Over the past several weeks, my sunflower paw-paw had 15-20 flowers and I used my brush to extract yellow pollen from the older (black looking w/ leaves falling off) flowers and paint on to the younger just-opening flowers. The several fruit that looked promising last year were eaten by rodents so I'll have to do a better job of caging the fruit that I hope will grow this year. Wild Haired Mavens, I wish you luck w/ your LA paw paw. They don't do well in direct sun light (I lost 4 last year because my canopy fell off while I was away) and regardless of the species (hopefully sunflower), make sure to hand-pollinate when the flower open to get the best chance of fruits. In the meantime, paw-paws are related to cherimoya (similar taste from what I've read), which I would recommend purchasing if you can find it. They're my personal favorite fruit and can be bought from Home Depot (make sure you buy two to cross pollinate).

Like you, I recently bought a potted,grafted Shenandoah 'tiny' plant and transpotted it into a bigger pot, where it has grown OK with 2 small branches developing full-sized healthy leaves. An identicle-looking tiny grafted KSU Atwood from the same seller that was packaged the same, growing in the same kind of nursery pot, repotted by me the same into the same kind of tall pot on the same day in the same soil mix with the same fertilizing and the same watering and the same Sunlight....never had one bud on the tiny scion grow out. It's rootstock sent out a couple shoots, but even these declined and died. I have used Miracle Grow, Super Thrive, and some granular fertilizer to nourish both. My conclusion is that the tiny root system is not reliable to support the tiny grafted scion. I have more confidence in clipping off the scion and regrafting it to a mature paw paw with a developed root system. I do not know what the patent restrictions dictate, but if I am going to invest $$ on a valued scion that is only being kept alive by an immature, very vulnerable rootstock, that is not a safe bet to make again. It would be a whole lot better taken care of if it was grafted onto a "Mango paw paw that has been in the ground for several years and is 8 or 9 feet tall". I wish that paw paw roots on tiny plants were as eager to grow and hardy as,.. say,...mulberries. Maybe that would be the best focus of additional paw paw research. Vigorous hardy rootstocks.

I did everything I could think of to help them out. First of all the long first season as described above, following advice I got in the container growing forum (planted in 5-1-1 mix, fertigated weekly with Dyna-gro Foliage Pro) They had leaves well after top growth stopped, so I think they were growing their roots. I prepared the ground where they were to be planted the season before, while they were in pots. To do that, I killed the grass with Roundup in August. A week later I planted a mixed cover crop (Soil builder mix form Peaceful Valley Farm Supply plus alfalfa) and mulched those seeds with maybe an inch of compost. The cover crop was over 3 feet tall by October when the frosts came. I added several inches of leaves that fall (no tilling ever, just put everything on top). I planted the trees that spring as soon as their buds started swelling. I shaded them that first season in the ground with two layers of window screen, and fertilized every couple weeks with Miracle Grow at half strength. They grew well that year, but it was the next season that they really took off, with some of them putting on 4 feet of height that summer (2012). More raked leaves on top of the soil in the fall. The next year I continued feeding with Miracle grow, and they did not put on quite as much height, but had great growth of their lateral branches. I've always kept a diverse herbaceous layer underneath them and in the whole planting plot. This is a great way to add organic matter throughout the soil (through root turnover). I also throw all the prunings/twigs from my yard there. My goal was to mimic the soil of the pawpaw's natural environment, the forest understory, as closely as possible (lots of roots, lots of organic matter, a nice layer of organic litter on top, fungally dominated). The difference in the soil compared to the surrounding lawn, in both color and texture/structure is amazing (started with orange clay). Lots of mushrooms show up in the patch as well. Alex

I forget when mine actually bloom, but I think it's late March. I have 4 trees, one is a named variety that is 15 years old and has never bloomed. It is stunted for some reason and is only 3' tall. The other 3 are unnamed, they came from a local nursery and were started from cuttings. They are 8 years old and 15' tall. The older one is in full sun, the others are shaded by larger trees. I read that they need shade when they are young, so I planted them in a different spot. I haven't checked mine for buds yet, but as John said "Flower buds are dark and round". I have read that you need to hang some rotting meat near them to attract some sort of fly to pollinate them, I forget the name of the fly. I plan to try that this year. I have only had one fruit, I picked in on 07/22/2010. I remember because it was the day after my Dad died. We all sampled it and everyone liked it. There are a lot of posts for paw paw on the Fruit & Orchards forum here. I think that is where I read about the meat.