I have permission on a few properties to dig up somd pawpaws to transplant. My question is, how big of a tree is too big to transplant successfully?

Try real small ones Dustin, and good luck! You're better off planting seeds.

Ive got a bunch of seeds in the fridge right now as well.

Pawpaws are notoriously hard to transplant. My friend Don, who was in two Pawpaws groups, did move some small Pawpaws successfully by keeping all the dirt around the roots of a few and putting the whole plug in a new hole.

Keith

I worked with a guy who did tree work on the side. He was good and knowledgeable about trees.
One thing he said stuck in my head.

He said " Don't buy a $50 tree and put it in a $5 hole , buy a $5 tree and put it in a $50 hole. "

I bet it is very true to be successful with transplanting.

The one deal to keep in mind on paw paws is they grow a root straight down about a foot before they come up then it continues down so if a paw paw tree is a ft. tall you need to dig down two feet too get the root.

Seeds are a better option, grow in pots if you need to move. Keep in mind if you plant them now they won't germinate until about the first of August. Mike

I found that when I dug up the sprouts for transplanting, they were actually root shoots, and transplanted well if you get enough of the root with it. I have also done well with seeds from the fruit.

That's true !
Most people think a shovel stuck in the ground , pulled back and the tree shoved in is good .
I plant all my trees, nut or fruit , with a 3-5 times larger hole than needed .
Fertilizer placed on the outside of the hole , and bottom of the hole .
Then fill around the roots with good soil .
The idea is to give the roots loose soil to grow in easier and food for the roots to grow to .
Not all trees/ bushes respond to this idea .
Certain things like blueberries don't respond to fertilizer , they like a more acid soil .
I have paw paws in pots that I started , 4 years ago , they didn't grow deep roots .
Gave some to a friend , that planted them , and I told him to make the hole a lot bigger than needed .
Just to give the roots room to spread out .
He told me they're doing great .
I couldn't believe the trees are still alive after 3 winters in pots .

When you go into the woods and come across a grove of pawpaws, most of the time you are looking at one tree.
A tree from seed will spread multiple horizontal roots in every direction. From these roots, hundreds of shoots will emerge.
I have a huge pawpaw in my yard which produces hundreds of root suckers all across the back yard. That's how I know when to mow the lawn.
It would be a good idea to dig wide when digging a small tree from a grove so that you get more of the horizontal root which connects the trees to one another.
Also it would be a good idea to dig trees from a number of different groves so that your new trees will pollinate each other.
Pawpaw trees can't pollinate themselves even though each tree has male and female flower parts. The parts don't mature at the same time, thus they cannot self pollinate.

Great info on this thread.

Do bear & coon bother pawpaw trees?

My sour cherry trees spread by roots too. In the last couple of years, I've had better luck transplanting them when I cut the connecting roots in the Spring, with a long bladed spade and then dig them out in the Fall. It causes much less stress then immediately digging and transplanting them. They produce lots of their own roots between when I cut the roots and when I dig them. If I just dig them, the trees mostly just have the large connecting root with few to none of the fibrous roots. The ones I cut first and dig later have masses of fibrous roots.

I suspect treating pawpaws the same way would work well.

Keith

They love the fruit of them. No critter really seems to actually damage pawpaw trees.

I planted 2 bare root paw paw trees in my yard last spring, both are doing good. Theyre both about 2 feet tall now. I read that paw paws require shade for their first year or two of life, so I put square tomato cages around them and wrapped the cages in landscaping fabric.

I have tons of paw paws where my cows are and they wont touch the leaves - deer will not browse the leaves either. Something within a paw paw leaf that deer and cattle dont like.

Move them after frost in the Fall, and move them on a rainy day.

In my experience, All the Paw Paw's I've dug up to transplant, were root sprouts from a bigger tree. Dig down to expose the main root and chop out the section to transplant.

I didn't realize chopping it off works. Thanks

How long does it take from planting pawpaw from seed for the tree to produce fruit?

I have had one started from seed produce fruit within 3 years. I wouldn't expect to be the norm. I had a mature one close by for a pollinator.