Someone contacted me and asked for an update on my pawpaw transplants and suggested others might be interested also, so here it is: I dug up and relocated a total of 7 wild pawpaw trees (I did 3 more about a week after my last post above). All 7 lived about 6 weeks. Unfortunately, the 2 largest ones started to die after about 6-7 weeks, in spite of the fact that they actually put on new growth about a month after the transplant. I must admit that it was very dry here this summer and I didn't do a great job of keeping them watered, so it could be my fault or it could have been the cut tap root or other factors, but living 6-7 weeks makes me think more about the lack of water than tap root, but who knows. Now for the good news: The other 5 that I moved were (2) about 3 feet tall, and (3) about 2 feet tall and they are all 5 still alive and well. Two are in the ground and 3 are in 4 gallon pots ever since being moved. They are alive and seem fairly healthy, BUT they put on almost no new growth at all this whole summer. That doesn't mean they are unhealthy....they have the same amount of foliage as they did early on, and they actually still look pretty healthy...they just didn't grow any at all, which is unusual to me but may be common for slow growing pawpaws. The 2 three-foot wild transplants in the ground were in full sun, and the 3 wild transplants in the pots are mostly in the shade. As for my Petersons, I got 2 10 inch plants from edible landscaping-Susquehanna and Shenandoah. I made a shade for them and babied them more than my transplants since they were closer to my house (and water). In spite of this, one of them died and the other has only one sad leaf left on it and looks like it is dying for certain. I have read many places that pawpaws cannot be moved, but that just doesn't seem to be true based on my limited experience. Even if they should die this winter I will have a hard time blaming it on the move...surely 5-6 months of life after transplant is enough to overcome transplant shock and the fact that some are still alive and well (though not growing much) bodes well for the possibility of relocating wild pawpaws in my book, though I'm certainly a rookie! One last note: If you have watched my post you know I looked a long, long time before I found a pawpaw patch, and I was thrilled when I did. The most exciting news is that just this past weekend I returned to the patch for the first time all summer to see if any fruit set there. IT DID!!!! I counted a total of about 14 pawpaw fruits in the whole patch. They were about the size of a roll of quarters now and hard as a rock, but I was thrilled to see them. My fingers are crossed that at least one or two of them will survive to get ripe so I can finally taste pawpaw for the first time in my life! If so, I will be willing to share some seeds. Priority will be given to those people here who have been helpful to me and answered my fruit tree questions this year (you know who you are) and if they don't want them then I'll share with anyone else who asks. It will be way of giving something back to this forum which has been so good to me. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself....lets see if I actually get any wild fruit and if so, how good it is. Then we can see who wants seeds (if anyone). Thanks all.

Hemnancy, It sounds like you've got basically a wild-type tree. Two inches long is considered rather small. The flavor may be fine, but once you eat one of the large cultivars, you won't be satisfied with a fruit that's more seed than flesh. Your tree may have dropped its fruit because it was ripe. Usually it's ripe when it drops on its own, but it's often better to pick just before it's finished ripening and let it finish up inside in a day or two. As was stated by wild forager, the nose knows when it's time to pick. When they start to give off their characteristic odor, you can pick them and let them sit on you counter top. Pick too early and they may never ripen at all. Too late and they turn black on the outside and bitter on the inside. A light frost is OK, but fruit that has not started the process of ripening can be prevented from ripening at all by a freeze in my experienc. By all means get some grafted cultivars, but don't buy those little one year old grafts that most nurseries sell for $24.95. You'll wait another 8 years for fruit. Since you have two established trees, buy or trade for some scion wood and graft to your trees. It will get you fruit faster and cheaper. If you encourage a few root shoots that inevitably come up around your trees, you can graft onto them, or you can topwork your non-productive tree or one of its branches.

In other words you want to know of any success stories buying chance seedlings. I bought 2 healthy paw paw seedlings from a nursery at a farmers market. It was a decision I would never regret. It was said that they were selected from commercial parents and would probably be okay. When they grew and fruited I became impressed with the one that didn't have so many seeds and ripened so early. So in Sept last year I lined some up and took pictures and e-mailed them back to the nursery. Early Okay Paw Paw I know you can't see the seeds. At the time I never thought to open one because I never knew until October the other one had so many. It was when I was home (SW Washington state) from Alaska.

I don't know the answer to #1, I think the answer to # 3 is yes. Regarding #2--I think I read somewhere you can even plant 2 varieties in the same hole! However, Neal Peterson's response to ideal spacing is 10' apart. Ann