More about Pawpaws

Introduction

The pawpaw tree is a wonderful native super fruit! It can be grown across most of the United States and is being planted around the world. It tastes like banana mango custard. It is highly nutritious, has some medicinal properties and can be used for textiles. They are hard to find and as you may have heard, paw paw trees are in high demand! 

Pawpaw Fruit

A pawpaw fruit has green skin with yellow or orange flesh that holds a row of large brown seeds. They can weigh up to two pounds but are more commonly smaller. They are part of the Magnolia family and the closest relatives to pawpaw are the soursop, custard apple, and cherimoya. They are the largest edible native fruit in America and the most cold tolerant tropical fruit. You can eat them raw or make ice cream, pies, jam, mead, beer, smoothies and more! The fruit tastes like mango banana custard typically but can have vanilla, pineapple, caramel and many other flavors depending on the ripeness, genetics and growing conditions. There is a possibility of an undesirable yeasty flavor, particularly in the wild varieties. But it may also just be that you ate the fruit when it was picked too early, over ripe or bruised! Pawpaw breeders have been actively selecting against this trait for the more popular varieties. Current breeding efforts are focused on creating larger fruit with less seed volume, better flavors and ability to survive longer storage after harvest.

More details on Fruit

History and Prehistory

Pawpaws are an ancient fruit that evolved to be eaten by giant ground sloths and mastodons. These beasts carried them across the North American continent and left them in well fertilized droppings. More recently, Native Americans propagated and stewarded the Pawpaw. They not only ate pawpaw fruit, but used the fibers for textiles and even the seeds and bark as head lice treatment. The early American colonists were intrigued by the fruit. George Washington was said to enjoy it chilled for dessert. Jefferson grew them on his plantations. The Lewis and Clark expedition might have failed if it weren't for pawpaws as they survived on only pawpaws towards the end of their journey. There was a nation wide contest in 1916 by the Journal of Heredity to find the largest and tastiest pawpaws. Unfortunately most of these varieties have been lost, but some of the most popular varieties today where salvaged from groves that where sourced in this contest. Most recently Neal Peterson has been the pawpaw pioneer and led the charge to bring back the pawpaw's. He has successfully revived old genetic lines and bred new varieties and we owe many thanks to him. Nowadays there are many many people working on breeding and revitalization efforts.

Pollination

Pawpaws are ancient trees that evolved before honeybees began to dominate the pollination game. Because of this, they are pollinated by carrion beetles and flies. Each flower transitions between male and female. You need two trees for pollination, but planting even more can create a heavier fruit set (if you have the space). Some people choose to hand pollinate. I like to use a small soft paintbrush or half of a vitamin gel capsule. Some old timers hang old meat in the trees to attract the flies and carrion beetles. Other methods include keeping a compost pile near your trees or spraying fish emulsion on the trees. If you have a diverse biome in your garden and enough genetically diverse trees, you should get wonderful pollination naturally.

Grafting - Grafting is the best way to get reliable, productive, and tasty trees. Branches are taken from established varieties with known awesome characteristics and they are added to other pawpaw trees or rootstock. When this cutting grows out, you have a genetically identical tree on that branch to the variety of tree that cutting is from. This is the best known method to get amazing paw paws. Cuttings for pawpaws do not easily grow roots, which is a popular propagation method with many fruit trees.

I had a beautiful moment of insight after a meditational ceremony one day and realized another helpful trick for increasing pollination. If you have a known variety, that means it has been grafted. This means the roots are a different genetic than the top of the tree. Since pawpaws love to grow little baby trees far from the parent tree from their roots, you can let one of these little root suckers grow up into a full tree. Once it flowers, you will have two different genetic trees in one tree and should get increased pollination!

Pawpaw Trees

Native Names - Assimina, Hadi'ot, Mahchikpi, Ahsiimi, Asimi, Disunvgi, Nye?ewe, Orko, Umbi, Orko, Tozoke, Nashitosh, Htozake, Tozhahu

*Many thanks to Native peoples for caretaking and encouraging the Pawpaw!*

Scientific name - Asimina triloba

Common names - Hillbilly Banana, Custard Apple, Indian Banana, Hoosier Banana, American Pawpaw

* There has been a movement to change the common name to American pawpaw to avoid confusion with Papaya which is sometimes called Pawpaw*

Mature Height:  typically 15' to 30' *Update: July 2024: A new Pawpaw Nationwide Champion was just found in North Carolina - standing 87 feet tall.*

Zones: 4-8

Planting: Full/partial sun/full shade, slightly acidic well-draining moist soil preferred - but adaptable to other soils.

Features: Drought resistant once established, naturally resilient and adapts well to organic gardening with no need for pesticides. Can be planted around goats and most other livestock as they do not like the strong flavor of the leaves. Deer may sample them but do not like the taste.

They have evolved as understory trees. They do quite well in the shade of the forest, but they do not fruit well. The way we have found to get around this is to plant them in shade until they are about 5 feet tall. Then in the late winter, before they leaf out, you clear the shade so they are in as much sun as you can give them. Then you start to get the heavy fruit set when they are mature. 

Most often I plant either bare root trees or seedlings that I grow in protected (and deep) seed trays. Since you have to disturb the roots, they usually will creep the first year, crawl the second year and leap the third year! Once established they are fast growing. They love to send up new baby trees from the roots. They will spread out into a thicket if you would like them to. Alternatively you can easily harvest (and gift them to your friends or sell them) or cut down the root sprouts if you would like. I just run the mower over mine to keep them trimmed. Its native range is from southern Canada to Florida all the way to Texas. It has been successfully grown around the globe though. As long as it has a nice cold winter and a long enough summer to fruit, you can probably grow your own Pawpaw trees. Feel free to message me if you have questions about your planting zone.

Nutrition

Pawpaws are very nutritious fruits. The protein in pawpaw contains all of the essential amino acids. They are high in vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese. They are a good source of potassium and they also contain significant amounts of riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc. The skins and seeds are not edible. The inner bark is very useful for making rope or baskets. The wood is prized for fire starting with bow drills. They have beautiful maroon flowers in the spring.

Composition: In comparison with banana, apple, and orange, pawpaws have a higher protein and fat content. Banana exceeds pawpaw in food energy and carbohydrate content. There is little difference among these fruits in dietary fiber content. Pawpaw is most similar to banana in overall composition. Apple is especially low in protein, orange is low in fat, and both are lower than pawpaw or banana in food energy.

Vitamins: Pawpaw has three times as much vitamin C as apple, twice as much as banana, and one third as much as orange. Pawpaw has six times as much riboflavin as apple, and twice as much as orange. Niacin content of pawpaw is twice as high as banana, fourteen times as high as apple, and four times as high as orange.

Minerals: Pawpaw and banana are both high in potassium, having about twice as much as orange and three times as much as apple. Pawpaw has one and a half times as much calcium as orange, and about ten times as much as banana or apple. Pawpaw has two to seven times as much phosphorus, four to twenty times as much magnesium, twenty to seventy times as much iron, five to twenty times as much zinc, five to twelve times as much copper, and sixteen to one hundred times as much manganese, as do banana, apple, or orange.

Amino acids: The protein in pawpaw contains all of the essential amino acids. Pawpaw exceeds apple in all of the essential amino acids, and it exceeds or equals banana and orange in most of them.

Fats: The profile of fatty acids in pawpaw is preferable to that in banana. Pawpaw has 32% saturated, 40% monounsaturated, and 28% polyunsaturated fatty acids. Banana has 52% saturated, 15% monounsaturated, and 34% polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Nutrition details adapted from the Kentucky State University Pawpaw website.

Varieties 

There are hundreds of established varieties now available. Most breeders are seeking larger fruit with less seed volume, better flavors and abilities to survive longer storage after harvest. Some of the most popular varieties are from the Kentucky State University breeding program and from Neal Peterson's breeding efforts. 

Desirable varieties of Pawpaws are in high demand. Breeders have been selecting for taste, size, reliability and many other useful factors. Unfortunately almost all attempts to root scions directly have failed. So pawpaw growers have focused on grafting scion wood (branch cuttings) onto seedling rootstock. So each varietal tree is a clone of one awesome tree from the site of the graft and up from there.  

More info on Varieties

Companion Plants

It is possible to grow Pawpaw trees as a monocrop - as in trees in a field or lawn without other plants to support each other. Many people recommend this method, with a thick ring of mulch. But I would strongly recommend that you increase biodiversity and mimic it's natural habitats whenever possible. Or even create a native plant garden for your local area that can include pawpaws. This will go a long way to increase resilience, encourage pollinators, and provide minerals, nutrients, bacteria, and fungal (mycelial) support. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with companion plants.  Introducing and encouraging plants that are beneficial to the pawpaw trees and garden space. I like to utilize food and medicine plants to increase the useful of your garden or food forest space. 

• Comfrey - Number one awesome companion plant. It has super deep roots and will gather up minerals and nutrients from deep in the earth and transport them to the surface. You can just chop and drop the leaves wherever your garden needs a boost. They spread easily and are great for pollinators as well as being a fantastic medicinal herb for healing.

• Stinging Nettle - a wonderful edible and tea herb that makes a great ground cover.

• Creeping Charlie - Makes a great ground cover, is a wonderful edible, makes a great tea, and is loved by pollinators.

• Clover - a wonderful and beautiful nitrogen fixer that pollinators love.

• Black Locust Trees - My favorite companion for young trees. You plant the babies in their shade and then slowly cut back the locust to allow the pawpaws to take over the canopy and sunshine as they get older. They also supply nitrogen through root nodules each time you cut them back.

Pruning

If pawpaw trees are left to their own growth patterns, they typically will get around 20 feet tall and form dense colonies of clonal trees. I have seen one record breaker in Black Mountain, NC that is at least 35' tall, but this is very unusual. Many people will prune their trees for various goals. I like to keep mine around 8 feet tall to make them easier to pick and to manage the amount and size of the fruit the tree will produce.  I find the best time to prune is in late winter before the flower or leaf buds break. They seem to respond well to pruning and fruit more readily when trimmed back regularly. If you have a tree with amazing fruit, you can also distribute the cuttings to other Pawpaw growers so they can graft your genetics onto their trees.

Propagation

The main ways to propagate Pawpaws are grafting, runners, and seeds.  Typically  Pawpaw trees are grown from seed and then have scions (cuttings containing desirable genetic material) from well known varieties grafted onto them.  Seedling trees can have desirable fruit as they do tend to mimic their parents. If the parent trees have good genetics, they often can transfer to the seedling. We often call these Select seedlings. The really good ones can even receive a new name befitting them, but please consider also sharing their parentage if it is known. In contrast, seeds from wild trees with undesirable characteristics will often be small with lots of seeds and can have a bitter taste. These are often bad for the Pawpaw's reputation if this is the only fruit people have tried. So please only share the most desirable awesome fruit! 

While I was in college, I took a GIS mapping class and created a Probable Regions for the Pawpaw tree to Thrive map. It overlays soil pH, annual rainfall and USDA planting zones. Pawpaws can also survive quite well outside of these zones, but may need soil amendments, extra water, or extra care.

People ask me all the time for seeds. I do not give them out! They are too finicky and most people do not know how to care for them. The big things are proper moisture, mimicking winter without freezing them, and patience. You must keep the seeds moist - not wet and never ever dry them out.  They need to be kept in the fridge for two months to mimic winter - also called stratification. I like to keep them in peat moss or vermiculite to help regulate the moisture. I do not recommend moist paper towels as they almost always mold. If your seeds get moldy, rinse them off well and put them back in the fridge with new packaging and medium. They often survive this as it does not usually penetrate the seed coat. After the two months or more (up to 2-3 years) in the fridge, then you can plant them. I recommend either single seeds in a deep tree pot (12" deep x 4" x 4") or planting in mass in a deep basket. They need to be deep enough in the soil that the seed case is held under the surface so the sprout can push through it. If your sprouts are pushing the seed coat through the surface, you are not burying them deep enough. You can either VERY gently break open the seed to free the sprout or patiently wait to see if it can find it's own way out. It is quite easy to damage the tree if this happens, so bury that seed at least 1-2" down.  Since I plant so many seeds (usually over 1000), I plant hundreds at a time in a plastic basket. You get hundreds of baby trees this way in a small space. The second year, before they bud out, I gently break them up and replant them singly in tree pots. Patience is key! It is not unusual for them to take 6 months or even a full year to sprout above the surface.  They are focusing on their roots!

When you clean your seeds, try to get all of the fruit flesh completely off of them. Your mouth is the best way! Use those ancestral monkey skills! Teeth and tongue are great for this task. This will help to keep the mold away. If you are open to magic, this also transmits some of your energy frequency and DNA to the seeds. They then know what you need for healing and nutrition and can provide you what your body and soul needs! I do not recommend any kind of sterilizing or chemicals. This is detrimental to the seeds and your health. Instead, hold them in your mouth and imagine the trees thriving and the fruits nourishing the next seven generations and beyond!

More info on Seeds

Pawpaw trees clonally spread by growing new trees from their roots. Often large patches found in the wild are all one tree! This is often why wild trees do not have fruit as they don't have another tree to pollinate them. Only rarely are Pawpaws self fertilizing. The rootling trees are genetically identical to the parent trees rootstock. They can be split from the main root and transplanted to a new space. You can just dig them up and move them, but often they don't make it with this rough treatment. My favorite method is to use a shovel to sever the baby tree from the parent root on either side of it (a little ways out). I also like to remove the top third of the baby tree when I sever the roots on either side.  This helps the leaves to not overwhelm the injured roots and creates a more balanced plant. Then leave it in the ground! Come back weeks or months later once it has adapted to it's own root system and then dig it up and transplant it to it's new home.  The roots are sensitive to damage, so be as careful as you can with the roots while transplanting.  This is best to do while the tree is awake. Unlike most trees, Pawpaws do not grow roots in the winter when they are dormant. So if you damage the roots while they are dormant, they will be susceptible to rot and infection as they cannot repair themselves. It is best to transplant in the spring, summer or fall. They will need protection from harsh sun and wind in their new site. A simple shade structure should suffice - people like to use a tomato cage with fabric tied securely around it. I prefer planting them under a tree that I know I need to cut down in  a couple years. Then I just slowly swap out their canopies. But I have an abundance of trees on the mountain, this is not the case for everyone. And yes, if you don't want the thicket of Pawpaws to grow, you can just mow them down in the spring. Or invite other pawpaw fanatics to dig them up! 

Pawpaw trees cannot be rooted like other cuttings. Many have tried, it is basically impossible. Please let the Pawpaw community know if you happen to figure out how to make it happen!!

Pawpaw trees have long taproots and focus most of their energy on this task when they are young or freshly transplanted. It is quite common for seeds, baby trees and transplants to show almost no growth the first year. Then a just a bit of growth the second year. Usually in the third year they go crazy. They sleep, they creep, and then they leap!! They are just focusing on that deep taproot first, don't be worried! It is also rarely happens that the above ground portion might die back after a transplant. Don't give up yet. They will often pop up one or two new stems the next spring as they have been growing underground. 

Because of the long taproots, they do not like to be in short pots or in a tall pot for more than a year or two. Be wary of anyone trying to sell you a $300 6' foot tall pawpaw tree in a pot. The roots are probably spiraled around the pot and will choke out the tree once planted. They are MUCH happier in the ground as soon as possible.  However I do like to grow my seedlings in pots until they are at least 36" tall. This allows them to be more able to compete with the existing plants already established at your site. I almost never direct sow seeds into the ground as they are usually overwhelmed by the competitors. This usually means I have them in pots for at least one winter, maybe two.  The above soil portion of the trees are very cold-tolerant (they grow all the way to Canada!). The roots however, often need protection if they are in pots. I like to group all my pots tightly together and then use bags of leaves, straw bales, or bags of soil to insulate around them. In extreme cold, I will even make short greenhouses out of old sliding glass doors to really protect them.  But I am also perhaps over-protective of the thousands of trees I grow!

There are also a few ideas for you to consider when planting your tree. When you dig a hole for your tree, dig it only as deep as the pot it came in. If you go deeper, the tree will sink too deep. Use your shovel to slice slits into the bottom of the hole for the taproot to penetrate. Never dig a round hole! This encourages the roots to spiral back in and ultimately choke out the tree. Dig a square hole so the roots will find the corners and continue traveling out and down. If you have clay or poor soil (usually around home sites that have been scraped or backfilled), get some potting soil to mix in with the native soil when you fill your hole back in. Pawpaws are great fans of loamy, fertile soil but adapt well to many soil conditions with some care. They also do not mind wet feet and are often found in river bottoms. 

Distributing Pawpaws

In the best case scenario, I like to meet people locally.  You can talk them through the needs of the plant and reflect back to them recommendations about their planting site.  You can also directly hand them the healthiest plant with the best chances of thriving. This is not possible for everyone though. I do ship trees, but only seedlings with bare roots when they are dormant in late winter or early spring. I wait until the danger of freezing passes in your area. Be wary of anyone who will ship trees when the roots may freeze sitting in a mail truck overnight. 

More info on Bare Root Tree Shipping

Then you have a choice. You can wait 5-7 years for the tree to fruit and see what you get in the genetic lottery from the parents. Or you can go ahead and graft scions (cuttings from genetically awesome trees) onto your tree once it is established and growing well. I sell thousands of cuttings from my trees each year from well known varieties from Pawpaw breeders and from my own breeding efforts. The trees I care for I call Petrichor and a number.  Like Petrichor 3, one of my best varieties that I am extremely grateful to have been blessed with.  You can even graft multiple varieties onto one tree! My favorite method is to graft onto the rootling's that emerge around your tree. These grafts can grow up to 5 feet in one season! 

More info on Scion Wood

There are many Pawpaw groups on Facebook. I recommend joining at least one of these for amazing photos, stories, Q & A, and local Pawpaw connections. Pawpaw Fanatics, Pawpaw Nation, and Pawpaw Chronicles are some of my favorites.

Record Keeping

One of the first mistakes growers make is keeping poor records, especially if they plan to distribute the trees later on. You should tag your trays or pots to identify the seedlings once they sprout. Helpful information is where the seeds came from, how many you planted, when, and even what soil you used. I use metal tags that can't be embossed (written on) with a pen or any pointed object. I also recommend having an actual permanent sharpie marker. Not the standard sharpie, but the one with the red writing on the handle - it is actually permanent.  You can use a plant journal or create online records. Feel free to message me for a basic copy of the online record system that I created for keeping track of my trees! If you really want to go deep, you can track when and how many flowers and fruit they produce, flavor and texture notes, and even the weight of each fruit and the weight of the seeds inside each fruit. This is for the serious breeders who would like to keep track of the flesh to seed ratio. I also take photos of each tree throughout the season and often of the fruit they produce. Use your cell phone and make sure geotagging is turned on so you can map the photos later. 

Who am I?

My name is Seren Petrichor. This translates to Star who smells of the Earth after rain. I chose to extend this name to the Pawpaws that I grow. I love the smell of the soil when it gets wet and I like to imagine the trees love it just as much! I have been growing Pawpaws since 2012 when I planted my first seeds. That was the first, so I call it Petrichor 1. I also teach classes about Pawpaws at the Firefly Gathering - a primitive skills campout.

If you choose to join me in my mission to bring back the Pawpaw, I will do everything I can to ensure these plants and scions will arrive healthy in your hands. I love edible plants and my wish is to repopulate the Earth with natural and healthy food.

If you have any questions, ideas or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Peace and Love,

Seren Petrichor