Did you give it shade? They really don't like the sun until they're a foot or two tall.

I've seen runting too in occasional speciments and don't pretend to understand it. Partial shade, mulched or else good soil, lightly fertilized, watered. They don't die but don't grow or just barely grow. Why?

I have a few of these runts - pawpaws that just put on an inch or two a year and just never seem to gain the vigor of the other trees. I've always attributed this to transplantation effects causing extensive root damage because I've only noticed it from some bareroot trees that have been shipped from far that had roots that looked a bit limp when they arrived. My experience has been that these plants even after 5+ years never fully recover. So if you have the space you can let them linger, but if you want fruit, I would start from scratch either growing them yourself from seed or buying a potted specimen.

It would be interesting to try the old trick of a dip into gibberellic acid solution (or a misting) for the roots before planting.

It does get shade... It's under some oak/hickory trees... Haven't seen any sunburn on it. Possibly drying out from the oak/hickory trees, though....

Question - If I pull it out of the ground and pot it in a large pot, then set it in good shade in back of the house... Is there a better chance that it will kick back into grow? It would also be in a place that's much easier to water it...

Maybe it would get big enough this way that I could put it back into the ground in a year or 2...

What are the chances that this will work - given that the plant is still 9" tall...

Thanks

Personally, I'd leave it another year with a good dose of a slow-release organic fertilizer (I've used alfalfa), thick mulch, and weekly watering. Some pawpaws are just slow at first and two years may not be enough to be diagnostic of a longer-term problem. I'd use the organic fertilizer because I have seen reactions (leaf wrinkling) after normal fertilizers. Others have perfectly good reported success with chemical fertilizers (and they are OK with me at very low dosage rates). But you want the established plant abundantly fertilized.

I don't think digging it up is going to help matters any, that will be another transplant shock to get over, no matter how cushy conditions are in the pot.

I think you'd be better off buying a cheap potted seedling paw paw (Miller nursery and Stark Brothers sell them) and planting that next to the one you have. In a year or two, use your runt as a source of scion wood to graft or chip bud onto the seedling. Alternatively, you could grow your own seedling. If you spoil them, they could be 9 inches tall after one season.

In the meantime, follow gonebananas advice.

Alex

Another issue that may be affecting the growth of your tree is that its water requirements in the sandy loam may not be being met. I've found that pawpaws require frequent watering in this soil type - more so early on than other types of fruit trees, while pawpaws growing in a clay based soil are less needy in this way.