Good luck! I have been hand pollinating pawpaw flowers for several years and I always look for the bright green interior and slightly opened flowers. Once the petals flare out and the interior color is dim I don't consider that flower receptive to pollen. Just my experience.
Ed
Sounds great, Ed!
I went back to my patch today to do some more pollinating. I wanted to pay closer attention to the flowers to look for ones similar to your top photo in the A.A. thread.
I definitely found some flowers that more closely or exactly resembled the flower in that picture. I will say that they weren't as abundant as later-stage flowers. I do think I missed the biggest window of opportunity by a few days (I knew I needed to get out there but was too busy.)
I think most of the flowers I pollinated the first time were probably past the ideal stage.
Today I definitely noticed flowers with the "glistening" stigmas that you described. I just wish there were more of them!
It seems to me now, based on my extremely limited experience, that the receptive stage likely doesn't last too long.
***
As for my visit today: I went further up the hill and was thrilled to find several more trees sporting decent amounts of flowers. I also took some pictures that I wanted to post for feedback:
Assuming this is the remains of an un-pollinated flower?
This appears to be a successfully pollinated flower that's winding-down and preparing to drop its petals, etc. True?
Are these teeny-tiny pawpaw fruits? I sure hope so - there were lots of these around.