I have 10 paw paws I’ve grown for 2-5 leafs. They grow a foot a year. I’ve never seen a flower. I know they like acidic soil, mine is 8. Texas AM says they won’t grow here, but when have I listened to the experts. Dallas summers are dry but they get lawn sprinkler water. I could use the spots for other fruit trees. Should I give them another leaf, or not? Thumbs up, thumbs down?
I have a giant Fuyu, grows like a weed but I’ve never seen a flower. It’s had 5 leafs. Thumbs up? Thumbs down?
So,the tallest Pawpaws are about 5 feet?That may not be enough.Coming this far,I’d water them a lot in the Summer heat and give some high Nitrogen fertilizer,even a little Urea and see what happens.
Actually, here in Kentucky, I can tell already which buds on the paw paws are blooms and which are just leaves.
Should be a definite in Texas to see if they will bloom this year.
I begin seeing pawpaw blooms when young tree is around 5 feet in size, but some individual plants will take one or two more years after that…and can take much longer if in deep shade.
Bob,
It depends on how much you would like to eat pawpaws as the fruit is difficult to ship.
My Shenandoah started blooming in year 3 while it was 3 ft tall and has flowered every year since. It has not set fruit due to cross pollination issue. My 7 ft Mango just started to show a few flowers now in year 6.
It is easy to differentiate between pawpaws’s flower buds and leave buds. Flower buds are round dark dots while leave buds have a thin, flat shape.
I don’t know if lawn sprinkler will provide sufficient water. I am in a wet area but when we encounter dry spells, leaves on pawpaw trees started to turn yellow prematurely.
If I were you and had a Fuyu tree growing well, I would graft a few other varieties on it. I like non-astringent persimmons so I would keep it and add varieties to it.
Giant Fuyu takes years to fruit and it commonly aborts all fruit the first few years. When it starts producing it is pretty impressive. If you want to speed things up you might try grafting a few more cultivars onto the tree.
Our fuyu took about four years to fruit and hold onto its crop. Year before last was a modest harvest, last year was much bettter, and the fruit was larger.
Sounds like your pawpaws are not happy. They should be more vigorous than that.
So, it depends on how much you want to eat pawpaws. Have you ever eaten one? Some folks don’t like em.
8 pH is definitely a concern and would take effort to lower. Also sounds like may need more water.
Suggest mulching your pawpaws wide and deep. Really wide and really deep- like 8 inches deep in a circle ten feet wide. Apply two inches of compost under the mulch. Deep soak weekly in summer.
Keep the pawpaws, Like others have said they like a lot of water and a little nitrogen fertilizer. On the years that I have religiously kept mine watered they have had considerably more grow maybe 30-40% more. If you are 5 years in you are within a few years before they should be producing. Seems sad to give up now after investing so much.
They seem to be fairly adaptable to dry heat and calcareous alkaline soils so I don’t think that is the problem. Mine have never shown issues with chlorosis due to high PH soil like yours.
For what it’s worth, pawpaws grow like weeds in the shady understory near my work. You’ll see huge patches of them near the creeks. Some gardeners will plant a nurse tree near the young tree to give it some shade as it grows. Perhaps, along with mulching and maybe some intermittent deep watering, you could rig up a temporary shade for it?
in my experience, more water and more N will get them going. Im in AL. I’ll give them 1/4 cup 33%N every couple of weeks with plenty of water when they are actively growing, but keep in mind I’m growing in very light sandy soil so I think the N leaches out pretty quickly. Mine also seemed happier under 40% shade cloth especially when they were younger. I stopped shading after year 4 and they look fine now. Do lots of mulch like Hambone said. Pay close attention to when they are actively growing and make sure they are getting plenty of water and N at that time. Once they set a terminal bud they are done for the year even if it is only May. Extra water and N after they stop growing won’t get them going again.
My susquehanna started producing is year 6. It was probably only 5 ft tall after 5 years, same as the OP’s tree. Mango produced in year 3 when it was probably 6 ft tall. Shenandoah has yet to produce after 7 years in the ground but has had a disease issue. It has some fruit buds now though.
Seedlings or graftlings? Be aware that seedlings will take, in general, twice as long as grafted plants, to come into bearing.
5 years out on a seedling pawpaw… I’d be surprised if it were blooming yet.
Thanks everyone, I guess I’ll continue on and see what happens
These are grafted paw paw’s, all were decent size, 2-4’. It wouldn’t be easy to amend ph as long as I use sprinkler water, high ph; I could set up a rainfall system but I’m too lazy. My tallest tree is 7’ next is 5’, then a I have a couple at 4’. I used a sun mesh screen on the west side the first year, but haven’t since. The trees get 50-100% sun. I gave extra nitrogen the first 2 years now I give the same as the other fruit trees. I’ve never had a paw paw, from what I read I probably won’t like it, but I wanted to see if I could grow them.
My giant Fuyu seems much slower than my fuyu’s but I’ll see what happens this year.