The Tropical Fruit Forum

Here are my babies.....planted on January 30. A couple in the back are 2nd year seedlings. They are in the 14 inch Treepots, to give you an idea of their size.





Here are some pics of the area I am prepping to plant them next spring. about 750 square feet that was previously covered with privet and invasive bush honeysuckle.
after killing back all the nasty stuff, prepping the area via sheet mulching

In the Wild do Paw Paw trees reproduce by suckers? Somewhere i read that few trees can make a little bush sharing the same roots..is it true?

Absolutely. They definitely produce suckers in the wild, though I have never seen a pawpaw "bush." The suckers look just like seedlings and will come up a few feet away from the main plant. They do not come from the base of the parent tree. So basically you get what we call a "patch" - a bunch of small trees in a small (or large) area.

Here's a picture of a forest with several pawpaws growing in the understory:


They will also sucker in a home or orchard setting, but if they are in full sun I believe it dramatically slows the suckering.

I'm totaly obcessed by paw paws they really seams a must to have! 

Love it! You sound like me. I'm nuts about them too, but not just because of the experience of eating them.
As obsessed as I am, ironically pawpaw is not my favorite fruit for eating. Maybe not even in my top 5.
For me it's a bigger thing, like the fact that it's native to North America, grows wild right here in my "backyard," the history of it, even just the appearance of the trees. Also I'm drawn to the potential that seems to exist in the fruit - knowing that there's room for more improvement and selection I guess.
Your situation reminds me of myself when i first got excited about pawpaws. It was a while until I actually was able to taste one!

Quote from: Luisport on July 09, 2017, 01:10:26 PM

Hello everyone! I already have two sunflower, 1 prima, and two small wabash. I have 3 more spaces and i'm thinking on mango, overleese and NC1. I'm choosing on big fruit, few seeds and great flavour with no bad aftertaste. Any sugestions? Good choice? Thank's! 

And now i found belle, lady d, convis and sibley varieties...  Totally confused! 

Hmm i've never heard of Belle, Lady D, or Sibley. Where are you seeing those? Do they offer any information about them?

Of the first 3 you mentioned, if it were me, I would choose Overleese. I believe it is in the lineage of many of Neal Peterson's patented varieties, which are considered the best. I believe Overleese has won best pawpaw at Ohio Pawpaw Festival at least once.
That being said, I believe NC-1 and Mango are respectable varieties too.

Upon close examination of the young leaf, it looks like the browning may just be excessive pubescence. If you look closely at the axillary buds on the leaf nodes further down the plant, you can see more of this browning which seems consistent with pubescence, and you can also see some brown fuzz along the margin of the uppermost developed leaf. The fact that only a few of your pawpaws are developing this bronzing suggests that you may just have a really hairy genotype on your hands. Probably nothing to worry about, but I'd keep an eye on the baby leaves until you can see they are developing healthily.

Best of luck with your seedlings.

Thank you, Googer!

I was out in the woods today grafting some wild trees, and guess what I saw.......almost EVERY tree had the exact same bronze leading tip.

I suppose I had just never paid attention before. Breathing a big sigh of relief here.

Though I did find that the water in my rain barrel that I had treated with pH Down had inexplicably rocketed to 8+ pH, and it also had a filmy/cloudy appearance. not sure what that was, but needless to say I will be using a different water source.

I will try to add pictures as soon as I can get them.

I have several new seedlings, about 5 inches tall with about 3 nice leaves each. Almost all of these seedlings have a peculiar issue.
The growing tip, where the new baby leaves form, has turned bronze/gold/brownish. The seedlings otherwise look perfectly healthy.
This is not a dried-up-shriveled kind of thing, just a discoloration, though they seem to be in a bit of a growth stupor. (we've had unusually cool and wet weather, I'd say).

Any thoughts as to what is causing this, or even if this is something to be concerned about?

Even some of my 2nd year seedlings have this. Only a few of the plants (the very youngest that are only a couple inches tall) and a couple of the 2-year-olds do NOT have this issue. On these plants, the tiny growing tip is green or even whitish.

All help appreciated!

Wow, that's awesome!
What is the fruit like? I've never heard of it. 

My big maypop sprout-out was a pretty big flop.

I believe the seeds were dried-out by my heat setup - only one out of nearly 100 seeds germinated.

I lost all my Iridescence seeds.

Fortunately I discovered a ziploc in the fridge of essentially unmarked seeds, and I was able to sprout these easily. They're about 4-5 inches tall now.
I only saved seeds from tasty fruits, so these have at least that much going for them, but it was not what I hoped for - i don't know the parentage of these seedlings. I'm hoping at least 1 of them has Iridescence genetics from cross-pollination.

On a more important note, I think i have commented before on little brilliant-orange hopping beetles that love to eat my maypop leaves.
Well, i discovered a few weeks ago that they were eating the emerging maypops in my garden. They were basically completely pruning all new shoots at ground level.

I have been spraying a pure neem oil emulsion (water, neem, dr. bronner's soap) and it seems to be working quite well. All previous attempts to deter these pests had failed.

So FYI for anyone else facing these guys. (I still don't know what they're called other than "leaf hoppers" I guess).

Was out last weekend and trees are starting to leaf out and flowers are mostly winding down.
I do think some early flowers may've been zapped by the cold weather a couple weeks ago.


At this point it's pretty much a waiting game until July or so. I've seen a lot of fruit drop in May/June before. So even early "fruitlets " are not necessarily indicative of much.

I found my dwarf pawpaw. Anyone know what age growth flowers form on? Like new growth vs year old, etc?

From my experience with wild trees, flowers form on old wood, not new growth.
Im sure someone more experienced with their own trees can confirm.

Anyone have Che scions they'd be willing to sell or trade?

I have a couple osage orange trees on my property and thought it'd be fun to try to graft some Che onto them.

It appears the 2 nights in the 20's a couple of weeks ago have not really impacted the pawpaws here.

On Sunday I was checking on the same tree I mentioned earlier and it seemed fine...several flowers in receptive stages. I did not notice any pollinators, but I didn't have much time. I know last year the trees around here were just buzzing with lady bugs and flies, and we had a really good crop of wild fruit. The previous year i didn't notice much pollinator activity and the crop was low.

By the way what varieties consistently are the best ones? Thank's! 

The patented varieties from Neal Peterson are generally/widely regarded as superior. Neal says his Susquehanna selection is his favorite. I have had some of these fruits and I have to say they are pretty amazing. Firm texture, low seed:flesh ratio, very smooth and intriguing flavor. A Susquehanna won Best Pawpaw at the 2016 International Pawpaw Conference. (you can also check the ohio pawpaw festival for their list of past winners.) www.petersonpawpaws.com

Overleese is an old classic that has also won contests. Sunflower is popular. I've heard bad things about Wilson. KSU Atwood was a favorite at the International Conference.