According to James A. Little in his pamphlet , A Tr eatise on the Pawpaw , pawpaw fruit helped sustain Native Americans and early American settlers in times of harvest failure.
Little wrote that pawpaw trees required minimal maintenance in order to survive in the wild, unlike apple, pear, or peach trees. Despite this resilience, pawpaws struggle to reproduce. Scientists believe the tree is ineffective at attracting flies and beetles to pollinate its flowers, thus creating challenges for reproduction.
The crop is well adapted to the Eastern U. It is relatively free of insects and diseases. Pawpaw is adapted to humid temperate zone growing conditions.
This is a low chill requirement compared to other tree fruit species apples to 1, hours , and once met, the trees will begin to flower early in the spring. From 30 to 35 inches of rainfall is needed annually, with the majority falling in the spring and summer. Contrary to popular belief, pawpaw performs best in full-sun exposure. As a food source, pawpaw exceeds apple, peach, and grapes in vitamin, mineral, amino acid, and food energy values.
The current and primary market for fruit is as a fresh product in farmers markets and other direct sales outlets. In Kentucky, various entrepreneurs are utilizing pawpaw as a local cuisine item for restaurants and in frozen custard and ice cream products. Neal Peterson, a pawpaw enthusiast and plant breeder, has bred pawpaws for over 25 years. His efforts have yielded six new hybrid varieties, with fruits that weigh over one lb.
The varieties were replicated six times, for a total of 24 trees. The trees were planted in , with the first harvest occurring in and another harvest occurring now in The open flowers are susceptible to spring frosts and this is why pawpaw crops are sporadic. Harvest usually lasts from mid-August to mid-September. In , the Susquehanna cultivar was the leader in lbs. It also produced the largest average fruit weight, with most fruits weighing over 0.
The skin is too thin, the meat too soft and the ripe period too short days for normal fruit transport. This is why they grown under the shade of larger deciduous leafy tree vegetation. As a child we usually knew where ever single paw paw patch was within about 5 miles or so. Paws Paws grow wild out in the shady woods back in Kentucky and Ohio and, except for the kids that would stumble upon them to eat as they walked along, they mostly just rotted on the ground and flies and ants would eat them…unseen and unknown.
My grandpa Bossier used to sing this song to me when I was little. He was a 7th generation Louisianaian. I planted a paw-paw four years ago, probably too close to a clearing.
It now has produced another nearby. In the meantime under the deciduous trees a group of four has appeared over the last two years. So far no fruit but they are young. It takes at least two stands of paw-paw to allow for fruit to form. They send our shoots underground much like mayapple. Open deciduous forests are best…no honeysuckle! No idea. Last year I saw them in a catalog and bought a few young trees. My daddy used to sing this to my sister whose nickname was Nellie when I was little.
I was always curious what it was and was excited to see it at the Purdue University apple market experimental agricultural products years later.
It quickly turned black but my family got a taste. We planted them as soon as they arrived near a sunny spot next to the street, close to a ravine. We found out years later they were planted too close together as the largest plant at the beginning that we planted in the middle became the smallest. We had to protect the spindly trunks from rabbits with chicken-wire fencing next spring.
It took a few years for a crop. Despite that, it was our best crop. Unfortunately, that summer, my husband had to spend a lot of time later on a ladder removing Japanese beetles that loved eating the leaves. We figured that the reason the pawpaws have sprouted all around the yard is squirrels buried seeds from the fruit that had dropped on the ground and was left there. The pale yellow pulp is very quick to oxidize, so I have found that we can enjoy them longer if we scrape the insides into baggies for freezing to thaw and enjoy on ice cream, puddings, Knox Blox gelatin, and baked goods.
I grow paw paw in my yard. They are so tasty. I remember growing up as a kid, several of us girls would sing the song this way, Peter, James, and John picking up pawpaws and so on.
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