Beautiful! What variety? Good season overall?

Hard to get a perspective on size. What do you think each fruit weighs?

Marc

What variety is it and how old is the tree? I find it hard to make myself thin fruit. I guess you should make your decision based upon the answer to the question, "Do I want bigger fruit or mare fruit?"

I think another issue is at hand with young trees. Last year my young 'Shenandoah' set 12 fruit. I thinned down to 6 becaus ethe tree was only a few fet tall. However, this spring, it bloomed, I hand pollinated every day, and no fruit set. A friend of mine had a similar experience with a seedling that fruited for the first time last year.

Anyone else experience alternate bearing on young pawpaw trees?

Alex

These are the variety Prolific, not the best for taste, but some ripen very early and not bad if careful to keep clear of the skin when spooning out.I grafted this tree about 6 years ago on a 2 year old rootstock and it's about 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide. I'm seeing clusters of 7 pretty commonly among a number of different varieties, but this is the only 8. The fruits in the cluster are smallish, about 4 inches or so. I usually have much higher expectations for my crops than what I actually get, and my pawpaw crop is following that rule, but it will still be my best crop to date.
I wouldn't say that I've seen alternate bearing, but I have seen small pawpaw trees set too much fruit and if this fruit is allowed to mature, it sets the tree back some so that it may not bear again for a while.

Crrek I tasted my first paw paws this year. They arrived by mail and were already turning dark. They had a very bad flavor and a strong after-taste. Could have been too ripe I suppose. How about yours?

Black pawpaws are overripe and have too much off flavor and bitterness for my palate. I try to pick them when just ripe; still they often aren't really so good - I can usually pick up some aftertaste in most of them.Rarely, I've had some excellent ones.

I love the photo of the pawpaw fruit cluster. My trees are still ripening slowly. The growing season has been cloudy and cool and has slowed the development of the fruit. I have many and all of them are still green and hard.

Another octet - I love finding these things in the orchard. This is on a ten year old seedling pawpaw, 3 inch fruit.