Army,

Pawpaws are very slow growing trees. The only one that grow a little faster is Mango. As I recalled, my Mango pawpaw took a good 6 years to reach 8 feet tall and about 6 feet wide without any pruning. FYI, pawpaw wood is one of the weakest of all woods. So don't grow it near a big tree because falling branches will damage them easily. You can prune the top to keep them at 12 feet tall but you have to wait a long while. One negative note on pawpaw is the fruit goes bad real quick. You have to pulp and freeze for later use. In addition, pawpaw may require hand pollination for better fruit set.

Tony

I have a very small pawpaw that is only a few feet tall that has fruit buds for the first time this year.

I've grafted another variety to it and there are at least 2 varieties that are going to flower this year.

Do you think a very small tree can support some fruit and still continue growing? If the answer is no, will it abort the fruits itself or do I need to remove them.

If I leave it be it would probably be a moot point because the odds are it wouldn't get pollinated but I'm sure I won't be able to resist the temptation to transfer some pollen myself.

Cool, thanks for the advice guys.

murky, if its only a few feet tall, under 3 ft?, then definately don't let it fruit. Pawpaws are already so slow growing, why waste all its energy to just get 1/2 fruit early?
Peaches/plums for example, are so faster growing so i sometimes leave 1 or 2 fruit on to taste 2nd year.

I have PawPaws in South Coastal MA and find them very vigorous. I need to prune some of the younger ones as the five yo trees are pushing 20 feet and loaded with fruit! I sprinkled blood meal on them during bloom and it appears to work well. I've had flowers in the past and done nothing and had no fruit. I summer prune my other fruit trees to encourage 'small trees' and fruit production. I may try this on a couple of these. Should prove interesting. Winter pruning promotes vegetative growth which is the opposite of what I need. I want to reach my fruit and I'm not getting any younger!

This is an apple tree pruned in the summer....five years old.

My lawn service topped a mango paw paw for me. The first picture shows
soon after they hit it with a weed eater about 2 inches above the graft.
The second one shows a few weeks later how 2 buds grew limbs. I hope
something can take over and become the leader.