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Growing pawpaws

1K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  barnetmill 
#1 ·
Anyone have any luck growing pawpaws?
 
#6 ·
I am growing them. No flowering yet. When in complete shade for me they do not grow very fast. I am trying partial shade. Three that were on my place for ten years with minimal growth now that I removed the shade on the western side are growing now. Leaf cutting from native bees has serrated some of the leaves smallers ones I put out this. Keep the seedlings under shade cloth for two years prior to planting.
There is a wild patch about 20 miles to the south east of me. I am in the Pace-Milton area of NWFL. To the north are some near the Alabama border. Some of us want to get some paw paws from the southeastern patch since we know that they are acclimated to our area. Most of my paw paws originate from the north of me originating from Kentucky to Illinois and perhaps some to the east. Two of my oldest are seedlings that were said to originate from the Tallahassee area which is north FL and 3 hrs to the east of me. I do have one grafted Mango cultivar.
 
#10 ·
#7 ·
Paw paws are not pollinated by bees. Apparently it is by small flies that can be attracted to decaying meat. Some people hang road kill about the plants for pollination. The pollinating plants also must originate from separate individuals. Often a single tree will send off runners and there will be small trees about that can not pollinate others of the same group. Some people manually pollinate their paw paws.
 
#9 ·
The seed must never be allowed to dry out. It often takes a long time for them to germinate. I keep mine in the refrigerator for a while. I would go 90 days, but best look it up. I had some seeds given to me by a friend that I planted and sort of forgot about and a year or so later noticed that they were growing. They have extensive root systems and transplanting is hard. Best to cut the nursery pot away from them to put them in the ground. People claim you can not dig them up and transplant elsewhere, but I know people that have done it so it is possible.
 
#11 ·
I have a dwarf tree that is a natural to the property, got fruit one year, tasted yucky, none of the seeds grew.
Purchased mail-order seeds for the northern variety, lots grew, planted them on a lot of different city properties, as well as at my house... They do much better in the clay, barely grow in the sand...

Possums eat the pawpaws, so... To get any fruit, seems necessary to cage the tree.
 
#12 ·
There multiple paw paw species. Not sure how many are good to eat.
Asimina species: There are eight native species of pawpaws in Florida (Wunderlin, 2003). They are frequent from sandhills to flatwoods, scrubs to wet hammocks. Pawpaws are generally located in FL and GA, but the parviflora species extends to the rest of the southeastern states, and triloba covers the majority of the eastern states and a segment of Canada (Kartesz, 1999). https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/asimina-species/
 
#14 ·
Email information of 10-5-16

I got about a dz seeds from: kirk.pomper@kysu.edu,
sheri.crabtree@kysu.edu

The surviving plants will go into the ground this late fall or early winter.

We do have pawpaw seeds in packs of 10 available free of charge. They are mixed seed, not separated by cultivar. We won’t be sending more out for a few weeks, but we would be glad to get them out to you once we resume. Thanks!


Sheri Crabtree
Horticulture Research and Extension Associate
Kentucky State University
College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable Systems
125 Cooperative Extension Building
Frankfort, KY 40601
 
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