What it is
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is in the Annonaceae family. North America's largest native fruit — a custardy tropical-tasting treat. Needs two trees and patience.
How to grow it
It wants part shade when young, water it even, rich, and give it rich, moist, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 5.5–7.0. Space plants about 10–15 ft apart. Expect roughly 4–7 yr to bear. Hardy understory tree.
How it's used
Pawpaw is used: fresh, baked, frozen pulp.
🔎 How to identify it
- Large drooping tropical-looking leaves
- Maroon spring flowers
- Green mango-shaped fruit
Edibility
How to grow & propagate pawpaw
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate pawpaw
Pawpaw is best started from a cutting or nursery stock rather than seed, so the fruit comes true to the parent. Seed from fruit trees tends to revert to something wilder.
Growing pawpaw in Texas
Give it part shade when young and rich, moist, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 4–7 yr to bear before you're harvesting. Let fruit ripen on the plant where you can — it's where the sugars finish — and pick gently to avoid bruising what you don't eat right away. The part you're after: ripe pulp (not seeds/skin).
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.