Sounds like the kind of person I would have enjoyed knowing as well. Thanks for sharing that.

It's funny this is brought up. An older friend of mine and I found a group of them 3 weeks ago and he talked about how good the fruit is. We made plans to transplant seedlings and go back and put fruit this fall and I have thought about that many times in the last few weeks and then it comes up on TM! I thought about making a post asking about them, you guys are giving me the input before I even ask.

I have ONE Paw Paw and no others anywhere to be found around it, and it's loaded with fruit every year. Brought it home from NW Texas Co, MO to St. Louis Co, and it's doing great, however the wood is very brittle and is subject to storm damage and from Coons climbing it.

If the weak wood strength isn't to much of an issue and the fruit is decent. You might have discovered a variety that has some commercial value. People without space for more than one tree will likely be interested in it. You could propagate it with the suckers, root cuttings and by grafting it onto other pawpaw root stock.

Keith

I suppose it's possible that a self fertile tree could happen in nature, I still think much more likely that another paw paw is pollinating it. Carrion flies can travel long distances to find something dead. And the same flies are responsible for pollinating paw paws.

State fruit of Missouri. Have quite a few fruits already but not anywhere near ripe yet. I usually wait to see a few drop on the ground before my wife and son gather them up. We can get a 5 gallon bucket pretty quick. Nothing likes to graze on the young paw paw trees by me and they can overtake and out shade an understory. Deer and coons love the fruit as well as my cows when they are ripe and on the ground. Not much issue ever with unripe fruits. Smell like an over ripe banana to me and kind of a tangy mushy nana.

Remember: All parts of a Paw Paw, except the Pulp in the fruit, is toxic.

Yep there's always odd balls that pop-up. Found one years ago producing fruit and I doubt the widest part of the trunk was more than an inch

Aha! "Trunk". I was getting confused.