How to Grow Pawpaw Trees


Pawpaw trees can produce absolutely delicious fruit that is very hard to find in supermarkets. How should you take care of it?
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Also known as the pawpaw tree, Indiana banana, and poor man’s banana, the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) grows naturally in more than two dozen eastern US states. Its fruit is known for its large, custardy-tasting flavor but is rarely in markets because it perishes quickly after ripening. If you love the delicious fruit, try growing your own tree!

General Information on Pawpaw Trees

Pawpaw trees produce the largest fruit native to North America. Grown as a tree or a shrub, they are members of the custard apple (Cherimoya) family and grow to be no more than twenty-five feet tall. They often grow in dense groves or thickets where the soil is highly fertile along the edges of woodlands and in forest understories.  

These trees produce greenish-blackish fruit ranging from three to six inches long. The pale to bright yellow flesh contains glossy dark-brown seeds and is said to taste like a mix of bananas, pineapples, or mangos. 

When planted from seed, it takes up to eight years before trees are fruiting; grafted cuttings or transplants take only three to four years from planting. Some of the newly bred cultivars fruit even sooner.

A woman's hand holding a sliced pawpaw tree fruit

Pawpaw Cultivars

At least four cultivars of pawpaw are available commercially for purchase in the United States. 

  • Overleese
  • Mary (Foos) Johnson
  • Taytwo
  • Sunflower  

Six cultivars may be obtained through amateur fruit or nut-growing organizations.

  • Davis
  • Mitchell 
  • Rebecca’s Gold
  • Silver Creek
  • Taylor
  • Wilson

Planting a Pawpaw Tree

To grow pawpaw, purchase a juvenile grafted tree or take a root cutting from an established adult tree. You can try to plant a pawpaw fruit in the fall and see if shoots sprout in the spring. Unlike the preferred propagation techniques, starting plants from seed can lead to variable genetics, and your tree may not fruit. 

Avoid digging up suckers from wild fruit trees and planting them. Most of them don’t survive transplanting due to a lack of secondary roots, and wild trees have inferior genetics compared to hybrids bred for home landscapes.

Soil Prep

Trees like slightly acidic soil (between 5.5 and 7.0) with good drainage. If you don’t know the soil’s pH level, you can have a sample tested by a professional lab or purchase an at-home testing kit. Before planting, amend the soil by mixing in a couple of inches of compost to increase fertility, water-holding capacity, and drainage. 

Timing

Most trees fare the best when planted in the spring, and pawpaw follows suit. Planting in the spring while the young tree is still dormant gives the root system time to establish before the cooler winter weather sets in for the season. If you can’t plant in the spring, fall is your second best option.

Spacing

One of the drawbacks of growing pawpaw is they are not self-pollinating, so you need two different cultivars close to one another. Space them at a minimum of 15 feet away from one another, but don’t plant them more than 30 feet apart. This distance gives them room to grow and mature but makes it easy for pollinators to go between trees.

Pawpaw trees planted with equal spacing in a field

Equipment

Thankfully, planting doesn’t require any specialized equipment. All you need is a sturdy shovel to dig the planting hole and a good pair of work gloves if you are prone to blisters. If you have rabbits or deer that frequent your yard, it’s helpful to install fencing around your tree to keep them from eating the bark. 

Planting Instructions

  1. Dig a hole about three times wider than the root ball and at least a foot deep. Pawpaw trees have a very brittle taproot, so you have to give it plenty of space to prevent breaking. 
  1. Carefully remove the young tree from its pot.
  1. Loosen some of the soil from the outside of the root ball and gently untangle the roots. Keeping some of the soil around the roots helps to minimize transplant shock.
  1. Position the tree, so the crown is just below the soil surface. The top of the soil level from the container should be level with the ground. 
  1. Start backfilling the hole with the removed soil you removed, gently tamping it down as you work. Tamping the soil rids it of air pockets without forcibly compacting the root zone.
  1. Create a ridge of soil at the edge of the planting hole, with a slight depression sloping towards the trunk. This “well” allows water to collect around the base naturally.
  1. Slowly water your new tree, giving it a couple of gallons of water. Allow it to soak down into the soil before adding more water; this helps settle the soil in the hole.
  1. Cover the planting area with one or two inches of mulch, ensuring the mulch isn’t touching the trunk. 

Caring for a Pawpaw Tree

Taking care of a tree is similar to many other fruit trees in terms of sunlight, watering, and fertilizing. Pawpaws grow naturally in USDA growing zones 5 through 9, so they prefer a climate with cold winters and hot summers. They are naturally found growing in the Eastern United States from Florida up to Southern Ontario in Canada.

A very green, healthy and fresh pawpaw fruits hanging from the branch

Sunlight

Pawpaw trees can tolerate partial shade—with a reduced yield—but prefer a full sun location that gets at least six hours of sun daily. For the first two years, it’s critical to shade the sapling from the intense sun; the young shoots and new growth are extremely sensitive to sunlight. Once the canopy fills in, it naturally helps shade the tree’s interior.

This need for shade is why you typically see pawpaw trees naturally growing in the understory of taller trees. 

Watering

Water deeply every week, giving the plant a second soaking if rainfall is scarce during hot summers. The first two years give your newly planted tree some extra moisture without oversaturating the soil. Mature trees need, on average, 1″ of water weekly. Once fruit sets, keep the soil evenly moist to promote fruit growth.

Fertilizing

In the first season, you can fertilize seedlings with a liquid fertilizer every 3-4 weeks when they are actively growing to help promote root establishment. You could also opt for a liquid seaweed fertilizer. After the first year, fertilize trees with an all-purpose, slow-release fertilizer in early spring (March) and again in early summer (June).

Pruning

Pruning isn’t necessary unless branches are dead or diseases. Trees naturally grow in a pyramidal habit and form a central leader. Any suckers that sprout near the trunk of the pawpaw tree should be pulled by hand. If you choose to prune your tree to improve its shape, always prune dormant trees in late winter or early spring. 

A branch of a pawpaw tree with its leaves exposed in the sun

Pest and Disease Management

Pawpaw trees typically don’t have many problems. However, the trees have trouble with the pawpaw peduncle borer (Talponia plummeriana); larvae feed on the flowers during blooming, reducing pollination. The tree naturally produces compounds that act as a natural pesticide, so treatment is usually needed. 

Various bacterial or fungal leafspot fungus infect the trees during wet periods, but they are easily managed with fungicide.

The trees are the exclusive host plant to the caterpillar of the zebra swallowtail butterfly (Eurytides marcellus). Larvae feed on the leaves but rarely cause any permanent damage. In extreme cases, they can cause defoliation in young trees.

Tips for Growing Pawpaws

  • Choose a sheltered spot in your landscape to grow pawpaw trees, where they are protected from the wind. Wind severely damages and deforms branches.
  • Plant plenty of nectar-rich flowering plants to draw in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
  • Hand pollination may be necessary if pollination is spotty or inefficient. You can use a small paintbrush to “paint” pollen grains from the anthers of one tree onto the stigma (the female flower parts) of the other tree.
  • You can try your hand at germinating seeds by placing them in a zip-top plastic bag with moist sphagnum moss.
Carley Miller
Carley Miller is a horticultural expert at Bustling Nest. She previously owned a landscaping business for 25 years and worked at a local garden center for 10 years.
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