Pawpaws in 2025!

gonna start these seeds! thank you @TrilobaTracker

still deciding if they pop up i guess I’ll protect them over winter this year then put them out in spring. we do get that bitter cold and the babies don’t like it

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@Blake Any acetogenin info on new KSU 1-4?

Trying to assemble a low-acetogenin group for public food forest. So far these look good: Shenandoah; Overleese; Mango; Sunflower. I gather Chappelle is high but cannot find info on Benson or Atwood.

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KSU has tested it, but I cannot find the actual paper, only a description:

https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/postersatthecapitol/2015/KSU/4/

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Yes, it appears KSU is in no hurry to disclose acetogenin levels in their varieties. Too bad. A state sponsored university should not be playing hide the ball, especially on a health issue.

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Yea there also needs to be better testing methods on larger sample sizes. The research that I have read showed quite a lot of variability even between samples of the same cultivar.

It would also be neat to be able to simulate digestion so you could measure how much is actually absorbed vs broken down through digestion.

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KSU acetogenin test results are probably filed in the safe right behind recipe to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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Must be ripe fruit season. Timothy Lane is going off on the annonacin subject on Facebook as the fear articles and videos are popping up again.

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It’s a long shot but does anyone have any leftover pawpaw scion wood they’d be willing to send to me?

I had some failed takes and left over rootstock and have some reasonable temps coming up next week. I feel like it’s worth trying out some super late (or super early? do people fall bud pawpaw?) budding on pawpaw.

It would be “super late” :sweat_smile:

No scion left here.

Good luck!!

I continue to have 1-2 fruits a day dropping. They really shouldn’t be doing this. I think it’s a reaction to sudden heat/dryness.

The only ones that have been good have been Lehman’s Chiffon.
I have to say this is a unique variety. The flavor strikes me as cotton candy - a very sugary taste without much if any funk that turns many people off.

The only downside is they are small and softer but not watery or overly soft.

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This video upset me. I hope that some of you have other information to balance the point of view in this video. I don’t like the title either. Which varieties are known to be low in those chemicals? Thanks,
John S
PDX OR

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See my post above.

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The only thing I could find on pub med was information showing that paw paws are promising ways to fight cancer, virus and parasites.
John S
PDX OR

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What I find interesting about this Michael Greger EBM recap is that the conclusion is very abrupt from the limited studies. Normally, he/his team don’t outright say things like “don’t eat pawpaw” - especially on limited data. Granted, the studies/case study have really disturbing findings, so “putting it to the test” might not be ethical. But, this is really out of the norm/black and white for him/nutritionfacts.org. My other thoughts and questions persist (in the other pawpaw thread), and I would be really interested to pick some brains at the next nutrition med/andrew Weil/pcrm conference.

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This study was on Google Scholar. They are more balanced and talk quite a bit about both the anti-cancer effects and possible neurotoxins. They basically say that there is reason for concern, but we don’t really know much yet.
John S
PDX OR
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X11001975?via%3Dihub

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Timothy/Ockoo has addressed it. There’s a lot of posts on here on the subject as well.

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I copied a post from about 10 years ago? on this site about varieties that were low in annonacin:

Besides Sunflower and Wells, I have seen Wabash, Potomac and Zimmerman listed as having low annonacin

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I remember I posted that another author, I think it was Michael Judd, was saying that a variety wasn’t good tasting enough to grow. I had thought it was Wabash, but I think I confused it with Wells. He didn’t like Wells. Sorry for not remembering correctly.
John S
PDX OR

The best government study I found on this was: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf504500g

I corresponded with the FDA lead author, who wrote:

No, there is no guidance from the FDA or any other government’s regulatory agency about pawpaw fruit. However, I strongly recommend that you don’t eat the seeds, for they have much higher levels of neurotoxins in them than the fruit.

After much research and talking with Tim and watching his video, where I have come out is: I personally am not worried about eating fresh pawpaw (or any other annona) in season, but I will avoid year-round consumption out of a precautionary principle.

I don’t trust anything posted to NutritionFacts.org because in other areas where I am knowledgeable I have found the primary author to be out of his gourd, and not consistent with the literature.

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Great minds think alike. Robert said something similar to me:

In my opinion, it is safe to eat pawpaw fruits, but not the seeds, as long as it’s part of a balanced diet and as long as you don’t have Parkinson’s disesses

After I asked

I recently read your paper from 2015 on acetogenins on pawpaws “Determination of Neurotoxic Acetogenins in Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) Fruit by LC-HRMS”. I plan to grow and consume the fruit, and the fruit growing community online is split on its potential harm to humans. As a health researcher, can you provide your opinion on the risks associated with chronic consumption of the fruit (a few pawpaws a day for a few months of the year)?
Thank you very much for your help!

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