Pawpaws are ideally suited for the residential “edible” landscape due to their lush, tropical appearance, attractive pyramidal growth form, small tree size, vibrant yellow fall color, few insect or disease pests, and fruit that possesses hints of subtropical flavors. Pawpaw is a slow-growing tree that requires 3 to 4 years of growth before it has the physical structure to produce and support the fruit clusters. In South Carolina, it is best to avoid coastal climates for most varieties due to the tree’s need for winter chilling though some selections from its southern range likely only require 400-600 chill hours. They grow in 25 states in the eastern United States, ranging from northern Florida to southern Ontario (Canada) and as far west as eastern Nebraska, and are hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 8. Pawpaws grow in the deep, rich fertile soils of river-bottom lands where they grow as understory trees or shrubby thickets. The skin is edible, but doesn’t taste good and the seeds should not be eaten.Pawpaw ( Asimina triloba), also known as papaw, Indiana banana, Hoosier banana, Michigan banana, and poor man’s banana, is the only temperate member of the tropical Annonaceae family (custard apple family) and is the largest edible tree fruit native to the United States. You’ll need to separate the skin and the seeds from the custardy flesh. ![]() Pawpaw fruit is nutritious, making it perfect fruit for healthy, delicious smoothies! Smoothies are quick, easy, and fun to make, as you can see in my video below. They are healthy, too, with more protein, vitamin C, iron, niacin, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, magnesium, cooper, and manganese than apples, oranges, or bananas. Pawpaws are great to eat fresh off the tree, but they have a lot of uses in recipes as well! Because of their banana-like taste and texture, pawpaws make a good banana substitute for recipes like banana bread. Grafted pawpaw trees purchased from Stark Bro’s start fruiting in about 3-5 years!īegin harvesting pawpaws in mid August through the first frost (generally early- to mid-October). Pawpaws are low maintenance and, because they are native to the US, there are very few issues with garden pests making pawpaw trees great to plant if you practice organic gardening. Pawpaw fruit forms in clusters, from 2 to 9 fruits per cluster. Pawpaw trees rely on insects to cross-pollinate the flowers, so it is important that your landscape is friendly to pollen-moving insects. Alternately, you can plant two or more seedling pawpaw trees, which will be able to cross-pollinate one another. This applies to the Asimina triloba pawpaw, or common pawpaw, which grows from North Florida all the way to Canada.įor proper pollination plant at least two different grafted varieties of pawpaws (two or more grafted trees cannot cross-pollinate if they are the same variety). Pawpaw trees are cold-hardy fruit trees, meaning they grow well in colder climates. The solution here is to build a temporary shade cloth structure over young trees and remove it once they are older and established (you can tell once they start blooming that they're ready to fruit!) so that they can take advantage of the full sun exposure. Pawpaws fruit in shade too, but they may produce less fruit than trees grown in full sun. Once established, pawpaw trees produce the most fruit when grown in full sun. This is because, in nature, pawpaw trees grow as "understory trees", in the shade of other much larger trees. ![]() Young pawpaw trees can be sensitive to full sunlight and require filtered sun for the first year or two. ![]() Growing pawpaws in your backyard is the best way for you to enjoy this fruit. This has made it impossible for pawpaws to be sold in most grocery stores, since they can’t be transported to market quickly enough. Ripe pawpaw fruits have a very short shelf life: about 3-5 days. The fruit has a strong tropical flavor - similar to bananas, pineapples, or mangoes. They turn from green to yellow (or brown) when ripe. Pawpaws are actually very large berries, sometimes growing longer than 6 inches. Currently, pawpaw trees can be found growing wild in the U.S. Guest article by Patti Moreno What are pawpaws?Īlso known as the American Custard Apple, or Indiana Banana, pawpaws were widely eaten and enjoyed by Native Americans back in the day. ![]() What are pawpaws? Pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba) are shade-loving understory trees that grow the largest edible fruit native to North America.
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