Author Topic: Pawpaw  (Read 293 times)

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Offline Muskyman

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Pawpaw
« on: September 15, 2025, 02:49:03 pm »
Found a couple little groves of these while walking my dog. Never ate one before. Only took a few home with me. 

Offline Pat B

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2025, 02:55:00 pm »
I planted 2 pawpaws years ago. They have grown into thickets that bloom every spring but have never produced fruit. I've eaten pawpaws a few times and they are pretty good but they don't have a long shelf life.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline sleek

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2025, 03:56:23 pm »
Found a couple little groves of these while walking my dog. Never ate one before. Only took a few home with me.

Man I been keeping an eye out for those for years. I wanna try one so bad. Im even trying to grow them. If you could scoop some seeds for me id like to get some.
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline Muskyman

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2025, 09:07:46 pm »
Shoot me your address and I’ll send you some. I must have found 50 trees today. I’ll try and get some more fruits in the next few days and I’ll get the seeds out of them and send them out.

Offline Aaron1726

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2025, 10:06:12 pm »
Pawpaw are awesome, they make a great smoothie, but like Pat said they don't keep long. 

Also make sure to only eat them raw.  If you cook with them, some kinda chemistry happens and it will turn your stomach!  Saw this first hand when my mom tried Pawpaw bread, lol.

Offline Muskyman

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #5 on: Today at 01:48:51 am »
I’ve read that something funny happens with them when try doing anything other than eating them raw. Can’t remember what happened exactly but I’ve read they don’t keep well.

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Pawpaw
« Reply #6 on: Today at 10:25:14 am »
The paw paws in your picture are not ripe yet, treat them like a banana, they will ripen on the counter. I don't eat the peel because I pick the fruit off the ground in the woods, eat them in place and don't wash them. The peel on a green one is bitter; it is edible if you let the fruit turn yellow.

Because of all the seeds, I break the fruit in half and dig out the meat with a spoon. I suck the meat off the seeds and spit them out along the trail I am walking; I am a Johnny paw paw seed spreader; I do the same for muscadine seeds when I pick up wild muscadines in the woods

I planted some seeds down in my woods in a small clearing, they germinate in a strange fashion, I planted my seeds in August when the fruit was falling from the trees, some came up the following spring, some seed took several years to sprout. I marked all of my plantings with a flag so I would know where they were. The bucks rubbed all of the saplings that for over 5' tall and killed them, they keep sprouting from the root but I gave up on having a paw paw patch and bushhogged them. They continue to sprout from the roots.

Paw paws develop a patch by sprouting from the root system like wild plums. They have a tap root that goes to China so you have to have a specialized extra-long pot if you are trying to grow seedlings. It is my understanding that the seedlings spend their first year after germination growing this tap root before they sprout above the surface.

For the best germination result from the seeds it is important to not let the seeds dry out, keep them moist until you plant them. I did this and got close to 100% germination from the seeds I planted.

Here is one of my small seedlings first emerging and two years later.







   
« Last Edit: Today at 10:32:48 am by Eric Krewson »