paw paw tree

lynn says...
hi well my trees are only very small still in there little black pots which i got from a garage sale i enjoyed reading your notes and thank you for your help take care Lynn

ps one will just have to wait and see what happens

Michael Washum says...
I live in the extreme southern part of the United States. It only gets cold in Dec, Jan , Feb. Can Paw Paws trees grow in the south? Whats the best way to plant them? And how do I go about careing for the trees?

Ellen says...
Lilian

You can either use it raw (while it is in the green state but big fruit) but you have to prepare it for a salad, as the Asian does.

Or you can eat it as a fruit, just leave it on the tree as is, when it is ripe, it will then turn its color from green to yellow . Then you pick it, cut it into long strip of wedges according to its shape, & peel the layer of seeds off it, enjoy .

Or you can use for soup - this you use the fruit while it is in the green /raw state . Although you need some preparation before it can be cook in the soup .

As for what type of paw paw you currently have, that only you can tell, There are quite a few varieties that are self pollinating .
I am sure with the world at your finger tips, you can do a bit of looking up to find the variety that you have.

Wayne says...
Hi Deels
Lucky you,male trees do sometimes produce fruit, as far as I know you eat them the same way.

jim says...
Hi, we have a nice pawpaw tree out the back and it has heaps (like 20+) fruit on it. If we want it to produce bigger fruit (all of them are the size of a fist it seems) should we remove some and let the plant put its energy into producing fewer bigger ones? We have taken some off (just before the possums get to them) when they are starting to ripen and let them ripen on the bench.

ANy ideas?

Cheers,
James

Wayne says...
Hi Ab----------
They will not grow 10M tall in this country, we had a poster from Hawaii who grew extremely tall Pawpaws compared to ours, they grew to about 8M by memory

Wayne says...
Hello Milan
It would seem that your trees could be growing tall looking for light so no matter what you do you will always have that problem. You can cut the trees back to say a meter above the ground, place a tin over the top and let them shoot, but you will loose this years fruit. The tree in the photo is bisexual and looks to me as if it could well be a red one, lucky you.
May I suggest you leave them as is and plant replacement trees in more sunlight, provided you have the room of course

peter says...
hi milan,
the tins only purpose is to stop
water getting into the cut trunk
and rotting it.

peter says...
the trunk of a pawpaw is hollow so
when the top gets cut off it exposes
the hollow part and the tin gets put
over it to keep the water out.

if you have only rubbed of the cluster of new small leaves at the top and not exposedthe hollow you do not need the tin. as for growth ide expect that the next branch down will become a growing tip and the tree will keep growing.
leave it a while to see and if it does
and you want to keep it to 3.5mtrs
then lop off the trunk a bit further
down which will encourage branhing
further down the trunk.










leave it for a while to see if it does
and then if you do want to keep the hieght to3.5 mtrs then you could lop
off the trunk a bit further down
which will encourage brunch further
down the trunk.

Brendan says...
Hi Peter, if you've ran a pc cleaner on your pc, it removes some id. See your 'UserID' is 0, you'll have to add more id, like email address etc, then the Edit button will return. (I think).

snottiegobble says...
One of the tastiest salads i have had was from a stall at Parap Parap market in Darwin, it consisted of unripe pawpaw, avocado, peppers & different spices, Yumm!

Brendan says...
Hi pale ale,
I wouldn't, try feeding it some good organic fertilizer like 'super growth' or 'terrafoska te', some dolomite AND gypsum, and lots of mulch, then water all that. You should be sick of eating pawpaws after that.

Where are you?

snottiegobble says...
pale ale, it is important that you include your whereabouts on the forum because Brendan & Wayne are probably only guessing that you are in a warm climate due to the bright sunshine in your photo.
Further south there is little chance of the fruit ripening in winter!

Mike says...
The term paw paw is also used for an amercican custard apple and sometimes applied to the yellow 'papaya' and reds keep the papaya name.The maled just have the long flower stalks,females have 1 or 2 large fat flowers in the culm and bisexuals several small flowers in the culm.When you grow seeds from bisexuals around 20% to 40% usually turn out male or female and the rest bisexual.Reds are usually sweeter with less turpsy taste and are greatly favoured where they occur together.Unfortunately they are less cold tolerant.Aussie reds,solos,NG tits,dwarf thais and a host of other excellent ones and newly deveoped varieties are out there.Some trees have lots of tiny fruit and no matter what you do it seems to continue.I have had these a few times.Fruit are better when the tree gets lots of sun,is picked not too early and has good mulch and fertliser.They are veryu prone to fungal diseases and new GE ones overseas have been bred to be fungus free.

Mike says...
Yes snottie and Carica papaya is used as a meat tenderiser,cooked vegie when half ripe,in green asian salads and the seeds can be used a pepper substitute.The commercial ones must be bred for transport with thick skin and the yellow ones in particular put people off the fruit.They often get a big surprise when they try a backyard red for the first time.

Mike says...
I think someone in the choko thread has them.Was it Phil? That is a picture at the start of that thread.I initially thought it was a sicana photo.They are supposed to be extremely cold hardy, like -20 or something crazy like that.

pale ale says...
Wow, thanks everyone for the interest.
I am in Karratha, we have very hot summers and the winter temps are mid 20's.
This tree was grown from seed purchased off ebay and is only 1 year old.
I will take the advice and add to the soil as it is growing in hard crusty iron ore at present.
What a great forum!!! Will have to get you experts to sort out my mango problem next :)

Phil@Tyalgum says...
They are a cold tolerant member of the custard apple family - grow almost to the Canadian border and down through the southern US

http://www.petersonpawpaws.com/

They have a real cult following amongst rare fruit growers, very few trees of bearing age in Australia as yet

Mike says...
Not to be confused with Amercan Asimina it is just marketing that nominates (C.papaya) yellows as paw paws and the reds as papaya.They will always be paw paws here and the american name won't stick.Reds are usually more tropical with a higher brix and are more prized by the fruit consumer for the flavour but there are lots of mixed forms.

Phil@Tyalgum says...
I find a couple of months in the vegetable crisper first (already planted in seedraising mix/pots if you're not worried about hygiene issues or you have a spare fridge) then taken out in spring and left to germinate in a shady spot always works. Interestingly here in the subtropics they germinate well in autumn too. I also find the seedlings transplant into the garden better when actively growing rather than dormant, as long as you can keep the water up to them. Best to leave in supertubes for their first twelve months and plant out in year two.

Mike says...
John, while you're around did you see the list of seeds I have and were any of interest? You already have a few of them like black sapote and naranjilla.