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.

Pollination isnt the problem. My sunflower pawpaw is now 3 years old, and a little over 6 feet tall. I produced its first flowers this year and lots of gnats and other things were hitting the flowers pretty good, and there were dozens of blossoms. Most of them formed a fruit very small just like the picture the other poster above posted. They all fell off except for one. It is now around the size of a quarter and appears that it will be staying for good now. I think its just an issue of trees being very young to hold the fruit maybe. I expect a better crop next year. Im satisfied that it is gonna bear anything at all this early and is putting on good growth in branches and height. I believe growing conditions etc. determine when and how the trees will produce their first crops. I had been fertilizing mine according to recommendations and watering during dry spells etc. Someone who might not take as good care of their tree or in poorer soils might not get their first fruit till a couple of years later. There also was no pollinator for this tree, it self pollinated. Im in the middle of town and know there is not another pawpaw for miles at least.

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.

@jianhuayegreentree, I have uploaded a picture. Two cicles are the areas of two branches i grafted early spring but they did not survive finally. They are the only branches at that time. All other branches are the new growrh this year. I will try to graft again next year. preferably, i would like not to cut the main trunk but any other branches will be fine. i can choose the topmost two branches (two red lines) other than the main trunk to graft. do you think what the probability for them to survive? i am thinking it may be easier for scion to survive when tree become bigger because the growth vogor will reduce so the competition between scion and other growth may not be that strong. how big is your tree that you had grafted successfully? A picture of the tree and the growth condition of the survived brach would be very helpful. Thanks for the comments. @jianhuayegreentree.