence oregon Howdy Neighbor. make sure you plant your tree where it can get some shade
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Yes, I have figured that one out, having killed 3 pawpaws already in pasture 
. I have 2 that look really good in afternoon shade. Not growing as fast as I would like, but I think that’s rodent pressure. I drive through Florence a couple times a year to take my mom to see her old home in Yachats. It’s definitely cooler and windier longer in the spring and earlier in the fall where you are. When my kids who live in North Dakota and Washington DC) on one of these trips, they are always amazed, year after year, and they’ve never packed hoodies.
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Looks more like a taste test and the animal said “no thanks”. 
Any sign of bud life on those grafts yet?
Looks like a couple keep doing it. My dad says there is a woodchuck nearby. I put it on my list today to get some of that chicken wire you recommended.
I was last at home with the grafts on Tuesday. No sign of life at that time, but it’s been warm this week. I’ll be back home tomorrow to check on them (gave them a deep watering before I left, and we’ve gotten a lot of rain)…
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Yeah I had a woodchuck chew back a transplanted seedling on the edge of my woods. It’s regrown a foot and hasn’t been touched since despite a mother and 3 whistlepig babies.
Hopefully there’s some push in the buds. If you have any green “stubble” trying to sucker below the grafts just rub it off for now.
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So I’ve still yet to have a Pawpaw (my local festival is the same weekend I’m always out of town) but ordered some cherimoya and atemoya recently and they almost were kinda stringy. Do pawpaws have that same texture?
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I have had something in that family of fruits (it was a sugar apple) and can say the textures are not similar at all. The texture of that fruit was a little sandy, like the center of a pear. Its flavor was amazing but the texture was subpar.
I have had many pawpaws and none of the ones I had were stringy or sandy.
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Yeah, many Anona can be cottony/stringy.
I have some fresh guanabana in my fridge and it’s annoyingly “cottony” or fibrous. No matter how much you chew it doesn’t seem to break down.
As @zone7a stated, not pawpaw. They can be chewy, watery, or dry, but not fibrous, grainy, or stringy.
Everyone has their preferred pawpaw texture but for me it’s perfect when it’s like a wonderful fiberless mango, which is common in superior pawpaw varieties.
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