Very cool! Thank you! There’s a place that sells pawpaws about 2 hours away from me. I’ll check it out.
Got mine there. :).
Many years ago I had a Great Aunt and Uncle who owned a farm a few miles east of Ava, MO. Pawpaw trees grew in abundance along the banks of two spring-fed streams that ran through their land. Those trees were wild and the fruits had a lot of seed in them, but the flavor was amazing.
I've tried a few times to grow them from seedlings that I got from the state nursery through the MO Conservation Department's Grow Native program but I haven't had much luck with seedling survival - probably due as much to my ignorance and lack of proper seedling care as it was to quality of the planted stock. Year-old baby trees need a lot of love to get a good start in the clay soils here.
Now that I've gotten my chestnut orchard fairly well established I want to try again with the pawpaw trees. This time I'm going to use improved cultivars and make a concerted effort to do a better job of caring for the saplings. I left enough space to add understory trees to the rows between each of the chestnuts. I've already added several tons (literally) of compost to the planted rows. I intend to prep the new planting holes this fall so I won't have to fight with sticky springtime soil when it comes time to install the new trees.
With any good luck I'll live long enough to taste the fruit of my labors.