Native Paw Paw’s?

[Dan Maranto]

I’ve had these tight patches of smaller trees popping up the past few years, after we did a selective harvest in 2017. I thought they were some kind of mountain laurel (excuse the ignorance) and never gave them another thought.

Until this September I walked by a patch and noticed fruit on a few. After some Research it turns out they are paw paw’s.

Are they worth keeping around? Does each plant produce fruit or are their male and females like persimmons?

Should I clear or thin them out so I can plant more oaks (our land was part of an old apple orchard that stopped farming around the 1940’s. It has since grown to forest, 90% tulip poplar with some other hard woods mixed in.

 

[The Fishman]

Whether they are worth keeping depends on how you value them. I know people that would kill to have that many producing pawpaws. Did you eat the fruit? Most people love the fruit. Even if the fruit from your trees is not that tasty, the root stock is valuable for grafting over to a better tasting variety. Pawpaws are an understory tree so you can plants oaks amongst them. If you want fruit production, they produce more fruit if they get more sun. I would leave them as is or even thin the poplars around them if you like the fruit.

 

[b116757]

I have several groves of them on this new farm I bought a couple years ago I’m not overly impressed with them myself. I tried a couple and they where not fit to eat and drop way to early to be of any hunting value they do add some diversity maybe a little calorie/nutrition bump so I not saying wage war on them. I’m sure there are likely other cultivars that have superior flavor to mine and are good to eat but mine not so much.