Dan L. said:

I got this book at Costco, called "Grow Fruit (Paperback) by Alan
Buckingham" ISBN-10: 0756658896. On page 310 states that "This native
fruit will grow well in all parts of the United States EXCEPT colder
parts of New England and the upper Midwest and coastal areas with cool
summers.

The Web article indicates that pawpaws can be grow in zone 5 areas
including the Great Lakes area? I am in a zone 5 in the upper Midwest
state called Michigan with cool summers. I do not know of anyone
around here that grows pawpaws.

Paw paws grow in Michigan. For one thing, they named a whole town
after them.

There used to be a state record paw paw tree in Dodge Park in Sterling
Heights (may still be there, but I know this from more than twenty
years back).

Paw paws are a tree of the Carolinian forest bottomlands (moist
understory). Think oak - hickory - hackberries - tulip trees. You
can find this forest type in southern Michigan and even SW Ontario.

Where the dominant broadleaf forest is beech - maple, no paw paws.

My book and the web article seems to have some contradictions. Give us
an update on how it turns out. I might give it try in Michigan.

If you've got the right site, you could do it. I know I don't ( too high
and dry).

Also the book states that "unripe fruit can cause stomach upsets". One
reason for not growing commercially? Lawsuits? Shipping time/ripeness
too long?

They grow and ship persimmons. Have you ever tried an unripe
persimmon? Nasty!

Not conducive to orcharding, I should think, based on its preferred
growing conditions, and the fact that it is not bee pollinated (so
often suffers poor pollination when grown in cultivation).

The fruits are also enormously popular among the wildlife set (foxes,
racoons, oppossums and squirrels). They are also fragile with a
short shelf life and filled with large seeds (so, not ideal for selling
as fresh fruit).

I know there are probably some paw paw trees growing near me
(probably down along the Rouge River) as I have seen the occassional
Zebra swallowtail butterfly in my yard.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pawpaw.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw


--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Vegetables are like bombs packed tight with all kinds of important
nutrients..." --Largo Potter, Valkyria Chronicles

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