Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:57 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
I planted 2 paw paws about a week ago, one is a Wilson and the other a Penn Golden. They get a few hours sunlight in the late morning, the rest of the day they are in the shade. I'm hopeful that that will provide some balance, enough shade when they are young, some sunlight when they are older. They are a bit sad now having been shipped by mail. High hopes!
I've read that the different varieties have very different tastes. Wilson actually isn't supposed to taste that great, but it is said to grow well in this climate. PA Golden is an award winner.
Joined: Oct 16, 2004 Posts: 1416 Location: Appalachian Foothills of Virginia
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:39 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
My paw paw experience has been one of lessons learned. I started out with 5 paw paws, and did not use shade. 2 of them died the first year, presumably from lack of shade, one other as I was weedwhacking around it with a manual hand tool. The remaining two were struggling until a horticulturist convinced me to keep grass at least 3 feet from the tree. Then they took off. One of the remaining two was attacked by an animal (either a buck or our 1 yr old pup who loved sticks of all kinds) and had all the branches broken. The rootstock sent up a shoot, and that is thriving. The one that remained healthy throughout flowered this year, but had no pollinator, so I haven't even looked for fruit.
A local orchard has planted hundreds of paw paws, and the fruit is absolutely to die for (no pun on die-off threads...), with a taste between mango, banana, and pear. It does take about 7 years to fruit from seedlings, so one must be patient, though grafted cultivars can start much sooner ( 3 yrs - see link) and have better fruit . They prefer rich bottomland soil. There are no diseases that attack my trees, and the only predators are zebra swallowtail butterflies (which doesn't bother me a hoot), so I'm pleased with this fruit as a low maintenance post oil food source. The one downside is there seems to be no way that I know of to preserve the fruit, so make sure to have variety in your cultivars that fruit at different times (unless you plan to trade/sell some fruit).
Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 392 Location: central MA, USA
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:06 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
frankthetank wrote:
Ive heard the flavor isn't great and some people think they are overrated.
It may be a subjective experience too, but I've read that if you sample random wild fruits, the taste will vary all over the map. To get a consistently good-tasting fruit, you should buy a grafted clone of a known good-taster. Not much different than (say) apples in that regard.
I've got four trees growing in the yard. One of the original four died last spring and I had to replace it. One of the four that is still growing will not be the grafted clone, as I (ahem) accidentally snapped off the trunk below the graft line and what's growing now is the root stock. (Figured I might as well let it grow for the pollination, and who knows, might still taste okay.)
Very slow growers for me. Three years in the ground, and still smallish, still no signs of flowering. Hope the darned things are worth the precious space they're taking up. I could fit a lot of blueberries into the same space, and those are fruiting like gangbusters.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:55 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
alokin wrote:
Here in Australia we say paw paw to the fruit what's actually is a papaya. And this is not a papaya/paw paw. But it is said that the real paw paw is a plant that grows in colder climate.
I call pawpaw's the poor mans cherimoya.
I'm in the Ohio Valley and guess it is humid enough round here for em.
BTW, I broke open one of the seed pods in the photo and it smelled like petroleum distillates somewhat.
Last edited by allenwrench on Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:06 am; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:06 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
FoolYap wrote:
frankthetank wrote:
Ive heard the flavor isn't great and some people think they are overrated.
It may be a subjective experience too, but I've read that if you sample random wild fruits, the taste will vary all over the map. To get a consistently good-tasting fruit, you should buy a grafted clone of a known good-taster. Not much different than (say) apples in that regard.
I've got four trees growing in the yard. One of the original four died last spring and I had to replace it. One of the four that is still growing will not be the grafted clone, as I (ahem) accidentally snapped off the trunk below the graft line and what's growing now is the root stock. (Figured I might as well let it grow for the pollination, and who knows, might still taste okay.)
Very slow growers for me. Three years in the ground, and still smallish, still no signs of flowering. Hope the darned things are worth the precious space they're taking up. I could fit a lot of blueberries into the same space, and those are fruiting like gangbusters.
--Steve
Pawpaws are not that great, but they are pretty good when properly ripe. Kind of a banana-cherimoya type of thing. I have eaten semi-wild pawpaws a lady used to get me from trees she foraged.
I keep looking for pawpaws to forage but as yet no luck. I was told about some at a local college and will check them out this week. Since I have been opening my eyes to fruit trees I've found lots of apple, crabapple, seckel pears and wild grapes (with no grapes)
Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 392 Location: central MA, USA
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:58 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby paw-paw?
allenwrench wrote:
Pawpaws are not that great, but they are pretty good when properly ripe. Kind of a banana-cherimoya type of thing.
Never had cherimoya. "Custard banana" is one of the nicknames for pawpaws, I believe.
Quote:
Since I have been opening my eyes to fruit trees I've found lots of apple, crabapple, seckel pears and wild grapes (with no grapes)
Appropos foraging for wild fruit (or other vegetation), I just finished reading The Forager's Harvest by Samuel Thayer, after seeing it highly recommended in these forums and elsewhere. I want to ditto that recommendation! Extremely well-written, practical, and a useful guide to what's edible in at least the eastern / northern regions of the US, I'd guess.
He mentions fruits I have already planted at the margins of my yard, including serviceberry and highbush cranberry (a viburnum, really), as well as some I'd heard of but hadn't until now considered planting for food, like Nannyberry viburnum. No mention of pawpaws; I think he tends to go for plants that are perhaps even more unusual than that, plus are widely spread as natives.
Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 392 Location: central MA, USA
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: Is this a baby pawpaw?
allenwrench wrote:
I think this is a pawpaw.
Yup, that's pawpaw.
Quote:
If they are pawpaws, what time of year do they ripen in Z6?
Sorry, can't help you there. I think early fall, but am not sure? I think if they're slightly soft to the touch, they're ripe.
Quote:
Once picked do they ripen off the tree?
I believe I've read that they're very perishable after being picked, so I doubt they'd ripen well if picked too soon. Maybe skyemoor knows? I'd really like to have firsthand information; hurry up, you darned trees!
Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 305 Location: Tennessee
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:03 pm Post subject: Re: Is this a baby pawpaw?
My relative routinely picked pawpaws-he said they were like little bananas, but he said they weren't anygood until the first frost hit them. I did not have kinda luck because the wild critters got to them after the first frost. My experience has been only in "frost zones", I don't know about "frost free".
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:15 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby pawpaw?
Just another experience. I lived in Missouri and looked for pawpaws, finally found some groves of them and was hugely disappointed. The wild trees had very minimal flavor, reminded me of tapioca.
There are cultivars available, I suspect they're a lot better eating. Check out OneGreenWorld, they have an amazing assortment of small fruits from all over the world.
Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:40 am Post subject: Re: Is this a baby pawpaw?
bobaloo wrote:
Just another experience. I lived in Missouri and looked for pawpaws, finally found some groves of them and was hugely disappointed. The wild trees had very minimal flavor, reminded me of tapioca.
There are cultivars available, I suspect they're a lot better eating. Check out OneGreenWorld, they have an amazing assortment of small fruits from all over the world.
Sometimes it is like that. I got some very small wild strawberry and little taste.
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