Pawpaw’s

[b116757]

The new farm has at least 4 pawpaw groves but none of them hardly fruited at all last year. I’m seriously considering canopy releasing the groves of neighboring overstory trees to see if more light will promote fruiting anyone have any experience with pawpaws to comment?

 

[willy]

paw paws do well in fairly shady areas. Perhaps the vast majority of them are male. Have they fruited well in the past?

 

[Native Hunter]

Paw paw flowers are both male and female, but they can't pollinate themselves. They need another paw paw to pollinate them. Most groves are from the same root system, so even though they have multiple trees, they are essentially the same tree. Hence, pollination will not occur. If the different groves you have are a long distance apart, that could be a lot of your problem.

Lots of folks have problems with paw paw pollination, but if you can get different trees close to each other, that will help. I have that same problem at one place where only one grove exists. However, at another place where I planted seedlings from different groves close to each other, I get good pollination.

Insects are not attracted to paw paw flowers like they are apples and pears. That's one reason why pollination seems to be an issue for a lot of folks. I've even read about people rubbing bacon grease on flowers and also taking a paint brush and moving pollen from one tree to another. Of course, your idea of providing more sunlight will probably help too. Even though they are capable of fruiting with less light than apples, more does generally help.

 

[The Fishman]

Native provided a lot of good information. Paw paws are pollinated by beetles and flies that are attracted to the rotting smell of the flowers. I have heard some people will collect road kill once the flowers start showing and place the carcasses around their trees to attract beetles and flies to increase pollination.

 

[b116757]

I only have last year as a reference and we were in a pretty bad drought. Fruiting was maybe 3-4 fruits per grove but they are pretty shaded from overstory trees so I thought I’d start there by giving them more light. Maybe the lack of fruit was simply a result of the drought conditions. If I open the canopy and they still don’t fruit well I’ll try grafting some named verities within each grove.

 

[PoorSand]

I had ash growing in a river floodplain in zone 5a. Emerald Ash Borers killed them. I'm wonder whether the floodplain or perhaps somewhere up the bank might be a good pawpaw seedling planting area.

The floodplain gets flooded from snowmelt for a couple weeks in spring and after that the marsh grass takes over, except for some widely scattered maples towering above the grass here and there. I can keep the marsh grass in check if the floodplain is the place to plant pawpaw seedlings.

The slope of the bank ranges from gentle to 25%. Its soil is stratified sand and gravel. Scattered large oaks and boxelders grow along the bank. I would have no reservations about planting young pawpaw seedlings on the bank in the midday shade of a boxelder and then cutting the boxelder down a few years later.

If I plant nothing here, I'll probably end up with a fine stand of invasives of some sort. Does anywhere is the area I just described sound like it would be good for growing pawpaws?

 

[356]

I’d love to have some Pawpaws on our property. We have some male trees on our cabin property, but the fruit bearing trees are on the farm next to us. I guess I should not complain too loud, as we have a nice fruit bearing persimmon on our property at home, and the male trees are on the neighbors property.

To your question, the ones I am watching seem to like sun, and the one that produces the most fruit is in full sun and has no immediate competition. They also seem to like areas with black walnut, although that is an observation only and I don’t know what the science behind that observation.

 

[PoorSand]

That's a helpful clue. Black Walnuts were planted on a different section of the streambank about 4' up it about 40 years ago and have been doing well.

 

[b116757]

Some of my pawpaw groves would likely be in a flood plane area for sure in fact I know they are one grove was most definitely under water a couple springs ago.

 

[Telemark]

The pawpaw grove I recently found gets flooded periodically. I don't think it has ever lasted more than 2 weeks, but the trees are thriving.

 

[Telemark]

I’d love to have some Pawpaws on our property. We have some male trees on our cabin property, but the fruit bearing trees are on the farm next to us.

Try grafting some. Can you go grab a couple trips off your neighbor's tree?

Also, I don't think pawpaw are dioecious, but they tend to be clonal and pollinated by beetles and flies, rather than bees. The pollinators don't move very far, so it's likely your neighbor has two different organisms that can pollenize each other, while you only have one clonal organism that is not self fertile.

If you graft a few different varieties onto your trees, they might be able to pollenize the whole patch. You could also get a few of his fruits and grow seedlings to plant nearby.

 

[PoorSand]

I figure I may as well post my notes so the next guy doesn't have to look it all up all over again. I've never even seen a pawpaw. I'm simply going to try ten of them where I lost my ash (pun not intended) before invasives take over that area.

Rootstock
Yellow River Nurseries by Marshfield, WI, has pawpaw seedlings. Their website said there were sold out. They weren't. Ten 18-36" seedlings cost me $49.50. They dig up their trees in spring, so they will probably be available sometime during the second half of April.

Scions
The head of Kentucky State University's pawpaw program recommended the below listed varieties at the 2025 International Pawpaw Conference. I have typed Stark Brother's zone rating and ripening timing after each one in parentheses. The three KSU varieties appear to be on patent.
KSU Atwood (5, late Sep / early Oct)
KSU Benson (5, Sep / Oct)
KSU Chappell (5, Sep)
Sunflower (4, Sep / Oct)
Overleese (4, late Sep)
NC-1 (4, late Sep)
Susquehanna (5, Sep)
Potomac (5, Sep / Oct)
Wabash (5, Oct)
Shenandoah (5, Sep)

Stark Brothers listed a few additional zone 4 varieties: Mango, Pennsylvania Golden, and Prolific.

Descriptions of many varieties can be found here:

https://www.pawpawschule.de/men%C3%BC-deutsch/menu-english/pawpaw-cultivars/#:~:text=(Many%20Cultivars%20were%20named%2C%20only,Benson%C2%AE%2C%20KSU%2DChappell%C2%AE

Planting spacing of 8' is commonly recommended. A typical height at maturity in full sun is 15-25'. They grow shorter and wider in shade.

Shielding pawpaws from direct sunlight is recommended during the first one or two years. Tree tubes can be used for that. Pawpaws will bear better if exposed to direct sunlight during their bearing years, which for grafted varieties can be expected to begin around year 3+/- or year 6+/- for seedlings.

If anyone wants to trade me some Shenandoah, Wabash, Potomac, Susquehanna, NC-1, Overleese, Sunflower, or Mango scions for apple or pear scions, you are invited to go to the "2026 Scion Exchange" thread and see what I have listed.

 

[Telemark]

Thanks for putting the info there. It makes me think I have a chance to get pawpaws going up in Ontario.

 

[PoorSand]

In one of the YouTube videos I watched, a guy grew them in pots and shuttled them into a garage for the winter.

 

[somich]

In one of the YouTube videos I watched, a guy grew them in pots and shuttled them into a garage for the winter.

Ours are waiting for weather to break. Then they go in two different spots in the light shade on the ege of walnut groves.