1925? Neal looks pretty good for his age! 
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Yes, indeed, he does. Mahatma Pawpaw (R Neal Peterson)has been eating pawpaws for decades, which he attributes to his longevity. There is a post about this on the Facebook Pawpaw Groups. I am on a smartphone, and I have large, cumbersome Neanderthalensis hands. A Typo. Correction- 2025. Thanks for the chuckle. 
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Will post link when I get home to desktop computer
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Hello. I am from Ukraine. The year was difficult - in my region (north-central part of the country, zone 5 b) there were 2 late frosts in the spring, and in the fall in September there were significant cold snaps and continuous clouds and rains.
In recent years, our winters have been dry, almost snowless and relatively warm, rarely for a few days the temperature dropped to - 5 or -10 C, although in previous years the standard was periods of -10 - 15 C and up to -20 -22 C. Snowless winters were bad because in the summer the soil was dry, the rains moistened only the upper layers of the soil and it was necessary to do deep watering (for this I buried pieces of pipe with a diameter of several centimeters and a length of about 50 cm near the root to pour water through these pipes to the root).
This year we have a rare situation - a lot of snow and a significant drop in temperature to -15 -20 C and below, depending on the region. It will last for about 1-2 weeksā¦ But a lot of snow is good. Before the drop in temperature it rained, after the rain a significant drop in temperature began - all the branches are completely covered with a layer of ice. This has its pros and cons.
Usually, I plant young asimins in the ground in the spring, since plants planted in our country in the fall do not have time to take root before winter.
But this time I decided to take a risk and planted more than 10 tiny grafted seedlings of the most valuable and new varieties in the fall. And then severe frosts came.
I am very worried that my young, newly planted seedlings will survive. Therefore, I covered them with agrofibre and completely sprinkled them with snow. I hope this will save them from deathā¦ Now I have about -10 C during the day and up to -16 C at nightā¦
Watch my video, it shows how I did it. The video has automatic subtitles in any language (settings - subtitles - automatic translation - choose your language).
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You might consider hand pollination using the wild pollen, or if wanting something easier, cut a branch with blooming female flowers and put it in a bucket of water by your Peterson patch.
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Thatās my same ph on my clay soil after amendments, but this autumn I laid dawn some micronized sulphur to see if they improve their growth.
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Not yet, I mean I still have to taste most of the 20+ variety I have planted. Not sure If I dare to add others. While iāll wait Iām busy propagating a lot of wild fig seedling I found roaming around the old 1800 farmhouses in my area.
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Beemsterā¦Dutchess County NY Zone 6A
Hi allā¦looking forward to another year growing pawpawsā¦got my first fruit last year from trees planted in 2019ā¦will add 6 additional varieties this year to 5 established varietiesā¦settled on Wabash / the 2 newly released KSU cultivars / Jerryās Big Girl (250-39) / Nyomiās Delicious / Mariaās Joyā¦I picked a good location for the original patch and they grew very wellā¦all untouched for 4 years after my stroke. (except for one watering during last summers extreme drought)ā¦so, Iām just going to expand the original patch in the same location (see my multiple posts from last year) ā¦got ~ 30 fruits last year and expect more than I can eat this yearā¦also plan on planting about 200 seeds along the Dutchess Rail Trail which runs behind my property ā¦my new electric bike (Tricycle) was just delivered which will allow me to traverse the trail and also explore the back of my property which I have not seen in yearsā¦I enjoy this board immensely as I have a whole lot of idle time on my handsā¦finally, I plan to keep accurate records regarding variety bloom and ripening dates for my areaā¦Iād like to ask others in northern climates to do the sameā¦I think it would supply good information for Northern growers in areas outside the natural pawpaw rangeā¦good luck to all for a banner 2026 pawpaw seasonā¦Beemster
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I enjoy this board immensely too and love seeing what others are growing and reading their experiences. Looking forward to reading about your pawpaws!
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Well if you need someone to take some of that extra fruit off your hands you know im down on long island and travel up there regularly 
glad to see your progress.
Also love this board and seeing ehat everyone else does. I find myself insatiable for info about fruit
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How difficult is it to propagate pawpaws by tip- or air-layering?
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Tripods, Iām growing paw paw in the American southwest on very alkaline soil (ph 8) with very hot and dry summers. What I have learned is that shade is critical in high temps until the plant has matured. My only pawpaw that can withstand the sun and heat has been in ground now for I believe 3 years, planted as a seedling. I have another pawpaw thatās been in ground for 3 years as well, but it receives afternoon shade from a nearby tree, I donāt have to provide it. I lost multiple pawpaw to sun and heat damage. 1st and 2nd year plants in ground also need lots of regular water on the hot days. My pawpaw trees are growing very slow, even with ample fertilizer, compared to my other fruit trees, but several are doing well.
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Impossible
At least to my knowledge it hasnt been done yet.
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Hypothetically it would be possible to graft a scion onto a root cutting from an improved variety and get a high quality fruiting variety to spread
I have no idea if this has been attempted and how many cultivars we would have access to to do root grafts with, presumably the KSU varieties at least, though some of those mother plants may have been destroyed already
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There definatelt needs to be some work put into developing good rootstock. Any super high or low vigor trees should be looked at for dwarfing or non dwarfing rootstock. Same with any that do very well in certain soils
The problem with using a high value cultivar as the roots is how do you root it if you cant air layer or tip root? You can do seeds from improved cultivars though
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You donāt root it. You cut roots from it and graft a scion to the top. You supply the leaf buds with the graft and the root buds with the root cutting that is grafted to
Iām much more interested in a high quality fruit variety that is long-lived because itās in patch form instead of a short lived single trunk.
A vigorous rootstock would be nice too but Iām less interested in that
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Right but in an improved variety theyre not the root system, unless you mean the mother trees. But those arent widely available
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Iām talking about the mother. Hence the back half of the first post
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