The Pawpaw Tree - A Complete Profile

hey this is Joe with growing build and today I'm going to tell you all about paw paws an amazing fruit native to North America so every year in late summer or early fall once nighttime temperatures start to cool off I go trudging out into the woods I'm not hunting animals though instead I'm going out foraging for one of my favorite foods known as the pawpaw with a short shelf left you won't be seeing paw paws on grocery store shelves and outside of the occasional Farmers Market you are going to have to harvest these yourself but it's worth it though with the flavor of a banana crossed with mango papa is great in late summer I became interested with paw paws upon learning about them some years back I had never heard of them so I said about learning how to ID and find the tree I sort of became obsessed with it and finding patches of trees foraging harvesting them eating and then growing them myself from seed this video will be a complete profile on this native tree and its fruit it's going to be very long but I will have a digital table of contents below if you're just trying to learn one specific aspect you can just click on that and jump to it via the link but in this video I'm going to cover the following what is a pawpaw tree identification and characteristics the growing conditions how to find them in the wild and in this I'm really going to give you all of my tips for locating the trees exactly what to do the steps what I look forward to spot them from a distance and some common look-alikes as well when and how to harvest pawpaws how to eat them and store it for later how to save the pawpaw seeds and germinate them growing pawpaw trees into your own yard where you can buy Papa trees online other uses of pawpaw trees and then we will review so I hope you stick with me and learn about this unique curious tree and its Delicious Fruit okay so what is a pawpaw tree a pawpaw tree is a deciduous fruit bearing tree native to North America scientifically known as asamina triloba and the pawpaw is the northernmost member of the tropical fruit family and in ACA or custard apple family it can grow 20 to 30 feet tall at maturity if it receives enough sun and can grow two feet per year in Optimum conditions if it grows deeper in the woods with less available sunlight then it may only reach 10 or 15 feet it all depends on the Sun the native range of the Papua tree is in eastern half of the United States covering a large part of Appalachia Ozarks Mid-Atlantic the Eastern Midwest and even going up into Southern Ontario Canada its flowers are pollinated by blowflies and flesh flies and the tree hosts the caterpillars of the zebra swallowtail butterfly and the leaves also contain a natural insecticide that may eventually be commercialized identification and characteristics the bark of a pawpaw tree is light gray in color and speckled and it would probably be completely smooth if not for these speckles the trunk of a papa tree is small diameter even at maturity and I've never seen one larger than about six inches and this was on a tree growing out in full sun when it comes to leaves Papa leaves can be quite huge at up to 12 inches long by four to five inches wide they alternate up the stalk their Lancelot to oblivate in shape resembling a tear drop and they have downward pointing v-shaped veins and the edges are smooth and you often find them growing in alternating clusters at the ends of branches when the tree is grown in the woods while green throughout spring and summer in Autumn the leaves will turn a shade of yellow the buds of paw paw are fairly unique and are often referred to as being paintbrush like if you tear the leaf of a pawpaw you'll smell something that's like either fresh diced bell pepper or I've heard other people describe it as motor oil it's kind of subjective but it's definitely a distinct Aroma that you'll recognize once you smell it once for flowers in Spring Papa trees will make numerous dark maroon flowers with green yellow centers they're about one and a half inches diameter and will have two sets of three petals individually examined a paw paw flower is quite beautiful but they're not large enough nor produced in enough quantity to be considered showy part of that is that they're usually blooming in the woods surrounded by large trees so the flowers just don't contrast or stand out the flowers generally have an unpleasant Aroma but it isn't strong and you wouldn't notice it unless you sniff the flour directly and that Aroma is what draws in Papa's pollinators flowers that are successfully pollinated will produce fruits in clusters from one to six and they'll grow throughout spring and summer ripening at the end of summer depending on where you live this fruit is loved by people and animals alike it's known to be eaten by deer Fox Skunk squirrels and even Turtles okay so when it comes to pawpaws and pollination a single tree cannot self-pollinate you need to have two genetically different pawpaw trees to fruit in the wild the flowers are pollinated by several types of pollinating flies now these flies are not the best of pollinators and there has been studies that have found that around one percent of open pollinated flowers will produce fruit now these researchers also hand pollinated flowers and they were able to produce fruit five to twenty percent of the time so it's still not ideal but it's much better than the open ones the root system of pawpaw trees is of a deep Tap Root and also produces suckers suckers are horizontal stems that Sprout new pawpaw trees making clonal offsets these small seedlings surround the mother tree and are most likely genetically identical and also please note that these small offsets do not transplant well as they don't have the extensive root system of the mother plant so transplanting these will often result death of the tree but these coronal offsets are important to note that they're the same genetic tree as the mother so pollinating flowers from these small ones to the big one won't make fruit growing conditions the natural habitat of pawpaw is that of an understory tree in the wild they grow in partial shade underneath other trees they like to have moist to medium moist soil that has plenty of organic matter you know think of the forest floor and if you guys are liking this video please give me a thumbs up it really does help me out and I greatly appreciate it all right now we're going to go into how to find pawpaw trees in the wild and I feel I should say a few words on legality if you're going on private land get permission from landowners or follow the rules on public land lots of state public areas and Parks allow foraging for personal use but not all so check the rules before you go all right we can break down how to find paw paws in the wild in several steps one look within their native range two go to the growing conditions three look for companion trees which also confirms the growing conditions four learn to spot the tree from a distance this one's important five learn the look-alikes so that you don't think you found pawpaws and come back in you know late summer and be disappointed one look within the native range so as I showed earlier the native range of the pawpaw is primarily the Eastern United States from Louisiana to Missouri east of Appalachia South to South Carolina Michigan Pennsylvania and a few areas of Upstate New York and Southern Ontario so if you're close to those areas or within them you're starting from a good place two go to the growing conditions pawpaws are going to grow best in partial shade often near water but in areas that will still drain so if you're hiking in the woods avoid places without water but go for areas near creeks or low spots on the periphery and also just a personal observation but in my experience the trees with the most sun will grow the biggest paw paws so along roadsides or Forest edges can be really good three look for trees that grow near pawpaws there are certain species of tree that like similar growing conditions of paw paws and this can be a good hint that you're in the right spot some of those include the following Beech trees black walnut Hickory red maple pin oak tulip poplar the spice bush in Sycamore Thor learn what form of tree to look for this is the single most important factor in finding paw paws once you've put yourself in the native range in correct growing conditions now it is time to cover some distance to find these trees being able to spot a tree from a distance is quite valuable it allows you to cover a lot of ground and not waste time trying to ID non-paws and what form is it well these are understory trees with big leaves and skinny trunks so the first thing I look for is large leaves way larger than the surrounding vegetation this should be drawing your attention paw polies generally stand out for their size but the overall tree shouldn't stand out what I mean is that it's an understory tree and it should be 10 to 30 feet tall which is not that tall in a hardwood forest and it should have a trunk that is likely only two to four inches diameter very skinny also because the pawpaw is spread via underground suckers you should be seeing some small seedlings like this near a mother tree okay so to better learn how to spot pawpaws from a distance I'm going to show you some images in the woods where there are paw paws I'll let you try to spot them then I will show them to you also I strongly recommend that you make use of the visual aids at my website that you can download as PDFs just Google pawpaw grow it build it and you can have them on your phone when you go out in the woods but okay let's look at some pawpaws so can you see the papa Tree in this image you should be looking for big leaves skinny trunk short treat being able to pick out these kind of profiles from a distance will allow you to cover so much ground you're definitely going to find paw paws if you're in the right area if you follow the other steps there's the Paw Paw tree once you suspect you have a pawpaw treat then you just simply start walking towards it get closer and confirm the identification we're about 15 yards away from it right now and the leaves should be a little more apparent but as we get very close to it and finish it off you should be able to see exactly what it is this is what you got to look for the only tree that's going to really confuse you with these is going to be hickory trees which we will be talking about that later but hickories are probably the most frustrating tree for me when hunting paw paws okay this one might be a little harder but there's going to be a few pawpaws in this little video clip so take a look and see if you can spot them this is a case where we're looking deeper in the forest so it might be a little more challenging because it's just trees everywhere three big papa trees this is kind of an opening of a forest that's slowly getting eaten by like wild grapevines and the like Greenbrier and such but uh you know these trees are shorter than the surrounding vegetation they have the big leaves and the skinny Trunks and if I zoom in with a better quality camera that can actually Zoom you can plainly see that these are most likely Papa trees um yeah but this is what you have to look for and I've got you know good still images from all of these in PDFs for you to if you want to train your eyes you can again they're at my website like I said just go there and you can find them but the last one where's the papa tree should be pretty easy for you guys now but these leaves are huge but this is the kind of image you need to sear into your mind really big leaves compared to every other tree and then you just approach it and confirm if it is a pawpaw treat that's the main thing to do you know after you put yourself in the right locations I cover a lot of ground being able to spot these from a distance and so can you and I find new patches every year so yep okay learn the look-alikes there are several species that look very similar to a pawpaw tree and can trick you so I'm going to cover several of the more common species here but before I go into detail I need to point out that the visuals I'm going to show you exist as images and PDFs at my website just Google Papa or grow it build it and you will find them before we start I need to make sure you all know the difference between alternate and opposite leaves this is arguably the most important Botanical characteristic to differentiate paw paws from most of their look-alikes alternate leaves will alternate up a stock one on one side one on the other then one on the other as you go up the stock opposite leaves occur in pairs along a stock like this here so memorize that characteristic it's very important now let's talk about a few look-alikes that grow near pawpaws white ash trees although the mature specimens are mostly Dead from the emerald ash borer young specimens of white ash arise all the time and an individual leaflet could be mistaken for a pawpaw Leaf but side by side you can see the difference plainly here the shape differs in that paw paws are more teardrop shape and bigger and more importantly the Ashley fluids are opposite not alternate hickory trees Hickory is probably the most frustrating look-alike for me their leaves can be quite large almost as large as paw paws and are shaped very similarly to paw paws and from a distance I've thought I was seeing Papa leaves but as I approach I keep looking up to check if the leaves are alternate or opposite because hickory trees have opposite leaflets whereas pop laws have alternate leaves but even still a lot of leaves layered on top of each other can resemble the Paw Paw there's one other key leaf difference that is a dead giveaway is that the edges of the pawpaw Leaf are smooth while hickory trees have serrated or Sawtooth edges also hickory trees have different bark than pawpaw trees but unfortunately hickories grow right next to paw paws here you can see it plainly hickory tree Papa tree right next to each other another species look alike is the southern magnolia tree their leaves can resemble pawpaw leaves in shape especially at the end of the branches where they're more clustered up similar to paw paws however southern magnolia tree leaves are more elliptic in shape and smaller at five to eight inches long by two to three inches wide and they are thick leathery textured with a shiny appearance while pawpaw leaves are just thin regular textured leaves and one final honorable mention is the spice bush it likes the same growing conditions as pawpaw doesn't get very tall and has a spindly trunk and the leaves are even alternate along the stock but the spice bush Leaf is more elliptic or round in shape and smaller and if you crush or tear a spice bush Leaf it will emit a spicy delicious Aroma while the pawpaw leaves smell like freshly diced bell pepper when torn okay so to review how to find them in the wild one look within their native range two go to the growing conditions three try to find the companion trees four train your eyes to spot this tree from a distance big leaves skinny trunk short treat and five learn the look-alikes okay when and how to harvest paw paws papa is ripened up depending on where you live in the south this is closer to mid-summer while in the north where I'm at it's more towards the end of summer to early fall I'm in southern Pennsylvania in zone six and this is usually around mid-september when the outside nighttime temperatures start to dip below 60 Fahrenheit when the pawpaws are ripe they will begin to turn from a medium green to yellow in color they'll become soft to the touch and they will begin to fall from the tree naturally when they are at their Peak ripeness if you have trees on your land you can just go pick them up on the ground check in Daily otherwise you can harvest the pot pies by just gently shaking the tree and collecting those paw paws that fall if you violently shake the tree you will get more paw paws but some of them are going to be hard and not ripe most of the time they will wrap it up on a kitchen counter or a windowsill over a week or two but if the pawpaw is harvested too early it won't wrapen up at all also right pawpaws will have yellow flesh while unripe pawpaws the flush will be much more white Papa's on the ground do not have a long life one due to the short shelf life naturally and two because other animals like deer Fox raccoons skunks they're all eat them so you really want to be out there gently shaking the trees as the time approaches I do this a couple times over a two-week period otherwise you may lose most of your pawpaws due to spoilage or animals now how long do they last well pawpaws will generally last for a week at room temperature in the refrigerator they can last for two to three weeks but don't put them in there unless they're starting to ripen up eventually the skin will turn black it'll be extremely squishy though and likely fermented how to eat pawpaws the easiest way to eat a paw paw is to cut it in half perpendicular to the long axis of the fruit then just using a spoon scoop out the Flesh and eat it you know putting it right between the skin and the flesh spit the large seeds out onto a plate and do not eat them the flavor is very similar to banana with a hint of mango and quite sweet and this is what I do during the season my daughter and I will eat you know a few paw paws a day as you've got to eat them before they spoil storing pawpaws if you have a surplus of Popeyes you can scoop out the Flesh and separate the seeds then freeze it in Ziploc bags for future use as an ingredient or topping in my experience Frozen Paw Paw pulp loses some of its sweetness and flavor but it's still good on top of ice cream or pancakes paw paws and toxicity I need to say a few words about paw paws and toxicity the leaves bark and seeds are all toxic so avoid consuming them but recently they discovered that the pulp or flesh of a paw paw the part we eat also contains anonymousent which is toxic to neurons in the brain this same compound has been found in the fruit known as the soursop in Guadalupe and consuming soursop fruits daily for years as well as the tea made from the leaves has been connected to atypical Parkinson's in that location so would the Paw Paw do this too well I researched it extensively and I was able to identify a single case of possible neurological problems that could be linked to paw paws the single case was that of an 80 year old man who reported symptoms of effortful speech and Mild balance impairment he showed midbrain atrophy with MRI and was diagnosed with super nuclear palsy it turns out this man has been consuming an estimated 30 pounds of paw paw pulp for five years prior to symptom onset and five more years until he died from aspiration which is partial obstruction of the airway due to difficulty in swallowing his family owned a pawpaw Orchard and he had access to lots of fruit now this paper didn't state if he ate 30 pounds only during the Harvest time or throughout the year via Frozen pulp that he had stored but this was the only case I could locate possibly linking neurological diseases with paw paws given the history of pawpaw consumption for thousands of years starting with Native Americans and the amount of people who consume them today when in season I think if there was an acute risk it would be known and since paw paws were historically consumed only during a brief seasonal window without apparent issue I personally am perfectly comfortable eating them and will continue to do so I generally only store a couple of Ziploc bags of paw paw pulp for later use but all in all this is not a fruit I regularly consume throughout the year but do your own research make sure you are comfortable with this information before consuming pawpaws how to save pawpaw seeds to save pawpaw seeds you simply separate them from the pulp and cut off the small membrane or scrape it off with your fingernail at the base soak the seeds in a 10 bleach solution for about five minutes then rinse the seeds thoroughly pawpaw seeds cannot be allowed to dry out now the University of Kentucky reports that pawpaw seeds can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for several years without losing much viability but if you're planning to germinate these yourself you should just place them in a moist paper towel in the fridge until you are going to sow them this is also sort of like getting a jump on cold moist stratification but take a full-size paper towel and fold it in half placing your sterilized seed on it and fold it over and Mist it with the distilled or clean water then Place another full paper sized towel on it and moisten that one too Fold It them up to make sure they're really covered and good place that into a Ziploc bag and put it in the fridge and label it how to grow pawpaw trees from seed paw paws have a dormancy mechanism that needs to be broken with cold moist stratification for around 100 days this can be achieved by winter selling or just leaving our seeds in the moist paper towel Ziploc bag until spring approaches so I showed you how to do the Ziploc bag thing but I need to tell you that sometimes that will still have mold form so I'm going to say a few words on winter sewing pawpaw trees though I've never found any reference talking about what happens to a pawpaw seed that is frozen but through my experience I've come to determine that pawpaw seeds should never be allowed in freezing temperatures for prolonged periods of time I've attempted to grow paw paws from seed three years in a row the first year I sowed in these smaller yogurt size containers and left them outside that winter was somewhat mild and the temperatures would get below freezing for periods of time but I still managed roughly a 50 germination rate the second year I winter sold more seeds and I left them outside the entire time and that winter was very harsh with temperatures frequently far below freezing into the single digits Fahrenheit at night these containers would freeze solid for a week or two I had zero percent germination so I guess that the seeds need the cold temps but they can't be frozen solid which is similar to other tree nuts like acorns and this past winter I winter sold 36 seeds but I kept them in my unheated garage throughout the coldest parts of the winter not bringing them outside until March as the temperatures you know started to warm up I'm narrating this movie as of July 28th and as of now 34 out of 36 seeds have germinated and they're still coming so I think I've got this process figured out but to plant Papa seeds fill a container with moist potting soil and leave a two inch Gap at the top your container should be tall at least nine inches due to the Tap Root plant the Paw Paw seeds one inch deep and cover it with moist soil and don't let the soil completely dry out if you're winter sewing leave them in an unheated shed or garage or if you're doing this in Spring just get them outside the seeds will also benefit from being soaked in water for 24 hours before planting germination of pawpaw seeds take a very long time and I suspect that most people who try to grow them give up too early I'm located in southern Pennsylvania in zone six and I've never had a pop Audrey germinate before July so you need to be patient if you guys are finding this information useful please click the like button it's a real easy way to help me out and I greatly appreciate it you can transplant your Paw Paw trees to their final location once they have a couple sets of leaves if you do this in the middle of summer take steps to protect these trees from transplant shock and make sure they have access to water I prefer to plant them in late summer to Early Autumn as the heat demands are less and the trees have a good chance to establish themselves deer and rabbits do not browse the leaves as they're quite toxic and have a strong Aroma but I like to place them in tree shelters anyway to give them their own little Greenhouse for cutting and grafting pawpaw trees have a fairly High failure rate when people try to grow them from cuttings for grafting the University of Kentucky found a 40 to 75 survival rate depending on the variety so it can be done but it's probably just easier to purchase a variety that has already been grafted for landscaping with pawpaw trees ideally you want to grow pawpaw trees in an area that gets plenty of Sun but never totally dries out you can grow them in the open but it may need to provide some supplemental water from time to time and there are recommendations that you place a tomato cage with some shade cloth over the top of the tree for the first year or two just to give it a little less Sun they don't like being in wet soil though so it's important that it drains well if you're unsure about this I'll put a video how to test your drainage in the notes below I have several trees I planted around my property and some on no man's land and these get sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon this allows them to grow fast but prevents them from drying out and so at my house I have two trees that I started as bare roots in 2017 that were just six inches tall and six trees I started from seed in 2021. these six trees started from seed in 2021 are now two years old and most are grown in tree shelters and they're about two feet tall after two years however one specimen is actually poking out of its tree shelter making it you know four feet tall after two years so two feet a year and this tall specimen obviously gets the most sun and is near a drainage ditch now paw paws that you grow from seed will be completely unique new varieties similar to how apple trees work you know if the seed from your favorite pawpaw that you grow it may not grow a tree that produces similar fruit they may be huge with a few seeds or small with mini seeds so if you have a Suburban yard and just want to get some paw paws it's best to purchase special grafted varieties that should produce large fruit also you need two genetically different trees so that it will set fruit as there must be cross pollination where to buy pawpaw trees pawpaw trees can be purchased from various specialty nurseries often they are grafted varieties at our website we have an interactive map to locate native plant nurseries in your area I will link to that below a really cheap way to get pawpaw trees quickly though is to purchase them as bare roots it is an inexpensive way to get the trees but you've got to get them in the fall or spring shipping is usually a flat rate no matter how many trees you buy I actually did this back in 2017 before I knew much of anything about paw paws these two trees you see here were purchased from a company selling bare Roots as six inch sticks six years later one tree is six foot tall and the other is about nine foot tall okay time to review the pawpaw tree is a deciduous fruit bearing tree native to eastern North America it is Hardy from USDA zones five to nine they like to grow in partial shade and moist soil but well drained they grow 20 to 30 feet tall when mature and you can grow up to two feet per year in Optimum conditions the key to finding them in the wild is to look in their native range growing conditions that they prefer and then try to spot large leave trees with skinny Trunks from a distance and approach them to confirm the ID based on Alternate leaves that are Lancelot to opiate in shape big at 12 inches long and with smooth margins and edges Harvest fruits as Autumn approaches when the nighttime temperatures are starting to go below 60 fahrenheit fruit should be somewhat soft not firm and you can gently shake the tree to Make Them Fall if you wish to grow them from seed do not let the seeds dry out sterilize and rinse them cold stratify in the fridge or winter so but don't let the containers freeze solid germination will not occur before summer okay this has been a very long video and that's all I've got for you today if you've enjoyed this video please click the like button it really helps this video out and myself and I really do appreciate it if you have any questions please ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer them and all the info from this video exists as an article on our website which will be linked below so save it in your favorites or for a quick reference later or for when you are out hunting paw paws all right though you all have a good day see you later [Music] good job you probably didn't find bear poop foreign

Channel: Growit Buildit

Views: 391,808

Keywords: pawpaw, paw paw, pawpaw tree, paw paw tree, asimina triloba, the pawpaw tree, how to find pawpaws, how to find pawpaw trees, how to locate pawpaw trees, pawpaw tree identification, pawpaw identification, what does pawpaw taste like, pawpaw flavor, pawpaw toxicity, pawpwa, pwapwa, grow pawpaw tree from seed, germinate pawpaw seeds, germinate pawpaw, how to grow pawpaw trees, pawpaw tree growing conditions, pawpaw tree sun or shade, pawpaw moisture, how to identify pawpaw tree

Id: fQiZ-JqDQPY

Length: 28min 53sec (1733 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023