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).

OK, I can help with this one -- As long as you have 2 or more trees that are genetically different, seed-grown or grafted ones of different varieties, as opposed to suckers taken from the same mother plant, you have the right genetic combination to make fruit. However, the issue might be proper cross-pollination. I picked up this tip from a gardening magazine some years back, and it really works. Paw Paw flowers are brown/purple for a reason -- they are carrion mimics that produce the scent of rotting flesh, although it is subtle, and are pollinated by various species of carrion-loving flies. In the magazine, there was a profile of a paw paw breeder from Jackson, Michigan. He went out every spring and gathered roadkill -- racoons, possoms, etc. -- and also enlisted the help of a couple of friends to catch big carp in the local river. He hung a carcass in each tree. He had like 200 trees, so I don't envy his downwind neighbors. Now, I know it sounds nasty, and it is, but it sure does make a dramatic difference in pollination. Now, being sort of weak in the stomach, I couldn't see myself hanging dead animals in my paw paw trees, and I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't approve, and someone would probably call the cops on me. So, my solution -- I use the bait powder from Ortho disposable flytraps -- I mix it with an equal volume of water and pour it into a foam or plastic cup that I tape with duct tape to a vertical trunk of the tree about 4 feet off the ground. Pour the mix in there about 4 or 5 days before the first blossoms open, because it gets progressively more smelly as it ages. By the time the blooms open, it will be rank smelling and attract a lot of flies. Some will actually fall in and drown, but that's ok, because it just makes it smell all the worse and attracts even more flies. When I did this, the blossom set increased dramatically, about quadrupled. A lot more fruit set and ripened. Too late for this year, but try it next and see if that doesn't make the difference. Finally, one other thing -- I have one tree that is a couple of hundred feet away from the other two -- that distance does cut down a lot on the transfer of pollen, and it sets far fewer. So, if your trees are far away, you can use my other method, which is to cut several longer branches of buds and flowers from a pollinator tree and put them under the tree which needs cross pollination in a bucket of water with some cut flower preservative in it -- they'll last about 4 to 6 days this way and will do the job.

I didn't know anything about pawpaw and was curious when I saw the post, so I googled it for pictures and when I saw the large fruit, the first thing I thought was that they must need a lot of water. Looked around a little more and found that they prefer an acid soil, and I was way right about the water. The three best sites I found are linked below. One of them says they need a second tree for cross pollination, and the other says they're self fertile! Interesting! Ah-ha! I found some good info re pollination on the third site! Sounds like you DO need at least two for pollination, and like they have a low pollination rate even then. One other thing I found on all the sites I looked at is that they all recommend "some protection from wind" due to the large leaves--described as up to 12" on one site. I'm not trying to talk anyone out of growing them--it looks like a pretty cool thing to try--but it does sound to me like growing them out here in the high, dry, windy conditions we have in the Rockies would make it a challenge. The fruit sounds yummy, and if anyone is ever successful, I'd love to hear the tale! Skybird Pawpaw Cultural Advice Pawpaw trees and fruit Pawpaw - Asimina triloba

Sandy - Though I now live in NC, I am originally from OK (central) so I know your region well. There are most likely wild pawpaws in your area. They range in damp woodlands all the way to Canada so there is no reason you wouldn't have them. My garden is also large and I went crazy planting and propagating more pawpaws and there is a downside to having a large collection of pawpaw trees - all the fruit is ripe at the same time. You will struggle to eat, freeze, or give away multiple wheelbarrow loads of fruit each day for weeks in late August. I have found that if you have one non relative planted in the same row or very close to a row or cluster of named varieties you will get good pollination. My favorite is 'Sunflower' so I now have a row of them with one no-name seedling as a pollinator. My trees bloom most often in mid February when we have a spell of warm weather. I dump garden debris and leaves at the base of the trees and there are always small flies buzzing around mid winter when it is above freezing. Those flies do the pollinating for me.