When it is fully developed and ripe or earlier? In April 2016, I sent two pawpaws from One Green World to my sister in western Michigan. She took good care of them and now one tree has a single fruit. She wants to know if she will be able to eat it eventually.
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One idea would be to enclose the fruit in a plastic shopping bag and tie the loop handles snuggly at the top of the support stick. When the fruit is ripe gravity will cause it to fall off and land in the bag’s bottom, where it has been protected from some critters while ripening. On the other hand, when the fruit gets ripe it lets off a smell that will permeate through the thin plastic and notify super nosed critters to rip open the bag to get the food. she can squeeze lightly every dew days or so to see if it is softening up, and a bit of stinky aerosol insect killing spray can be sprayed on the plastic bag to hopefully dissuade coons/possums that chase the aromas of food.
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If that were my pawpaw bush I would remove the fruit right now as I want to push all its energy into building a tree, not making fruit at this young age. I don’t let mine carry fruit until they are six, seven feet tall and well developed.
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