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.

Hi Dr. Eric, So you are not able to discern between bone and marrow? My line about California consumers demanding heavy metals was a joke. We do have a bad reputation in some parts of the country, but I thought you might get it. Sorry. I won't quit my day job. You obviously have checked the US Pharmacopeia for allowable lead content. What is it? I would expect a physician to have easy access to this data. .5 micrograms. That is ten to the minus ninth, I think. Is that correct? Regarding the paper on Rasagenthi lehyam: I am not responsible to ask an author of a paper to send you a copy. I provided the link to the free abstract. I talked about the paper and what it said. I accurately reported that. Maybe you could also do what I did which is to ask the author for a copy of the full text so that you could read it. We have intellectual property laws that protect publications. So I cannot just publish the entire text here for you. If you want to know, ask the author. If you just want to attack my argument without checking the paper, go ahead. It just does not become you. You are a better person than that. I absolutely agree with you that there is much work to do to evaluate this formula. I have talked with the author and find him to be a good researcher. He is just going to need another pile of money. He did a recent paper on the photosensitizing by curcumin of prostate cancer cells to radiation. As you are well aware, radiation of PCa is not effective in some cases. His work may lead to better medical treatments down the road. He is Dr. Chendil of Kentucky University. The authors of the one paper reporting on a human trial with 94 people using paw paw twig extract that has been written have not succeeded in having it received for publication to the best of my knowledge. If I become aware of publication, I will try to inform you. There is one interesting case reported by Dr. Steven Martin, an immunologist. His research group is called Grouppe Kurosawa. He reports on the efforts of "Anna" who started with a 10 cm breast cancer tumor 3 cm thick and has managed to reduce it to a few small nodules. Although his site is not a peer reviewed journal, so you won't be interested in what she reports, others may wish to read it. Very interesting application of EGCG and paw paw by topical means and per os using coconut milk as a carrier to avoid absorption by the chylomicron method and going directly into the lymph. Before you disregard Dr. Martin's site, I should mention to the readers that Alexa.com lists it as number five in the world for web traffic under the heading of immunology. So he is no crackpot. Happy sniping. Richard

Since Pawpaw can get 30 ft. tall and equally wide, I would suggest planting it further than 10 ft. from the pond. I say this not due to fish toxicity, but because they will make a fine mess of your pond. Even if it grew half the size, that would still mean 5 ft. of it would be over your pond. I think it's great that you're considering planting one, though, since they're considered endangered in NJ. :) Brenda

Mercury, you need to stratify the seed to get them to grow and probably even soak them before you do that. But if you do that they germinate in about a month. Then they will grow very slow unless like most understory trees they are growing in shade for the first few years, treat them like young Cherimoyas or Avocados with shade while they are immature and they will grow ok