Planting America's LOST fruit | Growing Paw Paw Trees
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- Learn about America's forgotten fruit tree and how to plant and grow the pawpaw tree. This might be the most excited I've ever been about growing a plant on our homestead. It has particular planting and growing needs but this tree is one you're definitely going to want to raise. Use coupon code: modernhomestead at raintreenurser... for 10% off
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Planting America's LOST fruit tree | Growing Paw Paw Trees • Planting America's LOS...
Have you ever heard of pawpaw before? What's your favorite way to eat it?
That's what we call our grandpas here in the south!
I like it! There is a little restaurant that makes pawpaw pie! For some people it tastes like bananas for some strawberries. For me it was more strawberry. I live in Kentucky and it can be found with some hunting. Thanks for the video! Very cool.
I have seeds of it and will try to grow it this year in Italy. I like to eat it with a little spoon.
Thank you so much, Melissa. That was a great video. I love your enthusiasm. It is like me when my garden seeds started coming up that I planted in the house to transplant into the garden next month.
I have heard of paw paws, but never tasted one.
@@mrs.robinson1487 I haven't seen one since leaving Kentucky but I am told that they grow here in Texas. Pawpaws are wonderful.
My Mother used to tell me about pawpaws that her Mother said we’re special, and grew wild in Oklahoma and Missouri. They grew legendary in my Mother’s mind, especially since she’d never been able to try one. They became pretty much extinct in Missouri, where my Mother grew up, due to being browsed by cows. So, when I saw a farmer selling them at an Oakland, CA farmer’s market, I bought some and took them to my Mother. She was thrilled, believing that she’d never find out what they tasted like. She said they tasted like a cross between a mild papaya and a banana. She was pleased, and I was happy to be able to bring her something she thought she’d never have. She’s gone now, but I have that special memory.
YES! That’s what they taste like!! I am thinking about making so homemade pawpaw wine!
Wonderful story❤️🙏
You can still find them in MO. I picked them wild as a kid. MO also has a pawpaw research farm.
I'm trying to create moments just like that with my mom while she's alive. Things to overshadow / ease any regrets I might have one day when she's gone.
Very touching story!!
Favourite way to eat these is to drink them! Paw Paw Hefeweizen. Kinda like banana bread, but in beer form!
I have never eaten one, but this brings to mind the song "way down yander in the paw paw patch" (I'm dating myself, I know) Never knew what a paw paw was but now I do... Love learning new things. Thank you
We used to sing that song also in western Pa.. ! thought they where nuts back then LOL!
I remember that song from my childhood. I visited a friend who lives in some wooded area of Kansas and we had a harvest party of all the wild paw paws from the area. We had paw paw: beer, cake, ice cream, fruit salad, and more (including fresh) and all of it was amazingly delicious!!!
I got two trees in the ground a month ago! Just 4 years or so left to stare at them and wait! 😉
We have pawpaws growing all over in my area. I use them in place of banana to make pawpaw bread.
"Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Well next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue?"
Didn't really know what Paw paws were until about a year or two ago and then I realized that they are referenced in The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book. Never had them before but they are definitely on my list for my future orchard.
Love it. So cute.
Need to come to my area here in West central WV they are everywhere and plentiful.
😮😮😮 blown away!!!
We have two paw paw trees in upstate NY. It took several years for them to bear fruit, but it was worth the wait. They have a poor shelf life and seem to ripen all at once, within a week or two, so be ready to preserve them! We freeze ours because paw paws don't do well with heat. They are a large fruit and they ripen later in the fall, after much of the garden is finished. That makes it convenient to preserve because we're not as busy. Then we use them during our cold winters - in oatmeal or over ice cream or in smoothies. I am excited for you!
I ordered two pawpaws...your enthusiasm is infectious. The slow race is on!
How are they doing? I just ordered some a month ago, because the ones I tried to grow a few years ago got eaten by deer. This time, I'm starting them in a greenhouse. They're already impressively leafy compared to my memory of the direct-planted ones.
Asimina parviflora (Dwarf Pawpaw) and Asimina triloba (Tall Pawpaw) are host plants for the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly.
Melissa, I never write in public. But I was very excited to see your video on America's lost tree, the PawPaw. For years, we have had PawPaws trees in MD. First, my mother gave us a bald-root tree over 15 years ago. Finally about 6-5 years ago, we started getting fruit. The last 2-3 years we had over 20+ lbs, if the animals don't steal it first. I have had to gather the fruit, peel & deseed & freeze the meat within a day or 2. They ripen by falling off the tree & are not shelf stable. Within 2 days, they become over-ripe. I have made barbecue sauce, but mostly my husband made wine.
I've just moved to the mountains of Colorado and hoping to cultivate my 30+ seeds of my Pawpaw to grow here. I'm planning on planting them near my Creek bed. Since I'm at altitude, my plan may not succeed.
Good luck with your precious, American, lost treasures.
I live in eastern PA. Near rivers and creeks paw paws can be found. In winter I dug out 2 separate plants ( they must be two plants that are genetically distinct to pollinate like chestnuts and they can grow from roots runners so make sure to take plants from a distance apart) about 5 years ago. They were each about 24” tall. I planted them in the shade of two hazelnut bushes for shade at first. They are about 8’ tall now and producing fruit for 2 years. Also they can grow very close to each other so due to lack of space they I put them about 2 feet apart. That are doing great and are zero maintenance. I have them in a half sunlight area in a raised bed with deep mulch next to the hazelnuts. That are worth it to grow for many reasons, very low disease or pest issues.
Paw paw flowers are amazingly beautiful .. nothing at all like one would imagine for such a fruit tree..
I live in Western Pa zone 5 in a bad frost area, but enjoy seeing what will survive here. Four years ago I planted a pair of pawpaws that are now 15 ft. high and bloomed profusely last yr. A late freeze hit my young pawpaws and the fruit fell off. Hoping to do better this yr.
chasjulia08 I'm in eastern NC zone 8. Last year I planted saplings of mango, sunflower, and wabash and this year I put in two 2yr old no named variety paw paw trees. I was expecting a 7 yr wait to get fruit from the saplings. Its nice to see it could be as little as 4 years to fruit.
@@MrJamesJamesJr Good luck with all your treasures!
@chasjulia08 - thanks for the info! I too am in zone 5, up in Wisconsin and would so love to grow pawpaws. I'm just concerned about it being slightly too cold here. Perhaps if I can get them growing in a microclimate they will do a bit better?
I have never tasted a pawpaw nor have I ever even seen one, even though I grew up in the Southeastern U.S. (although I have lived in the West most of my adult life). It's one of my bucket list items to eat a pawpaw some day.
PawPaws are amazingly yummy.
Their taste varies slightly by each variety, just like other fruit.
My favorite variety, Shenandoah, tastes like a mango-bananna custard
Our Absolute Favorite ice cream is PawPaw ice cream! 😋.
There's a Big PawPaw festival held on East Coast every fall.
You should see if there's a West Coast PawPaw gathering. Like you said, it is a Native American Fruit.
Joe is a wealth of information. I thoroughly enjoy your videos with him.
Hi Melissa. I grew up in southern CA and we didn’t have pawpaws there but.... my family is from WV and we spent all our summer there. Pawpaw still grow here and they have a pawpaw festival every year around September. 💗
Great info thanks for sharing this! I live in the south and have heard of Paw Paw trees but I didn't know they bore fruit! Now I want some in my backyard. I have several 50+ year oaks so I should have a good environment for them!
Hello Melissa, I just found this video a year and a half after you posted it, so I hope you see this comment. I live in SW Pennsylvania where we have thousands of wild Pawpaw trees lining the larger riverbanks. I certainly share in your enthusiasm regarding this native North American gem. I have become something of a local expert in the field and every year I harvest around 50 pounds of fruit for seed and introduce them to areas where they are lacking. Some folks around here even call me Anthony pawpaw seed. I certainly eat my fill and I like them simply fresh off the tree. When I plant them from seed I have found that the best success rate comes from taking an overripe fruit, breaking it in half and then planting the half fruit a couple of inches below the ground in not too rocky soil. The pulp around the seeds help keep them from drying out (they die if they do) and provides not only some beginning natural fertilization, but might even serve to help break down the seed coating as it ferments for increased germination. Last year I did this in the woods all around my house and gleefully found over 2 dozen seedlings from last year's planting, which is about what I planted, so a very high success rate for sure. I have seed from a friend's PA golden specimen which I will be planting in containers in the spring but as your friend said, true breed is not guaranteed. It's amazing how the variety can vary even in a small area in terms of flavor, pulp color and fruit size and amount. I have three patches that I typically harvest from within a mile of each other. One is very prolific with large fruit that has a heavy cream colored pulp that tastes like a banana vanilla blend, the second has average size fruit and yield with a yellow pulp more like banana mango and the third has smaller fruit with a high yield with an almost orange pulp tasting more like mango cantaloupe. I have four specimen trees in my yard that are five to seven years old and the oldest/largest has flower buds for the first time so this spring I will have to hand pollinate from other trees to get fruit. I also plan on grafting three scions to primary branches on this tree from the above mentioned patch trees so that the following year it will be able to produce fruit on it's own and should give me four distinct varieties on the one tree. I also send out several packages of seed to those who request them so if you would be interested next fall in acquiring some feel free to contact me. I plan on retiring to Washington or Oregon within the next ten years, getting a nice little plot of land on a salmon run river somewhere by one of the bays. Anyway, glad to see your enthusiasm about pawpaws. Let us know how your trees are doing. :-)
Hello Anthony PawPaw seed! I was so glad to read your response to Melissa's PawPaw video! I'm also in Washington like Melissa and would love to start some PawPaw tree's of my own. Can you recommend a way for me to get starts or seeds of my own? Thanks 😊
One other little tip that I have found works well with paw paws. They like soil on the acidic side and since I have several white pines on my property I use the pine needles as mulch. This adds slightly to the acidic level as they break down, keeps weeds to a minimum around your tree to lessen nutrient competition and helps protect the root system as well. Plus it's free mulch.
You interested in selling some?
@@MikeJones-qo7vt Sorry to say I don't have any left this year, but there are plenty of places online you can buy seeds or various size trees. Burgess, arbor day foundation or Peterson paw paws to name a few.
@@rowdy9623 Etsy
Really helpful seeing how pawpaw should be planted. Thanks for this video!
I have never ever heard of Paw Paws. I hope they do good where you planted them. Good luck and God bless.
Congratulations on planting your two pawpaw trees. They are wonderful. I am from Mississippi and they used to grow lots there. Also we had a nursery rhyme we sang often that partly went “picking up paw paws and put them in a basket “. 😊
My Mississippi version was .... "and put them in your pocket". :)
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch
this spring can you do an update on your tree?
just bought 2 of them and i am super excited!
Oh these are on my list to grow. Having grown up in Appalachia I'm familiar with the fruit but not planting them. Excellent information! Great share.
As a girl I loved paw paw..I liked it fresh ,but my favorite was paw paw custard and paw paw bread. I was told by my mother that when people really started landscaping paw paw was considered a dirty tree because they fell to the ground and drew wasps so people started cutting them down and planting non native ornamental trees in their place.
They are velvety smooth ,and taste like a cross between banana and pineapple. They were rarely available anywhere but road side stands ,they are to delicate to survive shipping.
I remember reading somewhere that paw paw was George Washington's favorite fruit.
I hope your tree makes it!
Papaws slowly are becoming known here in Europe... We even have already 1-2 special breedings originating from here. Not that you can see the tree very often, but it is buyable over here in central europe.
Now I've managed to self pollinate my Paw Paw and its bearing several clutches of fruit. In Texas.
How exciting!
Desperately trying to create a friendly microclimate in Arizona so that I can plant some
THANK YOU! Gosh I just bought two and the nursery said I should plant them where they get plenty of sun and I wasn't so sure. Glad I found this!!
Just planted 5 plants today in Missouri. Much light to you
A number of years ago I lived in the North Queensland (Australia) tropics in a town named Airlie Beach. Behind where I lived there were three Pawpaw trees growing wild in the tropical rain forest. I used to climb the trees and pick the ripe pawpaw, then on my way home I would pick some Bush lemons and when I got home, I would cut the pawpaw in half from top to bottom, scoop out the seeds, drizzle honey all over the pawpaw flesh, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice all over the pawpaw. Then I would eat the pawpaw with a spoon. The best and most natural breakfast or lunch you could have.
That's definitely not a american paw paw then because u definitely can't climb paw paw trees because they are very brittle
I went and collected a 5 gallon bucket full last weekend to give our elks a treat and i found a arrowhead while i was out 😊 it was a great day
I absolutely love pawpaws!!! They grow wild here!
My grandpa had a pawpaw tree growing right outside his back door and I'll never forget him picking that fruit for me as a very young child. It was like a banana but sweeter and stringy. But the best part was him telling me about it's history and connection to Native American culture in the Ozarks. That was my first and last experience with the pawpaw but I've wanted to plant one since forever.
Never eaten them, but know about them. Found a baggie of seeds on my doorstep and now I am watching your video. Now not sure if the seeds will actually work, but I will do a video on the progress.
I was at my mothers house in South Carolina and a neighbor had a pawpaw tree, it was terrific right off the tree! I have never tasted anything so good, I will be planting trees when I get settled down south for sure! They are a peachy/banana taste and have the texture of a peach. So wonderful.
Picked up three paw paw seedlings today! Watching your video to know how to plant. I’ve never had a paw paw.
Omgosh, I want those trees! Great information . Thanks for sharing.
I live in southern Ohio. We’ve been living in our current home for about 5 years. I noticed almost immediately after moving in that we have two pawpaw trees right on our driveway. Just found two GROVES of well over 50 each of saplings tucked away off of the trails. I counted over 100 fruits today. My mother was wanting to plant some so she would have them on her property; found your video trying to figure out how so thank you for the info!!
Greetings from Cleveland
My husband and I just planted two pawpaw trees 3 days ago. I hope we were careful enough with the roots. The soil block on one of them just fell apart when we slipped the tree out of its square container. I'm so glad my husband decided to just gently firm the soil around the planted trees with his hands! (Not his feet.) That was pure intuition on his part, since I hadn't yet seen your video. :D
Excellent video. Ate paw paw for the first time last fall. DELICIOUS! Now I'm going to try to grow them in my central Ontario Canada location. Fingers crossed!
Here in western north Carolina the old timers used to hang road kill in the pawpaw patch to draw in the flys needed to produce fruit.
We just found some wild pawpaw fruit yesterday near our home in Cincinnati. I'm getting ready to stratify the seeds and hope to enjoy some fruit in 8 years! They taste amazing!!!
What does that mean, to stratify seeds? Thank you
They have to be in cold storage for at least 90 days before you try to plant them.
Ah the mystic paw paw. I have not yet tried one. I did plant 2 a couple of years ago and so far they are doing great. Good luck with your paw paw patch😀
We planted our Paw Paw trees from Raintree the same year. They are just starting to leaf out.
I know of a couple wild patches on National forest land. I’ve never ate one. I’ve heard you can make a tea from the leaves to fight cancer
I know this video is 3 years old, but I’m curious how your trees are doing. I have 14 seedlings I have started from seed and will be transferring them from pots to the ground next year. How are they doing? I know you probably don’t have fruit yet, but I’m curious . I just ate my first pawpaw yesterday and shared with some coworkers and the best description of the flavor someone said was that they tasted like the fruit salad we got in elementary school that had all the fruits including grapes and banana. They are delicious but maybe not what we are used to from the store. I will probably be 50 by the time mine start producing fruit, but I’m as excited as you were in this video!
here in the comments:
@MelissaKNorris 5 months ago
No the cows pushed past the fencing and ate them to the ground 😞
@@МаринаПилипенко-л9я Oh man! I was watching on my phone and didnt see the comments. Thank you!
I had 2 trees back at my old home. I turned on all my neighbors to these. They looked forward to fall for these and my artic kiwi to ripen. WE moved and I took pawpaw seeds with me (just hope they taste good from seed). Hopefully next year (or 2 or 3) I be enjoying them again. I just spoon them out, to me it tastes like unsweetened banana custard.
Melissa I planted about 15 on 500 acres in Skamokawa WA Feb 28- the alder trees may have overgrown the planting area and could only find some of them. As long as they are growing! Its rainy area except for this year,
I found my first pawpaw by accident and have been intrigued ever since
Melissa, will you have cattle running around? Should you put some protection around them? Thanks for your awesome videos!
The cattle aren't in this pasture currently but we'll be putting fencing around them because yes, they'd totally trample/eat them.
Curious how your Paw Paws are doing these days. I'm planning to plant a couple here in SoCal. Very different climate, but I'm hoping if I give them some dappled shade and plenty of water, they will be okay.
I just was given one for the first time! They are delicious! I'm planting every seed on my 5 acres!!!!!
Thank you for this simple video! It gives me confidence with our paw paw tree in Ohio.
I planted two pawpaw trees a couple months ago but sadly one didn’t make it. Luckily the place I ordered from has a one year warranty so I’ll be getting it replaced soon. I’ve never eaten a pawpaw but I can’t wait. They take a lot longer to start showing any green growth after being planted.
Can you make a update video? How did these trees turn out?
Melissa, thank you for this video- lots of great information. Growing up in Ohio pawpaws were a big thing! There are even pawpaw festivals! Now being up in Wisconsin zone 5, it's a bit too cold, but I still want to give them a try maybe through utilizing a microclimate on the property? Please keep us updated on your pawpawprogress! 😀
My grandfather had a bunch of paw paw trees in Indiana. We always called them Indiana bananas. I tried to plant some here in NY but with no success. Going to try again now. Love them. We just waited until they fell off the trees then ate the inside.
Had one that was 4 years old and doing well until last fall. It was in a lower lying area and too much water did it in with the rain we are getting in the NE Ohio. I also had one I grafted in a workshop, but a deer ate the top off, bummer. But they did not mention about planting them. So I will definitely try again and I will have a better idea of where to place it.
Happy Easter.....got my onions and garlic going..on to my ginger.... come help!!!...😘😘😘
to be honest....I watched this video cuz I'm interested in pawpaws and she's really cute!
Here in southern Ontario, Canada is their northern range and there are few native groves left unfortunately. It's a great tree and the Ontario fruits taste like a mix of banana (mostly), pineapple and mango, with a hint of melon!
I hope these northern varieties can be saved. I'm in Peterborough and will be planting seedlings this fall. We're pretty far north but with global warming they may grow.
@@billastell3753 They should be fine in Peterborough. Just throw a pot over them if the temperature gets severe. Try for wild Ontario seedlings if possible. I can give you several if you want at native and unusual plants in Burlington.
@@chrisjanssens4333 That's very kind of you. I bought my paw paws at a farmers market that were grown in Ontario. I have no idea if they were wild or some domesticated strain. Do you have trees that produce fruit in the Burlington area?
@@billastell3753 There's no recorded wild paw paws in the Burlington area or in Halton region. The closest wild population I've come across are in the Niagara region.
Nice video .good to see that you planting a rare fruit tree..good work👍
Any update on your 2 paw paws? Was the shade from surrounding trees sufficient to avoid death by sunscald or did you end up using a shade cloth?
We live in northern Indiana at the michigan border, and we have paw paw all over our property. We love to eat them as they are. we are looking for other options, but raw and ripe so far is best. thanks for your video.
love your video, I live in Washington, Wenatchee I think I'm the only one here going pawpaw here I never tasted one before , I have 6 tree, 2 of them are planted this year. 4 of them planted march 2018. The 4 That I planted 2018 there are 6 feet tall I hope they grew flower next year. thank you.
In grade school, we sang a song about paw paws, but I've never seen one, that I know of! Now I want a paw paw tree!!! :D I better tackle my moringa first: the bugs ate one I had within 10 minutes = ARGH!
If you plant pawpaws plant at least two, preferably three different cultivars. They need to be pollinated with unrelated trees. And be prepared to wait a number of years for fruit. Plant grafted trees to get fruit sooner. Older scions and seedlings produce fruit sooner. Good luck!
Try planting a pawpaw tree using the E.G.W. Blueprint tree planting method !
20 times more growth, within 3 years, by weight ! And earlier flowering !
I am thinking about growing some of these in Boise. I will have to find more mature plants, so we can cut a few years off of the wait. I also plant to clone and sell them.
Anyone else remember the pawpaw song from kindergarten?? "Pickin up paw paws, put 'em in a basket, Pickin up pawpaws, put 'em in a basket. (Repeat)" and then goes, "Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch." It took me years before I realized there isn't any such thing as a pawpaw patch.
Hi there I live in South Africa...The area where I come frm paw paw trees just grow anywhere and everywhere.. and bears fruit continuously
We have them here in Virginia Beach VA but I want one and they have written them up in our paper. Also, I think they get pretty tall, but they are always talking about the fruit on them. I don't have enough space to grow them in my yard. They are not sold in our stores, some are in peoples yards and that is how I heard about them.
I'm here in Ontario, Canada and have started 6 paw paws with seeds from the wild, after 4 months in the fridge I planted them in 6 big pots this spring. Took 2 months for signs of life, got 4 now sprouting and I'm optomistic the 2 others will show up also.Now I got to figure out how to keep them alive through their frist winter coming up real soon here in Canada....
Greetings neighbour. I'm in Peterborough and like you started paw seeds this past winter. I now have about 10 nice young seedlings to plant out this fall. Likewise I'm hoping they can live through the first winter. I plan to plant 5 in the ground and leave 5 in their pots which I will bury in the ground and cover with mulch then continue to grow them in their 4" x 4" x 10" pots through next summer.
@@billastell3753 I found out about the paw paw last year and thought it would be a nice addition to my yard. If I had an old empty fridge in the basement I would put the four seedlings in the fridge for the first winter and then plant them out in the yard the fallowing spring. I'm a little farther north than you , near Ottawa area, I might just keep them in my unheated solarium in the big pots they are in or like you put the pots in the ground and cover them with mulch and hope for the best...if we are lucky we might get a milder winter this year...
@@watskilug Good luck with the paw paws. 😀
I met a young woman from PawPaw IL who didn't know that a pawpaw was a tree that produced fruit. I had to show her a web searched pic of the tree & the fruit. I can only suppose she thought the town was named after somebody's grandfater & somewhere there was a MawMaw, IL?
I've been through PawPaw, IL. Didn't see one pawpaw tree in town or on the outskirts. Likely died years ago as that area of IL was one a treed savanna and later cut down for farming. Lots of wind turbines now.
I'm interested in seeing how your paw paws are doing now!!
We have a miniature shrub version that grows here in Florida in our cow pastures naturally
Missouri could definitely use some of these! Never had one.
They are all over missouri man, on my families property we literally have hundreds of these trees so if u want some hit me up, I went and picked a 5 gallon bucket full last weekend to give the elk we raise a treat and found a arrowhead in the middle of the patch 😊
I just got back from a visit to a couple local pawpaw patches. Unfortunately there was no fruit this year.
Talk about short shelf life, well I picked up my first paw paw on the ground this season, 2020, two days ago, and put it in my pocket. Forgot about it for a few hours and it rotted to inedible mush in a few hours. Perhaps not technically rotten, but all mucked up in any case.
Love pawpaw tree
Grew NC-1 and Wells grafted pawpaws in NJ initially under a rotting but still live birch tree to give the needed shade. After first two summers, cut down dying birch tree, so pawpaws had full sun their third year and also had first fruits that year in August from NC-1 and late Sept to early Oct from Wells. Trees continued to grow fast with increasing yields every year. Grew them like small lawn trees with a central leader with pruning every other year to maintain height at ~10ft. Easiest fruit trees I've ever grown. Never painted trunks and didn't wait the many years stated in video for trees to bear fruit. Guessing those were seedling trees, not named varieties, that guy was talking about taking so long to bear?
They grow in Illinois - there's a village named Paw Paw Illinois.
I love paw paws.
It has been 3 years. How did they do? Any fruit yet? I have a few young ones.
Paw Paws aren’t lost!! They are alive and thriving in the eastern US where they are native. They aren’t native to other countries like where you live Melissa. They aren’t found in grocery stores because you can’t transport it. It ripens on the tree and you need to eat it within a day or two or it will be rotten. If there is anything better than a PawPaw tho, God kept them for himself!! Eating this fruit is a spiritual experience!!!
Good luck!!
Agreed. Greetings from ohio.
You can grown them in other continents, some people grow them in Europe (I am going to plant one myself soon), the downside of growing them outside of NA is, they rely on special insects to fertilize them which do not live outside of north America, so if you ever want to have fruits you have to play insect yourself on the blossoms. Maybe this requirement will be bred out in the future like it was bred out for the figs as well over time.
@@werpu12 You don't have flies in Europe?
@@bluefrog8670 The flies do not suffice unless you have a cadaver on the tree, no chance to get pollination here unless you do it by other means manually. Apparently the USA has 2-3 additional insect types on top which love the rotten smell, Europe does not have. (I have a pawpaw in a public fruit garden nearby which although 10 years old has not had a single fruit due to lack of pollination)
@@werpu12 Strange. That might be due to there only being one tree? They need two to pollinate.
I created a shade cloth cover for the first two years.
When you start to get fruit, wait until they are mostly brown before you eat them.
Green Paw Paws are very bad tasting similar to the dry taste of a banana but times 20.
Ripe, they taste very nice, but different than you are used to.
Custard like texture.
I ate a "ripe" one my first time, and it was nasty and too far gone. I just found one on a tree, and it was green. It tasted a lot better, like a mango/lemon flavor.
Great video. Good information
Hi, I planted mine from seeds and bought some random ones from the home center I accidentally weed sawed one of them but the one I didn't finally has budded and will flower, hoping someone else has them planted near by....otherwise after almost 10 years no fresh pawpaws...lol.
That's why they call me big paw paw!
I have 2 that are 3 yrs old now. I bought them from.a guy who Im pretty sure grew them from seed. So I have no idea what I may really get. Ive decided to buy a grafted one (Pennsylvania like you have) just for pollination insurance to add to the group. I have to laugh every spring because they leaf out so late Im nervous that tbey died. I realized they leaf at the same tume as my ash trees do so I patiently await til then. I added composted horse manure this year to them and it seems to have made them grow a little better this year. We'll see. I'm like you, I had never heard of them, but they sounded so unusual I just have to try, especially since it use to be a native plant in the America's that's become rare. I want to do my little part to restore them.
I've got a pawpaw in my backyard. Just to let you know you will need a cultivator to cross it with. They are not self pollinating. Also to increase yield if fruit put some rotten meat near the trees. They are not pollinated by bees but by a type of fly and Beatles. Give them filtered sun for 3 years then gradually open it up until when it is full grown it gets about 6 hours of sun. I harvested my first crop 3 years after planting. The fruit has to be well ripe (like custard). They have an unusual taste, kinda like a banana.
Here in WV Paw Paws are a dominant understory tree, particularly along creeks and drainages (they love water). I must have at least a hundred of them along my creek and while the production per tree isn’t great, I’ve got a lot of trees. WVU has tried to develop a commercially viable strain without success, but their cultivars are more productive than the wild ones. However their trees just don’t produce fruit that is easily transported or stored….thus no commercial success. As the furthest north native tropical custard fruit, they offer a unique treat for the
uninitiated….and a favorite fruit for Appalachian folks. The early fall harvest of Paw Paws really marks the turning of the season in the woods. Another aspect of Paw Paws here is they mark the well used deer paths, since they rate very high on their dinner menu and you know how the deer disperse the large seeds with their own packet of fertilizer. For the hunter, watching the Paw Paw thickets is a sure way of seeing lots of deer until the last Paw Paw is consumed. As far as how to eat a Paw Paw, it is basically a banana with big seeds. Anything you can do with a banana you can do with a Paw Paw. Paw Paw bread is my second favorite way, but comes a distant second to just slitting the skin and squeezing the pulp into my mouth.
I just planted me two paw paw tree's
Just planted 4 trees on Washingtons Olympic peninsula
I have been on the hunt for a Pennsylvanian and mango pawpaw. I heard that allegheny is the best tasting tho
I'm fairly new to following you but I am curious, have you planted persimmons yet? Or things like loquat or pineapple guava?
No, we're too far north for pineapple or guava to grow
@@MelissaKNorris I live about 180 miles south of you in WA and I grow a single fruit called Pineapple Guava. It is an evergreen shrub with silver fuzz under the leaves. The blossoms and fruit are edible. The fruit is ripe when it falls to the ground. It grows in zone 8, check it out, it is very good. I grow figs too. onegreenworld.com/pineapple-guava-growing-guide/
Real nice but Pawpaws dont do full sun, they´re shade loving trees but do grow more fruit in some sunlight.
I think it's more like 30 feet max as far as pollination
I grow paw-paws. I eat them fresh. I live in Michigan and bought my trees 5-7 years ago. These trees require plenty of water. And the flowers do not smell like rotten meat!!!!!!
I know you posted this several years ago, but can you give an update on your pawpaw trees? I'm also in the PNW, and would love to see how they are growing for you as I am considering planting some of my own.
Unfortunately the cows ate them the first year. They broke through the fence to get to them
@@MelissaKNorris oh no! So sad! I have friends on the east coast, so hopefully one of them can locate the fruit and send me seeds later this year. Thanks for answering!