All the major good-reputation mail-order fruit nurseries (e.g., Raintree, One Green World, Stark) and many smaller ones.

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/nurslst.htm

As mentioned, there are many sources, but one that pops into my mind as having a good selection is Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery. They carry Peterson's cultivars as well as many others. There one downfall seems to be lack of production. They are already sold out for 2010 and are now taking orders for 2011.

Be careful when using the KYSU list of sources. It's a good list, but it includes some real notoriously awful suppliers as well as the good ones. Check out possibilities through Garden Watchdog before placing orders!

Here is a link that might be useful: Nolin River's Pawpaws

Starkbros nursery has pensylvania golden paw paw (very sweet fruit) on sale now.

I got another "Mango" from Stark and it was a very nicely grown plant in a container (which helps with pawpaw's persnickety roots).

I would look at Burnt Ridge www.burntridgenursery.com

Edible Landscaping www.eat-it.com

or England's nursery http://www.nuttrees.net/

before I would order from Starks. (I prefer to support smaller growers and have had better luck with these than with Starts personally)

~Chills

Here is a link that might be useful: England's Nursery

I prefer to support small growers too. But I have lost too many expensive bareroot pawpaws from them. This from nurseries that are otherwise good and with whom I've had good luck with other plants. Don't buy bareroot pawpaws is my advice. Only Peterson sent bareroot pawpaw plants plenty developed enough and strong enough to grow well afterwards (though a number of others survived at least and eventually grew OK).

edible landscaping sends them potted. As does Burnt Ridge if I recall correctly. I bought bare-rooted pawpaws from Peterson's and they were fine. (the only way he sold them as far as I recall).

My other pawpaws were purchased from an ebay seller and they came in bare-root, I lost 2 (of 5) and broke just about every rule there is regarding planting trees. One of they fruited for me last year and I was relieved to find out the fruit was good.

I would second gonebananas advice about buying only potted pawpaws (or make sure you get a really good guarantee on the plants (and realize you will lose a year of growth if you need to use the guarantee)

~Chills

Now you guys have me re-thinking my plans I have Paw Paw on order from 2 sources. 2 from Hidden Springs arriving hopefully any day, and 2 Peterson's from Nolin River wait listed for 2011. Hidden Springs lists theirs as pot grown, but shipped bare root, how would you classify those, as bare root? I had hoped to plant out with the rest of my tree's at a property I am at only on weekends, I am now thinking about potting them up for a year in the tall 2 foot+ tall narrow pots like you sometimes see Pecans in so that I could tend to them closer. Most plants I have had better luck establishing in the ground right off as opposed to trying to baby for a year in pots where I could tend to watering etc... whereas at my orchard planting I can't really even supplement the rainfall easily. Thoughts are appreciated? Thanks

strudel,

I've tried both methods with bare-rooted pawpaws and have found clearly that keeping them potted up for the first year is the way to go. Using a well draining medium, regular watering, and tall pots, I am able to keep them in full sun from the start and routinely get substantial growth that first year. This continues without setback the following year when planted in the ground. By comparison, some time ago, I planted several pawpaws that I had received from Hidden Springs directly in the orchard. These plants had healthy dense root systems but took several years in the ground before beginning to show the vigor of the plants that had spent a year in pots.

I prefer getting pot-grown pawpaws (unless they are larger, as mentioned above), but, once I get them, I strongly prefer growing the trees in the ground in their permanent position. I've had the opposite experience of what Creekweb describes. I can't imagine why maintaining them in pots would be preferable to growing in-ground, if the trees are planted properly, well maintained, and placed in a good growing environment. The drawbacks of maintaining the trees in pots (delaying establishment, potbound roots, greatly increased maintenance, etc) makes it a bad choice in my experience.

"Hidden Springs lists theirs as pot grown, but shipped bare root, how would you classify those, as bare root?"

Arguments could be made either way from a semantics point of view, but I would call them pot-grown. The trees would retain much of their root system when treated this way and should establish much more quickly than field-grown, dug, bare-root trees.

Brandon7 writes:

"I can't imagine why maintaining them in pots would be preferable to growing in-ground"

In my experience I've found that pawpaws are more adversely affected by shipping bare-root than many other types of fruit trees - it appears that their root systems, consisting of many fine rootlets are more vulnerable to the various stresses inherent in this process, and transplantation shock to a greater or less degree is the rule.

The focus should be to prevent, or if necessary, to decrease the severity of the shock. So buying container grown plants shipped in their container would be best; these can be planted directly in the ground with good results. But if the tree is sent bare-root, there will of necessity be root damage and transplantation shock, and this setback can reduce the vigor of the plant for years. The best remedy I've found to lessen the shock is to provide an optimal environment for the stressed and damaged roots to allow quick recovery. This goal is much better achieved in a pot, where growing conditions, including most importantly the medium and the moisture content, are more readily controlled. It really makes no sense to plant a struggling shocked pawpaw in topsoil with resultant loss of many of the damaged roots and prolongation of the shock state. The focus here is on the short term problem of allowing roots damaged by bare-rooting to recover; once this has occurred, evidenced by vigorous vegetative growth, the tree is ready for planting in the garden.

I agree with all of that except the part about containers being more likely to provide an optimal environment. That's the part where I see it the other way around.

I guess some additional control would theoretically be possible in containers, but in practice, where containers may not get daily monitoring and carefully controlled irrigation (like here at my place), I find in-ground planting to provide more stable and lower-stress conditions. Of course a lot of this depends on soil, climate, and vigilant care. Delayed establishment would also be a concern, in regard to container planting, for me.

Thanks for the inputs. So far the trees I have planted straight out have fared better than what I have tried to baby along in a pot for a year, but I think these will spend until next fall in pots. The major factor being I don't live at location of my plantings yet and beyond caging them in wire, they are pretty much on their own. I sometimes only make it there a couple days a month. Most things I have planted are lower care and not bearing yet. Sometimes I feel like I'm gambling on rainfall. Last year we had regular rains, the couple years prior severe draught. I managed not to lose anything, but many things did show some stress a couple times. They would also be in full sun. I have some deep pots 20 inch deep and 10 inch diameter I hope will allow the taproot to develop and I could keep them fully shaded and watered and debating about a little "root stimulator" weak solution when they break dormancy. "indole-3-btyric acid" with 5-15-5 hoping get the roots off well. I have not received the plants yet, and the later it gets the more I lean to potting them. I have a slightly smaller taller pot, is there ever a negative to a larger pot? Hidden Springs lists their PawPaw at 1-2 feet, and I really don't want to throw them something like a 15 Gal for 10 months as I am sure the whole rootball would break apart when I planted out, but if that would help them to a good start I will do it.

Strudeldog,

One thing that I don't think was mentioned above, that might be important, is that pawpaws are best transplanted in early spring instead of fall or winter. Pawpaws experience a much greater root-growth dormancy than most other types of trees, and are more prone to root rot because of that. I wouldn't order a pawpaw in the fall, but if I did get one (in a container), I'd leave it until very early spring for transplant.

The only negative I can think of to a tall pot is the deeper hole and increased work it requires at planting out.

A couple of long fenceposts put in at an angle and some burlap or shade cloth can satisfy shading for the first year.

I'd avoid the root stimulator.