Thinking about getting just 2 pawpaw varieties in the ground in 2024. since they are juglone tolerant I have plenty of places to plant them near all my black walnuts (but with good sun). Thinking about getting started with Shenandoah and Susquehanna, but very open to suggestions. While flavor is highly subjective, I’ve read Shenandoah is more neutral in flavor and good for newbies and mid ripening, while Susquehanna is more fruity/tropical with more pawpaw-y flavor and later ripening. thought those sounded like good complementary varieties. thanks in advance.
@Bigmike1116
I believe you’ve made good choices. As for sources I had the most success with cultivars from One Green World and Peaceful Valley. One Green World also offers a waiting list – highly recommended.
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This doesn’t necessarily help with the precise question, but I know of a number of great wild specimens along hiking trails in Maryland and northern VA, in case you want to try some of those next summer/fall, and perhaps collect scionwood from the ones you liked next winter. Just PM me for locations! My absolute favorite pawpaw of all time grows in the Patuxent Research Refuge.
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Thanks for the offer but I’m not a hiker (or much of a walker at all). both of my femurs and my right foot were deformed from birth so I’ve had issues including osteoarthritis since I was 19 (and I’m 39 now). getting around isn’t easy. I’m just going to stick to named grafted cultivars for now that I can order online. thanks anyway!
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Mike I’d recommend Chapell and Regulus if you are only going for two.
Others if you have trouble tracking those down would be Maria’s Joy, Lehman’s Delight, or Jerry’s Big Girl.
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why those varieties?
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Id take Chappell over Susquehanna. Chappell is very vigorous and produces lots of large fruit with a better flavor than Susquehanna. I haven’t personally tasted regulus. Your climate is an important consideration, since in the northern part if the range Chappell and Susquehanna(or other later ripening cultivars) may struggle to ripen the whole crop.
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Taste, vigor, and production are very good from my understanding.
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I think southern Anne Arundel County, Maryland is as close to perfect pawpaw climate as you can get, and there shouldn’t be any concerns about any cultivars ripening there.
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Both of the ones you listed are good choices. That gives you a mild white and a hardcore darker one. I have both of them a few hours west of you. There are no “beginner” varieties. All will work great and ripen for you.
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“beginner” was the wrong word. changed it to “starter” as I’m planting just 2 to start and could always add more if I like them.
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Seconding Chappell. Although I am no expert with pawpaws and haven’t eaten my first homegrown pawpaw yet, I have been growing a lot of varieties for several years now, and Chappell is a standout for health and vigor. It is also ranked highly for taste in almost every collection of reviews that I have read. Chappell started flowering on its third leaf.
My other particularly vigorous grower is Sunflower. Reports on taste have been more mixed, with some considering it excellent, but others complaining of an occasional aftertaste. Sunflower also started flowering on its third leaf.
My pawpaws have generally been pretty hardy little trees (if slow-growing) but I had my worst luck with Shenandoah. I planted several, and all of them were low-vigor and eventually died.
As for Susquehanna, I believe I have read here on this forum some of the true pawpaw experts saying that it has issues with delayed graft failure. I should note, however, that so far, my Susquehannas look fine, with medium to high vigor and particularly pretty leaves.
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i’m new too. just learning. KSU has a lot of black fungus on most of their trees. Chappell has far less health problems and disease. looks like you live in a wet area. so maybe that should be a priority.
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That may just be bad luck with your Shenandoahs. I did several grafts of it onto young rootstocks from my original tree (planted 2016 and doing well) and they all seem healthy and are growing well. They aren’t as vigorous as my most vigorous varieties like Tallahatchie, Benson, and PA-Golden, but they certainly aren’t low vigor either. They have grown about on par with Chappell, Atwood, Sunflower, and Overleese for me. Rootstock seems to be a big factor with pawpaw tree vigor, so it’s hard to really conclude anything yet when it comes to determining how vigorous each variety actually is.
One thing worth noting is that Shenandoah is very precocious, so it tends to try and fruit earlier than others and invests a lot of energy into fruiting each year. Because of this, my original Shenandoah tree really slowed down in growth after it started fruiting, but is very reliable and productive for its size. This is preferable to me compared to Mango, which has been a strong grower each year but has produced few flowers and fruit thus far even though it’s 10 ft tall and quite bushy and healthy looking.
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I can’t really argue against Shenandoah and Susquehanna for just 2 trees. I do agree with others that Chappell is worth looking at as well (its vigor does seem better than Susquehanna). I’m not sure if it is better tasting than Susquehanna though, as it’s been several years since I’ve tasted Susquehanna and I only had my first tastes of a few Chappells this year, but both are top notch. Chappell is very sweet and with a well-balanced flavor profile and I remember Susquehanna having stronger tropical flavors and was very sweet as well and firm textured, but I can’t say much beyond that yet until I get to try them next to each other (hopefully next year).
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I happened to pick up a copy of “Pawpaws: The Complete Growing and Marketing Guide” by Blake Cothron and it does mention that Susquehanna issues include lower year 1 survival rate and slow growing.
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Thanks everyone for your feedback! So far I’m leaning towards Shenandoah and KSU-Chappell. weighing Wabash, Nyomi’s Delicious, and KSU-Atwood as alternatives. still open to suggestions
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I’ve seen some experienced folks mention Wabash as their favorite too. Lots of options!
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Yeah, I was bummed to lose them. I planted several because when I was looking for a “starter” pawpaw like @Bigmike1116 is now, I liked the reports about the mild flavor, smooth consistency, and how pretty much nobody dislikes the taste of Shenandoah even if might not be the variety preferred by connoisseurs. Shenandoah and Susquehanna were the first varieties I planted — Susquehanna because Neal Peterson said that if he could only have one pawpaw, it would be Susquehanna.
My problems with Shenandoah might have been due to the rootstock, but I would note that the roots all survived the deaths of their grafts and sent out very vigorous regrowth. I’m planning to graft Shenandoah back onto one of the rootstocks, and maybe try some different varieties on the others (assuming I can get wood).
Ironically, Mango is my weakest growing pawpaw. After several years in the ground, it is still a tiny little shrub — barely bigger than a whip with a couple branches. Given that basically everybody says that Mango is a strong grower, I think the issue here is probably the rootstock. Maybe it is sending down a deep taproot and will surprise me with an explosion of growth next season. Like an inexplicably runty Chocolate persimmon I have, I’m almost scientifically curious about it at this point and am going to keep it around to see what happens.
My Wabash was another one of my casualties. If I recall correctly, it grew fine for a couple of years, but then decided to leaf out solo during a warm week in February. Neither it nor its roots survived the resumption of winter. Like @disc4tw says, there are lots of great reports about the flavor of Wabash, but it I think is pretty seedy compared to the more modern improved varieties.
I have KSU Atwood, planted in early 2021. I’ve heard a few people describe its flavor as spectacular, but there are also reports of uneven ripening of the fruit in some climates. For me, Atwood has been a more sedate grower — less vigorous than the other KSU releases. Also, its fresh spring growth (along with Allegheny) seems particularly attractive to slugs, but it seems to soldier through without any help — I don’t do much for my pawpaws other than mulching them in the spring.
Since my Atwood is roughly representative of the median pawpaw in my little orchard in terms of growth (maybe a little less vigorous than average), here is a brief growth timeline. First, planting (as a tiny 6” branched stick received from OGW):
Early summer, second leaf:
This fall (third leaf):
You can see that KSU Benson, planted at the same time, from the same nursery, at the same initial size, and in the same soil, is growing more vigorously for me:
I do not have Nyomi’s Delicious or know anything about it. @Bigmike1116 , when you make your final selection, I would be curious to hear how you narrowed it down — might give me some ideas for what to graft onto my surviving rootstocks.
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According to scientific research, Nyomi’s has a slower oxidation rate, which is being explored. Kirk Pomper is using Nyomi’s for breeding due to “color break”, as it has a profound transition to yellow as it ripens, making it simple to tell when near ripe.
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