For now I’m waiting for new scions (Al horn white and G4-25). Maybe I would be able to make some crosses this spring…
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I’ve started pruning all my pawpaws so branches start only around the 4’ mark. Best to prune when they are tiny like the one in the photo. That way large pruning wounds are minimized and the trees bounce back rapidly.
Slugs and mollusks feeding on foliage are a substantial issue with pawpaws, so sluggo is a very good preventative. Hardware cloth cage for the win!
I’d kill off that thick bermuda grass around the base with either a combo of cardboard and mulch, or landscape fabric.
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June 2026 I will have more KSU Dunnigan and KSU Pomper’s Choice available for sale
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Sorry i meant for fertalizing. Though i am interested in pompers choice. How long until you sell scions of that you think?
Fertilizing should be done after all chance of frost until about July. Once a month is usually good, using a water soluble fertilizer and a solid fertilizer such as chicken manure or compost. I like to use both.
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The overall pawpaw goal is to keep everything alive and growing. Anything after that will be a bonus.
This fall I planted 3 seedling pawpaws in ground, which are all dormant right now (probably since around Thanksgiving). Excited to see them grow and get them a little better fertilization than I did my first pawpaw.
I also got seeds from @TrilobaTracker last summer from a tree he had leaf out extremely early. Since we rarely have Febuary frost let only late frosts, I figured they would be perfect for here if they keep that trait. 3 of them have already germinated and have sprouted now.
Last fall I also planted 2 Asimina obovata and 3 Asimina pygmaea seedlings. This brings my pawpaw count to 5 species. In addition to keeping the swallowtails off my trilobas, the more Asiminas the better. The pawpaw beetle also pollinates the Annona fruits in central Florida, so making the yard more appealing to them will get me more fruit overall.
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Yes that is my main goal every year with my pawpaw orchard as well.
My other goals this year are to top work mediocre seedlings and suckers, and plant out new grafted trees. I have over 50 cultivars now in the pawpaw library and will be planting out another 8-10 in 2026.
Also I’m continuing to evaluate my pawpaw seedlings for release. I have 3 Suquehanna hybrids / US seedlings I’m gathering data on, with one in particular ‘R7’ that I will likely release in 2027-28. In 2025 it was very high quality.
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I haven’t heard of these insects,so after looking it up,they sound like a group of different ones,like Japanese and Ambrosia.These can be destructive.
Which beetles help pollinate the Annona trees in central Florida?
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Its not called the pawpaw beetle. Pawpaws are pollinated by beetles, quite a few different ones. Annonas are also pollinated by the same beetles, at least in Central Florida. We have them here, but they aren’t in large numbers normally. The more flowers, the more likely the will hang out in my yard more.
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I’m in MO. I have about 8 selected grafted varieties in ground, as well as about 40-50 seedling trees I obtained from MO and KS conservations depts. I also have a patch of about 20 native trees, likely from the same root system. What I would love to see and understand, is a detailed description of the problems, disease issues, vulnerabilities and the like of the selected varieties on their own roots. I love that Pawpaws want to proliferate and develop a patch. I do not like that its just the rootstock that proliferates rather than the selected variety. What are the issues with (Pawpaw variety A, B, C…) on their own roots?
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I’m planning on eating that picture. It may be the closest I ever get.
I’m in New Mexico. I’ve been trying to get pawpaw trees growing for maybe 15 years. In my current location (8 years) I have about 8 trees growing. They are all under 3 feet. I keep losing them over the winter and replacing them. I’m trying a couple different locations.That’s it. Now I’m gonna eat that picture.
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have you looked into the other species of paw paw from florida? OR maybe hybrids of them (which i think peterson might be working on? can contact him for more info)
I started out with selected varieties. They kept dying over the winter for no reason. I read somewhere that others had that problem with the grafted plants so then I tried seedling plants here. However, I also had trouble with them dying over the winter. I tried another grafted named variety and that has actually done better.
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ive heard you can graft onto the florida species. might be worth trying seedlings of those then
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Currently I have 2 varieties, Wabash and KSU Chappell, going on 3rd leaf, in containers. Acquired some 275-48 scions and plan to graft over a seedling I have this spring. Will keep all three trees in container, as we anticipate a change of location in the near future. Nothing crazy exciting, will just be nice to have pawpaw to taste, since the last time was roughly 25 years ago.
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Pawpaws are nearly impossible to root from cuttings. So the only way to obtain a named pawpaw cultivar ‘on it’s own roots’ would be to dig up suckers around the original mother tree of that cultivar.
There are downsides to grafting on rootstock - namely, the grafted portion lasts ‘only’ about 20 years under good conditions. But the ability to produce clones of a named variety via grafting is a huge benefit. Any suckers are the rootstock only and not the grafted portion.
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I do a lot of grafting of prunus, apple and fig. I have not grafted pawpaw myself. Obviously the mother trees of all the selected varieties were on their own roots. Hard to believe that universities/major nurseries cant figure out how to root them. Sounds like a challenge.
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I am saving seed from my producing paw paw trees and crowbaring (digging a narrow hole and dropping in) seeds between the buckthorns on the sides of the property by the neighbors. Someone, maybe in the early 70s soon after the house was built, thought that buckthorn made a nice hedge. And yes, the buckthorns are on my property as I checked on a survey I had taken when I bought the house.
My idea is to start paw paw in the shade of the buckthorn, and when the buckthorns die off (or I encourage the process by either girdling or topping), the paw paw can take over as they do in their natural setting. I am thinking my property is suited for this because it is on the side of a hill that gets a lot of water flow, and paw paw are often found on river banks.
The next idea is that unlike buckthorn, it native, and it is not invasive, that is if you don’t count it sending out runners into the neighbors’ lawns, which one fruit enthusiast warning his neighbor in an affluent suburban community is complaining about his paw paw.
After planting a couple dozen seeds saved from my first fruit crop the year before, I spotted what appeared to be one seedling “that took”, and I gave it a hardware cloth bunny-resistant cage. Or at least I think it was one of the seeds that sprouted than a runner because it is about 20 feet from my paw paw “grove” of my two plants and their clustered runners.
I suppose I could get more plants started more quickly by being more scientific about this, but my idea is to over time keep plugging seeds saved from eating my paw paw. The one thing I changed from the year before is that every morning after I eat some paw paw for breakfast, I crowbar in the still-moist seeds, not letting the seeds dry as you do with say, beans. Paw paws are their own thing with their own habits, and over time I think I am learning The Way of the Paw Paw–when, where and how to plant, when to harvest the fruit before the racoons get it all, how to ripen the paw paw (yes, they will ripen even if you pick them before they are soft-squishy, and Purdue Extension, in Indiana that is in the natural range, confirms).
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I planted some on my fence row. I figure if i have to pull all their rose of sharon saplings and deal with oriental bittersweet vine growing over from their lawn they can deal with mowing over paw paw suckers lol
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My goals are pretty basic: keep them alive. But I’m struggling to establish them after 2-3 years: Either my mediterranean climate is too hot or my soil is too much alkaline. This winter I placed some sulphur, hoping to see some positive results.
No more adding cultivar unless the new KSU will be available across the pond.
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