Paw-Paws

[sanmigmike]

We have a paw-paw tree that is starting to drop its fruit. Most of it still green with some just starting to have a little yellow. Will it ripen and what is going on, last year the fruit was more into the yellow when it dropped or when we picked it?

 

[MossRoad]

Indiana bananas!

I tried to grow them twice but the animals ate the small saplings. Do you have any pictures of them?

 

[Bigbear]

We had several do the same thing, seems it was to hot and dry. They are at the peak when dark, almost black, but I like them when they just start to turn a dark brown. The flesh is more firm, refrigerateing them helps. We have sit green one's in the window, or put them in a brown bag for a few days and they do seem to ripen OK, but not like on the tree. I have to fight the deer, coons and opossum at rippening time, the coons and opossum climb up the tree and break out the top or small limbs. I think we now have around 100 trees or so, some wild, some I transplanted, some from seed. Very young trees seem to be eaten by beaver or muskrats that are along the creek. The Indiana banana is very good to eat, some websites claim they fight or stop cancer, do a google search, very interesting. BEAR

 

[sanmigmike]

So far the deer have not shown much interest it them, and they do nibble on things right up to the house. Just have the one tree but my wife likes the fruit so much she wants to grow more so might put some more trees in away from the house. Then the deer will become a nusiance, eh?

The deer have been a problem on some things but the real problems are the ground creatures, the moles, voles gophers or what ever. Don't want to bait them since we have nine cats but... At times a few sticks of dynamite has a certain appeal.

SWMBO thinks the tree is a "Collins"?

Among some other off the wall fruit we also have a quince tree...some previous owner did like strange or unusual fruit. The problem is that the last owner did not take care of them so we have a quince tree that has a trunk parallel to the ground!

 

[wjoerob]

I planted a couple of paw-paws last yr., but they aren't growing very fast, no fruit, tallest tree is maybe 3 ft. Do they need a pair to fertilize? Also, how do you eat & prepare them?

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for the pictures.

 

[ToddW]

I planted a couple of paw-paws last yr., but they aren't growing very fast, no fruit, tallest tree is maybe 3 ft. Do they need a pair to fertilize? Also, how do you eat & prepare them?

Good article on Wikipedia

Pawpaw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I had not heard of them before, interesting.

/Todd

 

[MossRoad]

This sounds like a drawback....

Cultivation

Pollinated by scavenging carrion flies and beetles, the flowers emit a weak scent which attracts few pollinators, thus limiting fruit production.
Larger growers sometimes locate rotting meat near the trees at bloom time to increase the number of blowflies. Asimina triloba is the only larval host of the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly.


But this sounds like an advantage...

Among backyard gardeners it also is gaining in popularity because of the appeal of fresh fruit and because it is relatively low maintenance once planted. The pulp is used primarily in baked dessert recipes, as well as for brewing pawpaw beer.

 

[Champy]

I have a couple hundred of these on the low end of my property near the creek beds. Most are between 6-8' tall and some are double that or more. We never really tried harvesting the fruits, but maybe I'll give it a try just to see.......

BTW - that same area is chock full of ginger; sycamores and walnuts; and we get baskets of these big nobby green softball sized fruits/seeds dropping out of the trees. A neighbor uses the big nutballs to repel insects...

 

[MODiesel]

I have a couple hundred of these on the low end of my property near the creek beds. Most are between 6-8' tall and some are double that or more. We never really tried harvesting the fruits, but maybe I'll give it a try just to see.......

BTW - that same area is chock full of ginger; sycamores and walnuts; and we get baskets of these big nobby green softball sized fruits/seeds dropping out of the trees. A neighbor uses the big nutballs to repel insects...

Yeah, we also have piles of paw-paws in the areas along our creek. They really seem to like the damp, sandy soil, as do the walnut, sycamore, ash, hackberry, etc.

Are you sure the "big nobby green softball sized fruits" aren't what we call "hedge apples?" Those are the fruit of the osage orange/hedge tree. I don't think there's much wildlife that actually eats them, but the insect repellant angle would be new to me.

- Jay

 

[tallyho8]

You can find a little info about Hedge Apples in this post.

 

[Champy]

Thanks for the link Tallyho8.......did some quick research and here's a summary: (also found the wood is extremely hard and has one of the highest BTU outputs of all wood). Also - apologies for sidetracking the Pawpaw discussion.......

The wood of the Osage-orange is golden yellow or bright orange when first cut, but turns brown on exposure. The wood is extremely hard, heavy, tough, and durable. It also shrinks or swells very little compared to the wood of other trees. The wood is used for fence posts, insulator pins, treenails, furniture, and archery bows. In fact, many archers consider the wood of the Osage-orange to be the world's finest wood for bows. (The name bodark is from the French bois d'arc mean "bow wood.") Also, a bright yellow dye can be extracted from the wood.

The use of the hedge apples for insect control is one of the most enduring pest management home remedies. Placement of hedge apples around the foundation or inside the basement is claimed to provide relief from cockroaches, spiders, boxelder bugs, crickets and other pests.

 

[MossRoad]

The use of hedge apples as an insect repellant cracks me up. My guess is that anyone that has the gumption to go out and pick these things up, haul them home, clean them off and set them around the inside ledge of their basement is probably the same type of person that cleans the ledge regularly in the first place.

As for the usefullness of the wood, it is well documented that native americans used it for bows. There is also a neat use for the tree in that you can make a living hedge out of it using a technique called pleaching. You bend the branches around and over each other, then wound the branches where they touch. Then you bind them together and they will grow to each other, making a fairly impenetrable hedge. Neat!

 

[MODiesel]

Around here, even oak & hickory are considered poor cousins to hedge when it comes to fenceposts or firewood. There's just about nothing stronger, and posts that have been set for years & years will still be bright yellow in the middle if you pull them out & cut them up for firewood. But be careful in burning it. I know two folks who damaged their wood furnaces via the high heat that accompanies a hedge fire.

But to get back to paw-paws, if you can get decent sized fruit, they are a nice treat. They were George Washington's favorite dessert.

- Jay