Another 2 weeks or so till they are ripe here in MD. I have a one acre patch I pick every year. Most fruits are the size of two ping pong balls side to side. Every once in a while there will be a whopper maybe twice as big. I love them, though I struggle to figure out how to tell when they are at peak ripeness. Seems like if I pick them too early they never get ripe. I have learned over the years that if they fall off the tree when the tree is shaken gently, at least half of them are ripe enough to eat.

But boy, when you have a good one the flavor is really fantastic. People don't believe me when I tell them I find them wild in the woods. My kids love eating them almost as much as they enjoy shaking them out of the trees.

What a fantastic fruit is the pawpaw! I have never harvested them myself from the wild, since I have always lived outside their range, being first too far north and east, and then too far west...

But, I always order a box from Integration Acres, which picks theirs wild in the Ohio river valley, and they are all pretty much the size of an average mango, so I guess about like the ones in the your picture, persimmonbob. How lucky you are to have access to those beauties near where you live. I've not even been successful growing them in the garden here.

Hello
Looking for pawpaw trees,can anybody help.

Patapscomike,went to your page and was not able to email you. wanted to ask if you have Patapsco or other kakis. Please email me from My Page.

Benny

I find paw-paws interesting enough to eat a few fruit a year. My first trees were seedlings with OK flesh but way too much seed and my grafted varieties are much better.

It's interesting how some people love them and most people don't seem to find them very appealing. Of course, this is a common trait of many "unusual" fruits. For me, such fruits are nice for a little foraging but nothing I put in a fruit basket.

Wish I liked paw paws more as they certainly are amazingly trouble free. Even the deer avoid them. The only problem with them as a nursery tree is the extremely sluggish growth of young plants.

bennyl- I didn't even know what a kaki was until I googled it... I don't cultivate paw paws or persimmons, to me it's much more interesting to go pick them in the woods. There are Paw Paw patches and persimmon trees scattered all over Maryland (I live and forage along the Patapsco River valley, hence my name). I'm lucky enough to have lots of both within walking distance of my house.

Mark the tree while you still remember it. Black magic marker will last a year on the smooth bark on the shady N side. See if the difference is consistant.

Those are certainly nearly blemish free on the outside too. I'd rarely see one in the woods that clear on the outside (but in the home yard, yes). They also look decent size but I can't readily envision inches from ounces.

Paw paw tree's are abundon here on beaver lake and surrounding area's. I will be grafting some of my own varieties to some wild ones next spring to get better fruiting among the wild ones. This particular area were the fruits were picked has a lot of seedlings(water sprouts) and the leaves on these tree's are very large,some are 13"long x3.5 wide. I don,t know if this normal, but all my own tree's are not that long. This cluster of 4 fruits has the biggest one at 4"long X 3.5 wide and the next one a little smaller.I have taking some of these small watersprouts and planted on my property and they all survived.I dug a small hole and then ran a piece of pipe in the middle of the dugged hole. This hole is for the piece of root that comes with the tree, fill with dirt, straightened the tree, water and you are good to go.
Here is another picture.
{{gwi:123383}}

Thanks for the link in which to order some P-paws fabaceae native. I did so last night. A follow-up order message told me they would be here in 2-5 days. So am looking forwards to that. Will be my first taste ever for those. I can't hardly wait!

Some of the tree's i bought from westcoast nurseries are doing ok but not all.All my allummium tags that i kept from dead tree's that i have bought over the years is substantional but that was during my working days. Being retired now for 11 years i made myself a promise not to buy another tree but i put in an order for two more paw paw tree's so now i have 9 varieties,plus a bunch of wild ones,plus grafting a bunch this coming spring.

I have given-up on asian persimmon for lack of more varieties to come by. This forum was very dissapointing on asian persimmon I got 5 or 6 kinds but a total of about 35 or so tree's and that much of natives tree's.
My next ones are fig tree's about 12 varieties well that is good enough too.
So that is my main concern for low maintenance tree's. Plums,pears and a few others are just fill.(too much spraying)