The app id’d the lower foliage as spicebush.

Here is a close up of that one

And it appears that a boxelder is crisscrossing the pawpaw.

Would you leave everything as is in its natural state? Or should I try and clean-up and clear out some growth?

(Spicebush) looks like one. Amazing that the technology you are using is being so effective.

If the maple is right there with the other two somewhere - it doesn't show in your first photo - it will try to grow very much larger. So you might want to take it out.

This is a leaf of what’s crisscrossing the pawpaw

I live along the Shenandoah River and have several Pawpaw patches nearby. The fruits should be developing now, and get ripe in August. Look and taste like a cross between a banana and a mango.

We have Pawpaw fruit! Not from the tree I posted the photo of but from one we found about 15ft away from this one. I got a little too excited and knocked one off the tree to try. I’ve read to wait until they fall on their own. Is this correct?

Hey VaLady, aren't you lucky that you have so many neat, natives in your understory? In some areas the forest floor is covered with stilt grass, J. honeysuckle and countless other foreign weeds. Check out THIS previous thread about Pawpaw.

think about this.. almost nothing you buy in a store.. was picked at peak ripeness ...

so i hope you still have that one ...

ken

Pawpaws fall when they are ripe........the problem is they go from unripe, to ripe, to brown and decaying in about 3 days. If you can get them about the time they are dropping that is ideal.

It is easy to tell how the ripening process is progressing, feel them. A Pawpaw far from ripening feels rough. As it approaches ripe the skin gets silky smooth.