My small 2-year olds just barely pushed out tiny leaves about a week ago and we are perhaps a little warmer than you.

It's hard to believe these plants ever managed to be fruitful and multiply in the wild.

No worries frank. Your pawpaws are probably fine. They are indeed the last fruit plant to leaf out. I'm in. nyc and already have cherrirs that are almost ripe but no leaves yet on my pawpaw. If I'm remembering correctly they start to leaf out for me in late may

Wow... Amazing. My apricots have set fruit and are about the size of peas...so that is where I'm at. Sweet cherries here are still flowering.

My paw paw has flowers this year for the first time (planted in 2006) so I'm pretty excited. The trees are right next to my compost pile filled with chicken crap so hopefully that will attract the right kind of pollinators.

For what it's worth, I could tell a large difference between Peterson selections (plus "Mango") and native pawpaws. I have eaten fruit from scores of different trees in the wild here, some of large fruit and most OK up to good, but none great like the two Peterson selections I have yet been able to taste (forget which ones).

I've eaten a number of other named selections too, and they were generally better than the wild ones. "Wells" and "Overleese" come to mind as good ones.

No offense mrtexas,
but which fruit do you actually like? I've seen your opinions on several forums and it seems you're always disappointed with some fruit or other (OK, I'm mainly thinking about certain types of citrus, and now pawpaw).

I am so envious of anyone who has producing pawpaw trees. I planted two little guys last year so it will be a while before I get any fruit, IF this plant can survive my high elevation arid climate.

I order wild pawpaws from Ohio every fall, and I've never tasted one from a named variety, and still, in terms of flavor, texture, and size, I think pawpaws are hands down the best wild fruit in North America (and many wild fruits are better than cultivated ones).

I've done a good deal of foraging on both coasts and in between, and lived in Japan and Central and South America, where tasting different types of fruit was one of my passions, so I have a lot to compare pawpaws to. But I have heard that they do not appeal to everyone, and even one of my brothers is not a fan.

Now my two cents on the original question, franktank232:
The leaf buds on my two little seedlings are just starting to swell.

Frank, they are definitely one of the later trees to leaf out. The flowers emerge first. To give a bit of phenological reference, here in the Detroit area, peaches and plums are in full bloom, early apples are in full bloom, other apples are showing buds, pears are almost open, and the flower buds on paw paws are enlarging, but about halfway to opening. Leaves appear about 1-2 weeks after the first flowers open.

However, the other possibility is winter kill or dieback. Your winter was pretty harsh, IIRC. If they do die back, they should regrow from the roots -- paw paws are pretty prolific in that sense, little pieces of root will grow. Now, I realize if they are grafted and die back below the graft union, it doesn't help you much, you'd just have a seedling rootstock and who knows what that could yield.

But, don't give up on them yet. See what happens with some warmth and time.

Some of my pawpaws now have small clusters of fruit and some have flowers that have not yet opened. My observation is that the leaves start to enlarge at about the same time that the flower buds do, but the leaves only reach a fraction of their eventual size during the bloom period.

fabacae- where do you order the fruit from- i would like to try them

Lycheeluva, I order them from a place called integration acres, and the website is:

www.integrationacres.com

For some reason as I write the website is not working, but hopefully that's just a coincidence. Anyway, they send a good mix, so some are ready to eat right away, and others will last a couple weeks in the garage. They are apparently available in September and October.

There were some overripe paw paw fruit at botanical gardens we visit and they smelled like death.

Yes indeed, even the scent of perfectly ripe, and delicious, pawpaws can be grossly overbearing when allowed to fill a space. Thats why I keep them in the garage!

The repulsive odor of ripe paw paws on the ground tells my nasal warning system, "DO NOT EAT", as does the Parmesan cheese on the pasta........, but I can eat the pasta.Do the Peterson paw paws go easier on the nose?

"No offense mrtexas,
but which fruit do you actually like? I've seen your opinions on several forums and it seems you're always disappointed with some fruit or other (OK, I'm mainly thinking about certain types of citrus, and now pawpaw)."

I go thru a continuous improvement program on my fruit trees. Out for various reasons are pawpaws, cherry of the rio grande, barbados cherry, panzarella orange, panzarella lemon, pomona sweet lemon, vainiglia sanguigno orange, republic of texas orange, strawberry guava, goumi, "cold hardy" citrus, mortenson grapes, muscadines, limequats, wekiwa tangelo, tarocco blood orange, ujukitsu sweet lemon, meiwa x nagami seedless kumquat, valencia orange, bloomsweet grapefruit, sulcata(sanbokan) sweet lemon

Most are out because they don't taste as good as the best of what is available, don't do well in SE Texas or are over-hyped by certain nurseries. TreeSearch nursery of Houston, TX hypes the sour mortenson bunch grape and the very average Republic of Texas orange for what reason other than to sell them I don't know. There isn't much information on the web for many of these fruit duds.

In with me are miho satsuma, fairchild mandarin, sanguinelli blood orange, orlando tangelo, nova mandarin, clementines, cara cara red navel, golden grapefruit, changshou kumquat, norman seedless nagami kumquat. IMHO these are the best of the best.

Still under evaluation but promising for SE Texas(I haven't tasted them yet) are xie shan satsuma, miyagawa satsuma,duncan grapefruit, marsh grapefruit, valentine grapefruit, pomogranite, 88-2 lee x nova and 15-150 lee x orlando mandarins, pong koa mandarin, ponkan mandarin.

You can't say I haven't tried growing and harvesting a wide variety of fruit.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

Mrtexas, I know you obviously have a wealth of knowledge -- and it's great to see your "in" list of citrus, they must be good to pass your test!

Maybe it's also my zone envy talking... I really truly like things like autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) and wild plums, but I am also acutely aware that the diversity of fruit I can grow is more limited in zone 6 than where you are, so I better be this open with my tastes!

Back to pawpaws... I think the fact that despite being relatively unknown to the public they are grown in places like SoCal and Fla, where the choice of fruit is immense, is a testament to how special they are. If the scent of fruit really put us off, we would avoid strawberries (did somebody forget to take out the trash? Oh, no it's just that bowl of strawberries on the counter) and cantaloupe for sure (like strawberries and pawpaws, its nice at first, but quickly becomes too much).

I planted several seeds from the paw paws I ordered from Integration acres. They sprouted during winter and I kept them indoors until planting well after the frosts were done.I planted 3 of them at the end of my woods where they were protected by a north woods.They get scattered sunlight because of the trees most of the day.The soil has some moss growing in it. I don't know if that helps.One of them died because of me. The other two have their first green leaf coming on the tips of the stem. This is the 2nd winter they survived.I never mulched them . I live 45 minutes from the Min/st. paul airport and there has been frosts this week here. Just thought I would let some of you know this.