Papaws

[Alan]

They shouldn't have a problem all the way into Southern Canada as said above. One of the various names given to them is Michigan Bannana, so I assume they will grow that far north and trust me, they are worth every bit of trouble you will go through to get them to grow.

[castanea]

Nov 24, 2009 20:41:28 GMT -5 greenhummer said:

I live far north by Lake Erie and short seasons have never been a problem. I do know they grow also in the far northern part of Michigan and southern Canada.

Many areas around the Great Lakes, particularly south of them, are zone 6.

Pawpaws will mature in most zone 6 areas and many zone 5 areas. Zone 4 is another issue entirely.

[trixtrax]

I am definately interested in this tree. I have planted two in my food forest by a creek. Going into their third year, one has survived dying back to the base and suckering. I think both became slightly root bound in their gallon pots. I purchased my plants from Burntridge Nursery. I would like to do a grow out of some seeds and actually maintain some quality control!

With that said, I would interested to trade with someone for some seeds. I have lots of different types of useful plants to trade..

And, on the note of Paw Paw (Asimina) - there is a small posting over at Seed Savers Exchange forum: forums.seedsavers.org/showthread.php?t=1432

[plantsnobin]

I have a few seeds left, pm your address and I will send them to you.

[ozarklady]

I have a paw paw forest. Well, sort of... I have a deep ravine, and almost at the bottom of this ravine is a paw paw forest, they are huge trees. The tops are right in the top of the canopy along with the oaks and hickories. You almost, (exaggerating :-)) need binoculars to see the paw paws. Often the worse battle is beating the raccoons and opossums to them.
We brought a few home, and my kids loved them, ate alot of them, and I used the rest for "banana bread", it turned out really well. But, apparently the kids scattered the seeds, because I now have pawpaw's growing in the garden hedgerow.
They look tropical with those huge leaves, and their growth habit. But, they certainly smell rank... you would not want to grow them in your scent garden. I find that they survive being under the tall trees, with just morning sun hitting them. I had hoped to transplant them, but the trees that I need to move are about 8-9 feet tall. Oddly enough they are not growing where the water table is higher, they are growing where there is little to no water. In the ravine there are slabs of limestone, and shale rock, and they are happily growing there. But it surely would be nice to have them growing in a more accessible location!

[mnjrutherford]

Fascinating! We have a couple of purchased papaws. We planted them at the edge of our "forest" at a point where the land begins to taper off down toward a tiny creeklette. I sure hope that they grow and fruit, though I'm unsure about the fruit because I've recently read some conflicting data regarding pollination. I wouldn't mine getting a few seed, 2 or three? How big are the seed?

[ozarklady]

The seed are good sized, about the range of a watermelon seed. I wouldn't know about pollination, these trees seem to be volunteers that have been there for years.
They look like the one in the picture, but, like an avocado, don't eat them, until there is a slight give to the flesh, and they are usually as brown as a potato. Then, they are ripe, we laid some up to see if they would ripen more, because when you bang on the tree you can't pick which fruits fall! They did continue to ripen. They are somewhat like persimmons, when not ripe, you won't like them!

[castanea]

Dec 26, 2009 11:25:12 GMT -5 ozarklady said:

The seed are good sized, about the range of a watermelon seed. I wouldn't know about pollination, these trees seem to be volunteers that have been there for years.
They look like the one in the picture, but, like an avocado, don't eat them, until there is a slight give to the flesh, and they are usually as brown as a potato. Then, they are ripe, we laid some up to see if they would ripen more, because when you bang on the tree you can't pick which fruits fall! They did continue to ripen. They are somewhat like persimmons, when not ripe, you won't like them!

The best varieties can be eaten at almost any stage, even when fairly hard and still green.

[peppereater]

mnj...some catalogues say it takes a male and a female to get fruit. Some say to plant 2 trees. I'm inclined to think it simply takes 2 trees and they all have both male and female flowers, and bear fruit. I could be wrong.

[castanea]

Dec 28, 2009 18:05:56 GMT -5 peppereater said:

mnj...some catalogues say it takes a male and a female to get fruit. Some say to plant 2 trees. I'm inclined to think it simply takes 2 trees and they all have both male and female flowers, and bear fruit. I could be wrong.

They have both male and female flowers. Normally you just need two different trees.

[mnjrutherford]

We do have 2 planted this past spring. So, we should be good to go. I would still like to get a couple more growing...

[sandbar]

How old are the trees before they begin fruiting?

[ozarklady]

I sure don't know that one. I got a wild foods field guide and read and re-read it, then we kept walking the woods, and suddenly we found them, already full grown and with fruit on them. The ones in the garden hedge are deep in elderberries, and I honestly haven't watched them for blooms... I promise I will start watching... ha ha

[bunkie]

we purchased two paw paw seedlings this spring. they've been in the greenhouse in pots since we got them doing just fine. day before yesterday i noticed one tree's leaves were drying out. i took it out of the container and it is not rootbound and it is plenty damp. today i trimmed off part of the leaves hoping to help it, and have it in a water and homemade LB solution. here's a pics of the two.



any ideas to help the poor thing? under the bark is still green. not sure what to do. i did write the company i got it from.

[ozarklady]

We found another paw paw forest that we didn't even know that we have.
And this tree is easier to access!



Here is the base of the paw paw that you just saw the fruit of, see the wild rose bush growing there, and the dead wood and leaves? There are black walnut trees growing in mid patch and lots of black locusts, in addition to oak and hickory.


And here is how close they grow together:


Now these are wild ones, domestic ones might be totally different. I do notice the only one with fruit is getting late afternoon sun. I don't know if the sun triggers the fruiting, or if it a female tree, but only 1 out of this 20? is bearing fruit.
The trees producing are tall, but the trunks are less than 6" in diameter.
Hope that helps some in planning your pawpaw patch!