Who Else Grows Pawpaw Trees?

[Uncle Jessup]

reddit is obsessed with cooked paw paw making people sick. No one ive ever met IRL or on any other forum gets this but if you post any cooked paw paw to r/pawpaws you will get downvoted and get like dozens of replies saying its basically poison to cook it. Very bizarre. I sort of think it might be the reddit demographic

It's been discussed here or on OF. The toxin is essentially dilute in normal conditions. Cooking or dehydrating removes the water which concentrates the toxin. Dilution is the solution. Cooking removes water and concentrates. It might bioaccumulate over time but that hasn't been clearly identified anywhere, but it's possible.

I dehydrated it and that turned my stomach into knots. Ice cream or something that keeps the liquid around will keep your body happy.

 

[snarfing]

It's been discussed here or on OF. The toxin is essentially dilute in normal conditions. Cooking or dehydrating removes the water which concentrates the toxin. Dilution is the solution. Cooking removes water and concentrates. It might bioaccumulate over time but that hasn't been clearly identified anywhere, but it's possible.

I dehydrated it and that turned my stomach into knots. Ice cream or something that keeps the liquid around will keep your body happy.

dehydrated is a problem but cooking DOES dilute it. same as people who are allergic to eggs but not cakes made with eggs

 

[Uncle Jessup]

dehydrated is a problem but cooking DOES dilute it.

Cooking heats and cooks and removes water. That runny cake batter firms up, doesn't it? Recipes add more ingredients and more liquid, but it is inevitably cooked out leaving your outcome drier and concentrated. This is why cider sounds appealing to me... I'm not trying to change your mind, only trying to let u know what the other half *might* be thinking. It's not all voodoo placebo and pawpaws are in fact on lists of poisonous fruit and are currently listed in NC as Low Toxicity. There are harmful aspects and that much isn't up for debate.

But will you die??? Hell no lol

 

[ohiobruce]

My issue with the toxicity controversy is the nature of the scientific studies. In one study they distilled the toxin and then exposed it to cells from an infant rat's brain in the lab, another study looked at neurological disorders in Caribbean people who regularly consumed tea made from the leaves of a plant in the same family. Another study was about a man in his 80s who died with Parkinsons. After his death, his widow told the doctor that he ate a lot of pawpaws and they came up with an estimated weight of the amount of pawpaws he consumed.

So, I'm not saying that there is nothing to the toxicity issue, just that I'd like to see some better science.

 

[Tridrama]

It sounds like there are more misses with seedlings than there are hits. I've seen a few comments about specific cultivars that are promising. Are there any in particular varieties that have proven themselves worthy of growing in zone 8a?

 

[snarfing]

Cooking heats and cooks and removes water. That runny cake batter firms up, doesn't it? Recipes add more ingredients and more liquid, but it is inevitably cooked out leaving your outcome drier and concentrated. This is why cider sounds appealing to me... I'm not trying to change your mind, only trying to let u know what the other half *might* be thinking. It's not all voodoo placebo and pawpaws are in fact on lists of poisonous fruit and are currently listed in NC as Low Toxicity. There are harmful aspects and that much isn't up for debate.

But will you die??? Hell no lol

well it dilutes it because theres also like all the other ingredients in cake. they say dont do fruit leather but the paw paw in a cake is less paw paw than raw

 

[snarfing]

My issue with the toxicity controversy is the nature of the scientific studies. In one study they distilled the toxin and then exposed it to cells from an infant rat's brain in the lab, another study looked at neurological disorders in Caribbean people who regularly consumed tea made from the leaves of a plant in the same family. Another study was about a man in his 80s who died with Parkinsons. After his death, his widow told the doctor that he ate a lot of pawpaws and they came up with an estimated weight of the amount of pawpaws he consumed.

So, I'm not saying that there is nothing to the toxicity issue, just that I'd like to see some better science.

Check out both these videos in which KSU goes into it. in short: maybe the tea causes issues but also there are a lot of confounding factors here, and hte raw amount in the fruit is VERY low

 

[ohiobruce]

Check out both these videos in which KSU goes into it. in short: maybe the tea causes issues but also there are a lot of confounding factors here, and hte raw amount in the fruit is VERY low

Yep, I've watched those before. It seems to be a stretch to compare a rat that gets a mega dose of the pure toxin intravenously vs somebody that eats 8 ounces of fruit several days of the week for a month during the season.

 

[DCallahan]

Cooking heats and cooks and removes water. That runny cake batter firms up, doesn't it? Recipes add more ingredients and more liquid, but it is inevitably cooked out leaving your outcome drier and concentrated. This is why cider sounds appealing to me... I'm not trying to change your mind, only trying to let u know what the other half *might* be thinking. It's not all voodoo placebo and pawpaws are in fact on lists of poisonous fruit and are currently listed in NC as Low Toxicity. There are harmful aspects and that much isn't up for debate.

But will you die??? Hell no lol

Have you ever weighted a cake in a pan, in batter form, then baked it and weighted it? It firms up because of the chemical processes and things changing state. Like an egg being hard boiled, it got firm but never lost mass.

 

[Steven J.]

My dad gave me my first taste of pawpaw about 50 years ago. He picked it from a wild patch that he spotted on the side of the road. It was horrible, so I crossed it off my list of edible fruit.

Then 5 years ago my BIL gave me a couple from his patch. They were awesome. I planted those seeds. Then I ordered a few cultivars and planted them about 4 years ago.

I now have several 6' tall trees with flower buds. My fingers are crossed for next year.

What's your pawpaw story?

I have never tried a paw paw, but it is on my list of trees I would like to grow. It's so cool that we have a native fruit tree, but most people don't even know about it.

 

[FamilyPhishFigs]

I am going to try my hand at pawpaws. I bought a bunch of fruit of known cultivars locally in September and put the seeds in the fridge for cold stratification right after I ate the fruit. Now to play the waiting game.

 

[Uncle Jessup]

I am going to try my hand at pawpaws. I bought a bunch of fruit of known cultivars locally in September and put the seeds in the fridge for cold stratification right after I ate the fruit. Now to play the waiting game.

They'll get 100% success, but beware, they take forever to break ground. Theyll grow their taproot down 1st so you'll be waiting and waiting thinking they're dead. They're growing but they send a taproot down 1st. When it's good and established, then it starts to grow upward and breaks the surface. Planted April it might show its face above ground in July, give or take.

 

[89s rule]

We have 2 that we planted 2 years ago. Grafted about 13 bare root seedlings that I potted this spring, 11 have taken and survived thus far. Hoping to get a few more trees taken out and add a few more in ground. Here's a video of me grafting.

 

[ohiobruce]

You can speed germination. I wrapped a 10"x20" heat mat around the outside of a bucket, wrapped insulation around the bucket, and set the controller to 85 degrees. The seeds were planted about two inches below the surface. Most were poking through the surface in 3-4 weeks. Once up, feed them some fish fertilizer and foliar feed also. By the middle of the summer I had a bucket of nice pawpaws that I transferred to individual pots.

 

[Southeast Figs]

Howdy, we have allot of wild pawpaw trees around here, but I never see actual fruit. There is a nice cluster of pawpaw trees(probably just one tree with many offshoots actually) just off the edge of my property. They have never shown fruit, so I planted two seedlings from known cultivars in ground down there close to the wild patch. Hopefully when they produce flowers we will get fruit on the large wild trees then on my seedlings when they get big enough. Pawpaws now,b then persimmon trees next to go in ground. I am working on having trees that produce food of many kinds from as early as possible in the year through as late as possible in the year. Pawpaws were on my list and now A friend gave me two small seedlings. I have such a good spot for them, I planted them this week. theres a good 6" inches of airy topsoil, and the ground holds moisture down there but doesn't get soggy too. Plus it's right where wild pawpaws are growing naturally. So should be good.

 

[superdave336]

Howdy, we have allot of wild pawpaw trees around here, but I never see actual fruit. There is a nice cluster of pawpaw trees(probably just one tree with many offshoots actually) just off the edge of my property. They have never shown fruit, so I planted two seedlings from known cultivars in ground down there close to the wild patch. Hopefully when they produce flowers we will get fruit on the large wild trees then on my seedlings when they get big enough. Pawpaws now,b then persimmon trees next to go in ground. I am working on having trees that produce food of many kinds from as early as possible in the year through as late as possible in the year. Pawpaws were on my list and now A friend gave me two small seedlings. I have such a good spot for them, I planted them this week. theres a good 6" inches of airy topsoil, and the ground holds moisture down there but doesn't get soggy too. Plus it's right where wild pawpaws are growing naturally. So should be good.

Yes that sounds like what I found in our field. Pawpaws have colonies but they need a different one to pollinate. Thats what I’ve done as well by planting a couple other seedlings near the patch. You can also graft on them for quicker results.

 

[Don Rocket City]

Paw paw trees tend tosend shoots up around the mother tree that are clones, so they will not pollinate. It must be pollinated by another tree that is not a clone. This YouTube video was useful to me for looking for wild ones.

 

[BucksCountyFigs]

In addition to my first fresh fig, I had my first paw paw this summer!

I tried Mango and another variety, which was ok, but I loved the Mango one!

 

[2Angels]

We've been growing pawpaws for a few years. I have 20 cultivars in ground, with plans to add more. It's a fruit that we really love. This year, we ripened our first pawpaws, and that was great fun. I find that I like pawpaws for the same reason that I like figs. The diversity of flavor profiles across the species is quite broad. The flavors are all so different. The wild pawpaws can be anywhere from a wonderful flavor to absolutely horrible. I once had a wild one that tasted like terpentine! The breeding work over the last century has vastly improved the quality of the fruits in flavor, in fruit size, and in seed-to-pulp ratios. So, grafted trees are the way to go for really great fruit. They take a graft fairly easily. So if you have a patch near you, graft some different genetics in for cross-pollination.

For fun, here is a photo of Al Horn's White from our tree this year. It is a rare white-fleshed cultivar that has a flavor reminiscent of coconut and cherimoya. As it ripens, it picks up some great vanilla notes. So I like this one best a couple of days after it drops, and that was what is pictured. The color had shifted from white to a very pale yellow. Pawpaws are like bananas in that the flavor and texture change as the fruit ripens. Everyone likes their bananas a little differently. Some like them very green, while others like them nearly black. You have to taste each cultivar at different stages of ripeness to find what you like best.

 

[BucksCountyFigs]

Al’s Horn White sounds delicious!
Forgive the newbie question, but are all names varieties grafted? (Since they don’t grow true to seed.)