Paw paw trees anywhere?

I have seeds from the improved tree variety. Native trees can be shrubs, but the improved varieties can be 15-30' tall. They like shade the first couple of years, but can take full sun after that.

There is a guy at the Saturday Market in Columbus, ga that sells the tree type Paw Paws. I have 2 in my yard.

The common pawpaw (Asimina triloba,) is certainly more of a tree than a shrub for sure. They grow all over here in western NC, and probably average 15-20 feet tall, and grow in dense clonal thickets. They are also definitely native and widespread in the northern half/two thirds of Georgia. There is also a dwarf pawpaw (Asimina parviflora,) that is a much smaller plant. It is also native and common to most of Georgia. That's the one that Vernon is talking about, but the one we have up here in the mountains and northern Piedmont is usually more of a tree form. I have grown quite a few of them, and they're easy to transplant if they were grown in containers, but very hard to dig up and transplant. Most of the ones I've planted have taken several years to start bearing fruit after planting. There are some cultivars being raised now that will fruit quicker than the straight native variety.

The AmBASSaDEER said:

They were just talkin bout paw paw trees on the beverly hillbillies.

Does anybody remember that song somethin like "pick up paw paw and put'em in your pocket" my Granny used to sing it.

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Remember the song well!!

The AmBASSaDEER said:

They were just talkin bout paw paw trees on the beverly hillbillies.

Does anybody remember that song somethin like "pick up paw paw and put'em in your pocket" my Granny used to sing it.

Click to expand...

This reminds me of an incident involving my 4 yr. old grandson. We were at Ison's Nursery buying some fruit trees and were waiting at the front of the store for them to get up my order. An old man(at least as old as me) was looking at their rack of fruit tree brochures and particularly the pawpaw brochure. He started singing the pawpaw song out loud(to himself, to everyone around, to no one?) "pickin up pawpaws puttin 'em in your pocket, way down yonder in the pawpaw patch"
Then my grandson asked me "paw paw, how does he know your name?"

will paw paw live well in south georgia

hardwoodshall said:

will paw paw live well in south georgia

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Yep. They can take the heat into zone 9.

would a thicket of paw paw live well with wild plum and persimmon. I want to make a safety\bedding area and thought this combo might be a winner if they can all coexist, at least for a while.

I know this is an old thread...but paw paws are trees that can stay in a shrub stage until there is a break in the canopy. Young paw paws are very sensitive to UV and they need shade for the first couple of years of their life. They are trees and not shrubs, though they can appear as shrubs until there is a growth spurt when there is a break in the canopy. I do not know where the idea of Chinese paw paws came from except that in the old world, the tropical papaya is often called paw paw. They are the only temperate variety in a tropical family of fruiting trees in the family Annonaceae. Paw paws are only native to North America. If you want to find them you need old growth or virgin flood plain forests for your best results (in south GA). They regenerate from both suckers and seeds. They do reach heights of over 30 ft. Interestingly they are pollinated by green flies, so if you want a good crop, you want a couple of trees for cross pollination and I will put some freezer burnt meat near there to attract their pollinator, their flowers have a faint to strong rotten flesh smell. Each patch of paw paw trees will have a significant genetic difference so they will cross pollinate with nearby patches to produce lots of fruit, very little is produced without cross pollination. I have seen some huge paw paw trees when doing hardwood cruises back when I was a forester many years ago. Clear cutting is what has led to their scarcity but they are around. Their fruit is much better after it falls from the tree and is only ripe then, they are hard to keep more than a couple of days without refrigeration, hence them never being commercially grown. The do not ripen if unripe when picked, believe me, I have tried. Oh yeah, I have grown paw paw for years....both grafted varieties and from seed, the seeds will not sprout if dry by the way, the best way if you want to propagate by seed is to let coons or whatever eat the paw paw, and when they go to the do their business the seeds will sprout in their feces. I have set paw paws out in the woods to get them in my hunting land and I am assuming it was coons or possums who spread them, because they started showing up in my woods a couple of years later.

Paw paw notes

Many fine comments here -- we have them up north (NJ) also. I find seeds sprout reliably if they're planted immediately out of the fruit, after cleaning. Drying is deadly to them. Then they need to overwinter stratify in the ground, and they emerge late in spring, and very weakly -- leaf by leaf. They prefer indirect light, straight midday sun will kill them. They can be transplanted for a couple of years, but their roots are stubby, sparse and delicate. I transplant mine to 12-oz disposable water bottles, with holes in the bottom, with a compost fill for a couple of years more (I suspect they require micorrhyzae to thrive). These can be scissored open and the now compact root ball transferred gently into the planting site. They are still sun-sensitive until waist-high or so.
The advantages of cultivars are the much greater % of edible flesh; the disadvantage, that the cultivars (that I've tried so far) lack that piquant pineapple seedling flavor bite. Either way, they're great! If you do freeze the flesh (before it gets overripe!) in tight-capped jars, make sure you use it promptly when thawed. It bitters if it sits even one extra day in the 'fridge.

This thread again...