hopefully Shenandoah, KSU-Chappell, Tropical Treat, and Nyomi’s Delicious cover the spread.
I’ve heard that having more than 2 cultivars is also a good idea to ensure bloom times overlap.
I saw a lot of mixed information about shading, so to be on the safe side, I decided to shade my trees for their first season in ground, and that’s it. I used some shade cloth wrapped around a ring or hardware cloth that I use to keep the deer/pests away. pictured here
This is the surviving Shenandoah pictured today. It is a bit more than 3 feet tall now.
My Fall Planted KSU-Chappell got shade cloth in the fall but I decided against it this season since it had been in the ground for a while already. it is only about a foot tall, but looking healthy and happy.
For the Tropical Treat tree, I wrapped it’s cage in shade cloth after it was planted, despite it being a very large specimen at about 2-3 feet already. it lost over half its leaves in transit, so be on the safe side, I thought year 1 shading would be best to reduce stress.
If you have any concerns about the atypical Parkinson’s Disease connection, you might want to select cultivars known to have lower annonacin/squamocin levels in their fruit.
Interesting variability there in the wells samples. I know this topic has been hotly debated, and I have no interest in reviving that. But, would be interesting if any studies are underway with more samples of each variety.
Editing this to say that I went and just spent 5 mins trying to understand one study looking at the best methods to extract the annonacin and squamocin and even though I’m a physician well versed in reading primary literature, the chemistry here is far over my head! Would take quite a while (for me) reading to get a basic understanding of what was done in just this one study to be able to fully appreciate the results let alone the others to really understand and answer the questions that initially pop into my head like- is the variability based on moisture, ripening, growing factors, lab error/methods etc.; how many samples of each fruit from different locations would you need to get a confident range per variety; what does any of this even mean- is there any “safe” level of consumption; how much is neutral or even beneficial or can be cleared without harm; how does the microbiome/genetics/general health come into play to perhaps explain the anecdotes of some people having just a bite and getting a lot of GI upset versus others able to eat multiple fruit a day with no subjective problems etc etc etc… my point- the topic seems very complicated and not clear. Always better to be on the safe side so, this is making me rethink which variety to plant this fall!
@Eme
When I first stumbled into the pawpaw deal, over 25 years ago, I was enthralled and agog about them. It was years, however, before I ever tasted a named cultivar. Fruits from my Overleese & Mango trees mostly disappear overnight after they drop, but I see some wild ones along the creek with piles of rotting fruit on the groundp, untouched by the same critters that gobble up the named cultivars.
I ‘poisoned’ a bevy of coworkers with a batch of pawpaw cookies I baked to share at morning break, so I’m familiar with the GI distress they can cause in some people. Never dry/dehydrate pawpaw pulp, and exercise caution when first consuming baked goods containing pawpaw pulp.
Most folks with whom I have shared pawpaws fall into two camps: those who find them delectable, and those who find them disgusting.
Anymore, I can eat one, and don’t care if I have another for a year, or five years. It is probably wise to moderate intake, and there may be a reason that the natural harvest window is so short and long-term storage was not possible, before the advent of refrigerators/freezers. Perhaps we were not intended to eat large amounts, or to consume them year around.
I don’t really worry about the anno. Pawpaws evolved to be eaten by megafauna who in turn spread the seed through their excrement. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to be poisoning all of the fruit eaters. But they’re a quirky plant with some interesting compounds.
I would definitely listen to my body when eating them. If one feels like enough, stop there. I don’t process them, freeze and store them, or cook them…just flesh eaten fresh and raw. I only eat them in season too. There’s probably some little known compounds in the fruit that exists with the anno that acts as a protector when we consume them fresh. Maybe processing, cooking, and freezing damages some of these other compounds and leaves us with digestive distress after consuming? I won’t claim to be an expert on that…just hypothesizing. A lot of those soursop neuro issue studies involve people making teas with the leaves too. I definitely wouldn’t want to be doing that.
I think there was an outfit (in OH?), within the last couple of years, that was freeze-drying pawpaw pulp, but the GI issues persisted for a significant percentage of people, and they suspended the practice.
IDK, and I’m not sure that anyone knows exactly what causes the gastrointestinal distress, but there are numerous reports of people who attempted to dehydrate pulp or make pawpaw ‘fruit leather’ being stupendously affected. It’s far beyond just being anecdotal.
Evidently, baked goods containing pawpaw pulp are sort of hit-or-miss. When I made my infamous batch of ‘Poison Pawpaw Cookies’ (2005) - using a recipe from KY State.U. - several coworkers, and my daughter, who consumed them, developed nausea, vomiting, diarrhea within a short time frame. My boss was out for 3 days…he thought he was going to have to go into the hospital for IV fluid replacement. One coworker said that before he even swallowed his first bite he was repulsed, and thankfully spit it out - but others consumed them with gusto, to their detriment.
