How to Grow Pawpaw Trees in a Backyard Orchard
My husband (Donald) and I have had a long standing dream to have a Paw Paw orchard of our own. This dream started with me, about 15 years ago in Tucson, Arizona, when I first learned about Paw Paws online. I became fascinated with the idea that a tropical fruit could grow in my home state of Massachusetts! Of course, when I looked into how to grow paw paw trees, I discovered that Arizona was not the place for them, and my dream would have to wait. I eventually moved back to Massachusetts, along with my dream of growing paw paws. Fast forward to 2021, and Donald and I brought our second house, which happens to have ideal conditions to grow a Paw Paw orchard in our backyard. Which was the first thing we did after moving in.
The pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) is native to the eastern United States and thrives in conditions with rich soil, part shade, boggy lowlands with a fertile understory. The fruit tastes like banana with mango, pineapple and vanilla, and it has a custard-texture. When these trees are happy there is no stopping them – they will gladly takeover that soggy corner of your yard that most garden blogs ignore. Growing pawpaw trees in your backyard orchard gives you something delicious with very little maintenance. We always love sharing paw paws with neighbors and friends — most people have never heard of them, or tried them!
If you’re ready to become a paw paw whisperer, buckle up! We’ll walk through where to buy paw paws, how to pick your growing site, paw paw varieties, planting tips, pest control and pollination hacks. By the end of this post you’ll know exactly how to get started growing pawpaw trees, and maybe get a harvest in the next 2 years!
1. Where to Grow Paw Paws: Site & Soil Requirements
If you’re serious about how to grow pawpaw trees in a backyard orchard, the first rule is try to match their native habitat. Pawpaws are understory trees. In the wild they lurk beneath taller hardwoods, in rich, deep soils near bottoms, hillsides, wetlands. They love organic matter like decomposing leaves, decaying wood, moisture…. but you also need good drainage and a bit of sun. That sweet spot is the edge of a forest in a low area that may get soggy when it rains.
Key things to note when choosing where to grow paw paws:
- Sun/shade: You may hear advice about not putting young paw paws in full sun, but we planted lots of seedlings in scorching full sun (which only lasts until about 2 or 3pm) in our low orchard area, and they are all very happy.
- Soil pH & drainage: They aren’t ultra-picky about pH, but lean toward just slightly acidic to neutral soils (think 6.0-7.0). You’ll want soil that is deep, loamy, organic-rich, and drains well. They tolerate moist soils (hence riverbanks, bottomland in their native range) but NOT standing water for long periods.
- Organic matter & fertility: Add lots of compost to the hole when planting your paw paws. Adding mulch or more compost on top helps keep them happy.
- Spacing & microclimate: Shelter from harsh winds helps; warm microclimate gives better fruiting.You want a spot that mimics forest-edge (or actually is th forest edge, like we have).
Selecting the right site is probably main thing you need to do to successfully grow paw paws in a backyard orchard. Without the right site, you will be fighting an uphill battle to keep the plants alive, and you likely wont see any much of a fruit yield from your trees if they aren’t happy.
2. Choosing the Right Varieties
Once you have the basics of how to grow pawpaw trees in a backyard orchard, picking the right cultivar is a game-changer. The difference between “did I really plant a pawpaw?” and “holy molten mango banana custard in my backyard” often comes down to your cultivar. Some trees produce bigger fruit, fewer seeds, tastier flesh, better ripening, and fewer problems.
If you buy generic seed-grown pawpaw, you’ll probably get something, but may not get the ideal flavor, size or yield. Our wild ltype paw paws range from sweet and tasty, to bitter and for the squirrels. Many nurseries and online retailers sell named cultivars that are grafted, so you know what you are getting.
Here’s a table with the top 10 popular pawpaw cultivars I recommend, along with fruit size, taste profile, ripening time, yield, and growing notes. Use this as your cheat sheet when ordering:
| Cultivar | Fruit Size | Taste Profile | When Fruit Ripens | Yield (How Much Fruit) | Growing Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower | Large (~7-8 oz/200 g) | Butter-colored flesh, few seeds | Early-mid September | Good (75 fruit/tree at trial). | Self-fertile reported; good choice for small gardens |
| Potomac | Large (~235 g/fruit) | Very fleshy, few seeds | Mid-September | ~45 fruit/tree at trial | Limited availability; high quality but needs availability check |
| Susquehanna | Large (~185 g/fruit) | Strong tropical flavour, few seeds | Late September | ~40 fruit/tree at trial | More robust skin; good for less-protected sites |
| Shenandoah | Medium-large | Creamy yellow flesh, few seeds | September | ~80 fruit/tree at trial | Excellent flavour, widely recommended |
| NC-1 | Large (~180 g/fruit) | Strong flavour, yellow skin/flesh | Early-mid September | ~45 fruit/tree at trial | Good for colder zones; thinner skin |
| KSU Atwood | Large/medium | Good flavour, few seeds | Early-mid ripening | Highly productive | Good disease resistance reported |
| Honey Dew | Large | Tropical melon-banana combo | Early-mid | Medium yield | Freestone variety (seed removal easier) |
| Allegheny | Smaller-large | Mild flavour, banana-avocado mix | Early | May overproduce smaller fruit | Good starter variety for novices |
| Taylor | Medium (~110 g/fruit) | Mild flavour | September | ~70 fruit/tree at trial | Reliable, widely available |
| Rebecca’s Gold | Medium | Yellow/kidney-shaped fruit, good taste | Mid-September | Medium yield | Good home orchard choice |
It’s essential to plant two or more cultivars if you can, because pollination is better with genetic diversity (more on that in the section ahead). We planted a wide variety of names cultivars as well as a few wild type plants (which were the biggest option, so we got fruit within just 2 years).
Pro tip: Create a garden map so you remember which paws paws are which variety, without our map we would have no idea what we were getting since it’s been about 4 years since we planted them!
3. How to Plant Paw Paw Trees
When you plant paw paw trees in your orchard, you will likely be planting either bare root plants or seedlings. You can also plant seeds, but we usually start growing the seeds indoors before hardening them off into small pots for planting later. It’s much much easier to buy seedlings of named cultivars. Plus, you know what you are getting in terms of fruit and flavor.
Spacing: I recommend spacing your trees about 10-15 feet apart (3.5–4.5 m). Pawpaw trees have a spreading habit and you want enough room for growth, airflow and light.
Planting grafted trees: If you’re planting a grafted nursery tree, make sure the root ball is moist, plant in spring after frost risk, and set it at the same depth as in the pot. Water deeply, and mulch well (but not piling mulch against the trunk).
The first year: Mulch heavily the first year in spring and fall (3-4 inches of shredded leaves or compost), Try to keep soil consistently moist (but not soggy) the first 12 months, and avoid the temptation to over-fertilize. The compost is really all they need. The trees will put down a mega taproot in the ground, and depending on your water table when the tree hits the tap root you no longer need to water the tree regularly. (This can happen much sooner than 12 months – since our water table is very close to the surface where are our trees are they barely need any extra watering).
4. How to Maintain Paw Paw Trees in your backyard orchard
If you’ve made it here, you’re likely asking: how much work is this going to be? The absolute best part about growing pawpaw trees is that it’s very hand-off. Once your tree is well-established, it’s surprisingly low maintenance. That said, there are a few things you’ll want to keep on your radar:
Watering: For the first few months to a year water deeply once a week (or more if your summer is dry). After that, if your soil is rich and you’re near a water source, you can basically let nature take over. If you planted in the right spot (rich soil + good drainage, near lowlands) you’ll likely not need much supplemental watering. This is a game changer: low-maintenance fruit trees are rare!
Fertilizing: Feed lightly in early spring of the second year, with a balanced fertilizer or compost tea. After that, you might only need to top-dress with compost or leaf mulch annually. I’ve heard from orchard-friends that over fertilizing pawpaws can lead to lush growth but low fruit. So I really don’t do much more than a layer of compost.
Protecting from wildlife: While the skin, bark, leaves and seeds of paw paws are poisonous, they do have a strong smell which can attract animals like raccoons and squirrels. We use netting bags like these to protect particularly big bunches of paw paws and secure the harvest.
Pruning & spraying: Nothing to say here! Paw Paws are a lazy farmer’s dream. No spraying or pruning is necessary, and it can actually hurt the tree, so hands-off! 🙂
The care level drops significantly after year 2-3. Once established, your tree should pretty much live in your yard, produce fruit, and look pretty without you doing a thing!
5. How to pollinate pawpaw trees for fruit production
This is where things can get dicey. If you want to truly master how to grow pawpaw trees in a backyard orchard, you must understand how the fruits are made.
Pawpaw flowers are unusual. They bloom in spring over many weeks, and need at two trees of different cultivars for good fruit set in most cases. Some claim that self-fertile cultivars exist (Sunflower claims to be one), but I always hear that two or more trees will make more and better fruits.
Hand-pollination vs natural: We have about 17 paw paw trees in our yard but only 3 are flowing so far — the rest are too young. So to hedge our bets we do a little hand-pollination. To hand-pollinate, use a small paint brush to gently transfer pollen from one tree’s flower to the flower on another other tree. It’s that simple and it seems to work!
I also placed my compost bin near the pawpaw orchard to attract flies to pollinate our paw paw trees! The fruits of the paw paw allegedly smell like rotting meat (ew) to attract the flies that pollinate them. Bees do not pollinate paw paw flowers at all! By putting my compost bin near the paw paw I’m ensuring there is a steady stream of flies nearby (yet very very far away from our house).
When the pollination is successful, you’ll see little fruit bundles forming where the flowers were. Sometimes these tiny fruit buds will drop off if the tree isn’t fully ready to bear fruit. This happened to us the year after we planted our big wild-type trees. But the second year, they stuck around and got bigger and bugger until we had mounds of paw paws!
6. How to Harvest and Store Paw Paws
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for! Trees usually begin producing fruit in 2-5 years (grafted trees) or roughly 6-8 if from seed. I bought “fruit bearing size trees” that were 9′ tall and produced fruit in just two years, so if you want to speed up your fruit, you can sometimes grab the big boys from fast-growing-tree.com. I also ordered some grafted cultivars from Fast Growing Trees, and our KSU Benson seedling produced fruit in year 3!
What to Expect When Your Paw Paws are Ripening:
- Timing: Many pawpaw cultivars ripen from late August into October, depending on region and cultivar (see the cultivar chart for more details on this).
- How do you know when a Paw Paw is ripe? When they’re ready to harvest the fruit will be slightly soft, like a ripe peach, and fruits may just fall on the ground. You may also see the skin change from green to slightly yellower/olive/brown spots. Fruit ripens a few per day, not all at once, so you will need to check your tree at least every 1-2 days to harvest fruit before it attracts animals.
- Storage: Pawpaws don’t keep well, and you will want to eat or store them within a few days of them becoming soft. We pick the ripe ones, eat some (not too many), and process the rest by freezing the pulp. I scoop out the pulp (take the seeds out!), freeze in zip-lock bags, then have pawpaw puree on standby for smoothies, ice cream, or baking. I also freeze pulp in mini muffin tins, then tranfer the frozen paw paw portions to a freezer bag, so I have easy to use smoothie-sized portions ready to go in the blender.
Are you ready to Start Growing Paw Paws?
Now you have my full brain-dump roadmap of how to grow pawpaw trees in a backyard orchard. From choosing the right spot to selecting a cultivar, from planting to pollination to harvest. If you do this right, you can turn a patch of your yard into one of the most unique fruit-producing corners any backyard orchardist can brag about. You’ll have “custard banana-mango from my backyard” status, which is a pretty high rank in my book!
Paw paw cultivars do tend to sell out quickly. You can often reserve yours in advance to be shipped the next spring. So shop around now, choose your cultivars, and order your trees / grafted seedlings.
Head over to Fast-growing-trees.com to grab your pawpaw trees while their stock lasts. They tend to have the best availability for larger paw paw trees and some grafted cultivars, and my trees from them have thrived.
The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll have fruit! The time will pass anyway, so might as well start an ultra low maintenance orchard in your yard in the meantime!
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