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Old 22-08-2007, 04:25 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Jim Kingdon Jim Kingdon is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Default Drought resistant stuff

You have paw paw! Though I have one (and what is left of another the
neighbor broke off), it is still a ways away from producing.


According to what I have read, you'll need at least two (different
cultivars) to get fruit. So you'll need to keep or replace the
crippled one, sounds like.

Are the fruits worth the wait?


Beats me. I've resisted the temptation to pick one from a local park
or the botanic gardens (even if I wanted to ruin it for others, blah
blah blah, it would be hard to get there just when the fruit is ripe)
and I haven't made it to the one farmer's market around here which is
said to sell them.

http://www.integrationacres.com/products.html claims to sell them by
mail order (fresh in season, or frozen pulp) but I'd be curious how
well that works. Paw paws don't store or ship especially well,
according to everything I've read.

My own two trees are about 2-3 feet tall. One is 'Davis' the other
'Mango' (these cultivars originated by being collected from wild trees
in Michigan and Georgia). Planted them this spring from small nursury
plants. They're doing OK - put on some leaves but no huge growth
spurt yet. Hopefully they are putting down that deep taproot which
paw paws are known for.

Some sources say the flavor varies quite a bit from cultivar to
cultivar (or tree to tree in the case of seedlings).