Age at flowering will vary depending on how rapidly your trees grow and on individual plant characteristics but pawpaws are slow to get started. Expect about 8 years plus or minus 2.
They taste like pawpaws! Lots of different descriptions--including egg custard (whatever that tastes like), banana, etc. I thinks it's nearly impossible to describe something new and unique in terms of other familiar foods. The best that can be said is that they have a tropical fruit character. They are sweet, very aromatic and memorable. Many people (including me)like them a lot, but many hold them in comtempt. Few are in between. A good pawpaw should not be bitter. Some fruits, particularly from inferior trees, have a tendency toward a bitter aftertaste. They must be fully ripened or they are quite unpleasant.

I may have had one a looong time ago, ubt I don't remember so....

They are related to the Papaya tree, they are the only temperate tree in that family, rest are tropical, hence the tropical flavor. Anyway, so, they probably taste papayaish. The name itself is just a slurred "papaya"

Asimina triloba is a member of the Annonaceae family which includes cherimoya, custard apple, etc. Comparing the taste of cherimoya and papaya to A.triloba, I'd say it more resembles the cherimoya, but only a little.

Shepparton,

I generally agree with SWVirginiaDave's comments. (Although I suspect that his "time to fruit" estimates are on the conservative side.)

While A. triloba is related to the cherimoya, the fruits are really not all that similar in taste or texture. Cherimoyas generally are juicy, and have a wonderful sugar/acid balance. American A. triloba pawpaws usually have a drier, starchier texture, comparable (at least somewhat) to bananas. They can certainly be sweet and aromatic, but (based on the ones I've tasted, anyway) lack any acidity.

I've heard the predominant A. triloba fruit flavor described as "banana liqueur", and I think that this is a pretty good comparison. The fruit can contain all sorts of other flavor notes, however. I believe that they're actually one of the most chemically complex types of fruit in the world, so the various "background" flavors can go off in all sorts of different directions. (As SWVirginiaDave points out, not always good ones.)

If you could graft mature scionwood to your seedlings, flowering and bearing would be accelerated. I have found that the plants are relatively easy to graft, if grafting is done just as the plants come out of dormancy in the spring.

Dear Shepparton, what is your climate zone? As to taste.... I find they are a combination of mango and banana. You have to wait until the fruit is very ripe .. almost unpleasantly so. The texture is, as far as my experience, unparralelled for smoothness. Robb

Ashok,

I've only had paw paws and cherimoya once each, both this season, but I would charactize the two as the opposite of what you have described.

It must be because I had very ripe paw paws and perhaps underripe cherimoya. I got the paw paw at a farmer's market at the cherimoya from a grocer, so that might not be fair either.

The paw paws were very juicy, and I would describe the flavor and texture as perhaps a mix of mango and banana, but more mango on this one. The skin was pretty thin, especially when very ripe. The seeds are VERY similar to cherimoya.

Murky,

Good cherimoyas are juicy and melting in texture; it sounds like you got a bad one. As with any fruit, supermarket specimens will probably not be the best representative of the type. In fact, one friend of mine likens cherimoyas to peaches: both are best allowed to mature to perfection on the tree.

On the other hand, it sounds like you got some terrific pawpaws! I've heard that pawpaws come relatively true from seed (a good "parent" will most likely produce a worthy "child"), so, if you still have those seeds, you might want to plant them. If you place them in good spots now, they should come up *late* next spring.

In australia papaya is also called pawpaw. They are totally different in taste and everything.
Grafted trees may take 5 years to bear, seedlings will take anywhere from 6 to 8 years, and the fruit may not be as good.

BASS

Here is a link that might be useful: pawpaw web site