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Comment by comrade1234 | Hacker News Reader

I have property in zone 4a. It's in WI about thirty minutes south of Lake Superior. I had read that they have pawpaw at UW Madison so I bought five seedlings as an experiment. The first year two survived the winter. The next year one of them was hit by a mower and died. The survivor is still alive after five years.

Pawpaw reproduce sexually so this year I bought five more plants from a farm in Michigan. These were older than seedlings and not cheap. Anything to wed my lone pawpaw.

Ilk know in the spring if any survived the winter.

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The seedlings can be disappointing. Pawpaw is a lot like peppers. Selected cultivars are good, but wild ones can be awful. I strongly advice to plant certified cultivars of your preferred flavor. My Shenandoah has a lot of banana mixed with caramel and the texture reminds to a lemon mousse that does not taste at all like a lemon. Also wait for them to be really ripe but not overripe (The flavor spoils). The fruits fall when are ripe and then is a speed race with slugs, coons and squirrels.

It needs water and grows well were hazelnuts also grow. Take advantage also of the relatively brief but good butter yellow fall color placing for example some chokeberries (melanocarpa Viking for fruit, arbutifolia Brilliant for red color), or a Japanese maple like Seiryu fast grower vertically providing a decent canopy, rusty fall color and great under spring lights, Hogyoku or Emmet's Pumpkin have great oranges and reds in fall and a decent sized leaf that unlike Seyriu will not dissappear around the huge leaves of the paw paw but is a question of personal taste. Put each tree well spaced but close enough to be seen as one scene and plan in advance as this trees don't like at all to be moved later.

Paw paws grow happy under canopy, specially for its first years, but produce much better at full sun (flies don't like shadow). Can be hand pollinated in any case.

This is great info. I've wanted to grow some for years, but I live in CO, and won't be moving to a region where these are viable for a few years yet, so I've got plenty of time to plan. I had no idea there even were cultivars for this fruit, but I was aware they like to start in shade, then explode once started.

In the Southwest, there are many environments where a tall, shady plant grows quickly, sets the stage for plants that need only initial shade, and then the fast-grower eventually loses out on the plot once the slower-growers have a chance to establish themselves. Once those slow growers are in place, a new generation of smaller, shade-loving plants will often follow, filling in the area that the fast-growers left.

I wonder if there are analogues you're meant to plant first, to get the pawpaw going.

> I had no idea there even were cultivars for this fruit

Many breeders in USA. There are selected early (Allegheny), mid season (Prima), and late varieties (Susquehanna).

There are also selections with small fruits of 70-95 g (Allegheny, Rappanock), medium fruits (KSU Atwood, 120 g) and some able to produce a few huge fruits reaching up to 450 g (Belle, Mary Foos Johnson). On average 150-250 g are not uncommon.

Small fruits are reliable bearers. Sometimes is more convenient to have 95 fruits of 95g each of Rappahannock and one Raccoon in the garden than 7 big 400 g fruits of Belle and one raccoon. Often the biggest the fruit, the more prone to damage and fragile the skin so expect brushes when falls from the tree

Some selections provide different flesh colors: whitish (Shenandoah), yellow or orange (Wells, Mango)

-------------- Flavor and texture

Texture may vary between avocado firm and creamy melting in your tongue like a yogurt.

Acetogenins are dangerous, but the dose makes the poison. Some people choose deliberately selections higher in acetogenins like Susquehanna, KSU Atwood or Allegheny because they introduce complex flavors. Is difficult to describe a flavor, but lets say that there is banana in the background and it can be topped with other things depending on the cultivar. The flavor of Paw paw has been described as a mix of banana and one of more of this: more banana, mango, vanille, pineaple, caramel, passion fruit, bubblegum and horribly sour.

A tree produces typically between 7-12Kg of fruit each year. Some may bear until 50 pounds. The flavor is also inversely proportional to the harvest. If your clear some of the fruits, size and flavor will improve. Too many fruits in the tree one year: expect a more plain flavor and much smaller size. Overriped fruits got black spots and get sour over time, but it can last for a week in the fridge easily, probably two.

-------------- About chemicals

The tree is a cocktail of chemicals with pesticide properties. Acetogenins accumulate in the bark and seeds. Fruit skin must be also discarded. Is better to avoid completely to try infusions with the leaves, bark or flowers.

Acetogenin effect will accumulate damaging the nervous system, but eating a moderate amount for just one month each year should be reasonably safe, and some of this chemicals have anticancerous properties also.

Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman and Wells are cultivars selected for decent taste with a reliable low content level of acetogenins.

Some people get their stomach upset after eating it. And in a few cases allergies and rashes can appear by contact. In this case is better to avoid it. (before discarding the fruit from your diet, you may check for other possible causes to the stomach troubles or try the low acetogenin content cultivars).

-------------- Culture

The harvest period is short, around September. The change of color in the mature fruit is subtle and it will not mature if cut unripe, so is better to check each morning for recently fallen fruits that are guaranteed ripe.

A couple of varieties (Prima, Sunflower) are sold as able to produce self-compatible pollen, but for best results is much better to have two different trees. It will need also flies in April/May to pollinate it. Neither bees nor butterflies will visit the burgundy flowers. In any case is easy to pollinate it by hand if you have two varieties. Just cut a dark red flower in its male late phase, remove the petals and use it as a small brush on paler flowers in the other tree that are recently opened. One single flower can bring 2-4 fruits, so just one gentle brush can bring a lot of weight, but you need to synchronize your move with the correct time. Repeat it for a few days to be safe.

About the canopy, it depends on your climate, if the tree has plenty of water is happy in full sun, but in very hot or windy climates the leaves can scorch or be thorn and you will need something that fast but not much thirsty. Is not a big tree, so may never reach the full sun area in a canopy but the paw paw is not really bothered by it. The tree can be pruned if necessary and responds well to pruning. The root is strongly vertical and transplanting it from soil means often its dead by breaking the main root near the trunk.

Can’t grow them here in Seattle. Keep trying and failing.

I am surprised it died with the mower, I had one snapped in half, put the up part in the soil, now two pawpaws...

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