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I’ve been noticing something a little odd with pawpaws this year. In different locations I’m seeing pictures of ripe fruit that either have shriveled-up seeds or no seeds at all. I’m seeing it with different varieties too so it kind of threw me.
Makes me wonder what’s going on. Could it be the weather this year? Drought, heat, pollination issues?
Anybody else run into this with their own trees or fruit lately? And if so, did the seedless ones taste any different?
Curious what y’all are seeing.
Here are a couple screen shots from various posts I’ve seen.
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You can look at my photo above, but I thought mine were like that because it was an aborted fruit
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I had several susquehannas like that last year.
This one got a little too ripe by the time I cut into it.
All of them were aborted and shriveled up. Last year was hot and dry too. We had more rain this spring, but it has been pretty dry for several weeks now. We’ll see how this years fruits look.
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This is from Potomac. All of the seeds looked flat like this but so far only in the one Potomac fruit ive had this season. I did some controlled crosses of Susquehanna X Potomac and was actually looking forward to getting these seeds but they are not viable.
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thanks for posting that. im not sure what to say. might have missed a couple over the years. though i hope hes wrong because i did some potomac grafts this year because of the flavor and that i knew it would ripen here in iowa. im going to go out there again in a couple weeks so ill bring it up.
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Check out local foraging spots near you if you dont have any luck buying fruits
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I think you’ll be okay, as long as we continue to have really hot summers.
First one to drop this year
Susquehanna
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Love it. Nice large trees there. What a vibe.
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Interesting! An aborted seed or two, sure, but I’ve never seen this … anywhere ever.
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Last fruit of the season, “Big Ben”.
Something took a chunk out of it. Varmints have eaten every last BB.
Most pathetic pawpaw season ever for me.
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my Chappell bunch (Aug. 23)…earlier pictures of same bunch in posts 845 and 931…no sign of ripening…hard as a rock…looking stout…also, another shot of the patch…5 trees there
Chappell is the big one…planted in 2019…grown untouched since May 2021…multiple bunches on two other trees…nearest tree got hit by a tree coming down in a thunderstorm last summer from the tree line behind the patch… but it seems to have recovered nicely…my first homegrown pawpaws less than a month away!
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Wish I had taken a pic, but that Susquehanna fruit only had 3 viable seeds, the rest were shrivelled.
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Thanks. I always plan to attend the Ohio pawpaw festival, but I can never afford to travel there. I also have festivals and events in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky that I have on my radar. I just learned about the one in Illinois this past winter, which is pretty close, so I plan on attending that. But it appears to be new and small, so I don’t know if we can even sample fruit at that one. Maybe someday I’ll be able to attend some of these others, but I’ve been saying that for 15 years. People on other sites have specifically recommended JustPeachy to me, to buy fruits from, but he hasn’t responded yet to a PM that I sent him 10 days ago. Since he lists his location as Chicago suburbs, he is probably within about 100-120 miles from me, especially if he is in the western suburbs. So far, that seems to be the closest that I have found.
PS. Foraging is kind of tough for me since I am old and arthritic. And my son can’t help because he is in a wheelchair.
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Nice looking fruit. That one was really a standout this year! The varmints seem to have good taste as well 
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So does anyone have any knowledge about the new Neal Peterson cultivar being released and announced at the KSU conference?
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No clue, but I wonder if it could be an ornamental type. I think he had an ongoing project trying to get a cold hardy hybrid, that has large white flowers.
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It could be ‘308’ but I’m not totally sure.
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Similar sort of stuggle for me on the West Coast.
I asked JustPeachy both last year and this. Last year he was MIA, apparently traveling, and this year, the last I got a response from him was 18 days ago when he said about all his fruit was already tied up, but he’ll see what he can do.
I did eventually find a forum member willing to ship a couple fruits, but like seemingly everyone else here, they’ve had a terrible year for them, so I think those few are about all he can send.
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