Pawpaw

Size, growth and what to expect

Pawpaw seedlings begin to bear when they reach about 6 feet, usually at five to eight years, while grafted trees can fruit in as few as three. Growth is slow for the first two years while the roots establish, then picks up. Our growth estimator models it at roughly a foot and a half a year in youth on an average site. It makes a small tree of 15 to 30 feet.

The maroon flowers, 1½ to 2 inches across, open in April or May before the leaves. Flies and beetles pollinate them, and fruit needs pollen from a genetically different tree.

The fruits ripen from August to October, 3 to 6 inches long and 5 to 16 ounces, the largest edible fruit native to America. Opossums, raccoons, foxes and squirrels eat them, and the zebra swallowtail caterpillar feeds on nothing but its leaves. It grows wild from Ontario and Michigan south to Florida and Texas, in the shade of open woods on fertile bottomlands.

How to grow Pawpaw

Pawpaw wants deep, moist soil and takes damp ground. Young trees scorch in full sun, so start them in the shade of a building or bigger tree; established trees take sun and fruit better for it. Space trees 8 to 10 feet apart; a happy pawpaw suckers into a patch.

Plant in early spring. Pawpaw roots are fleshy and break easily, so plant from a pot with the root ball whole, in a hole twice its width, flare at grade, native soil only. Seed must never dry out: sow it fresh in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth, or chill it damp for 100 days and sow in spring. Seedlings surface late, sometimes not until July.

Water weekly through the first two summers and mulch. Deer and rabbits rarely bother pawpaw, so a tree tube is mainly shade; remove it in year three. Top growth stays slow while the taproot forms; no pruning is needed.

Pawpaw will not pollinate itself, so plant at least two seedlings from different parents. Flies and beetles carry the pollen, and a paintbrush moved between trees sets more fruit. Seedlings bear in five to eight years. Ripe fruit bruises easily.