I've picked and eaten fruit from local trees. There used to be one at a yard down in the south end that must have been 30' tall; I never stopped and looked at it up close and eventually it disappeared. Smaller examples can be seen here and there in town.

Grafted named selections of known superior characteristics are offered in season by Burnt Ridge Nursery, Onalaska, WA. See their web site.

I have a couple of Burnt Ridge seedling paw paws. One has had fruit for 2 years, very delicious. The other tree has bloomed 4 yrs but not set fruit. Last year I finally got a grafted tree which is small so it will be a few years but maybe it will help pollinate the unfruitful tree. I live near Portland so it would be warmer here and colder in winter. I really like the fruit and am tired of fighting diseases in many of the regular fruit trees. The fruit does ripen very late though, in mid Oct.

Thanks for the info!!! I really appreciate it!!!
I think I'll pick a couple of the earliest ripening varieties and give them a try!!
Thanks again!!
Tim

Slugs would not leave the two small grafts I planted in an orchard here on Camano alone and eventually the plants were lost. So you might want to take protective measures yourself. I have never noticed damage to larger specimens elsewhere in the area. It seems they will also sometimes bother newly planted, small deciduous magnolias more than usual for larger specimens.

I haven't noticed slug damage, and what I like is the deer don't seem to notice the paw paws. They have great very large leaves so look a little tropical, and have nice yellow fall color. The flowers bloom very early and are small and maroon.

Luckily, well, sort of, the raccoons take care of most of my slugs! Now, if I can just keep them out of my plum tree I should be ok!!

I wish I could have kept the racoons out of my mobile duck tractor. They got in and killed some ducks. It snowed that night so I saw their pawprints in the snow. I caught one once with a large live trap but I don't know if they learn and it is hard to catch more than one.

I too am curious about pawpaw. I want to plant some native plants here in southwest Louisiana. Any advice on a particular one? Any advice on pawpaws at all is appreciated.

GardenWeb has a Louisiana & Miss. forum you might like to try.

As my 'NC-1' pawpaw has grown, I've become increasingly impressed with its aesthetic qualities and resilience.

I planted one 'NC-1' and one 'Pennsylvania Golden' several years ago. The NC-1 was a larger plant initially, and has grown very well. It has bloomed the last two years. The habit is very striking with long, dark green leaves that droop gracefully. Fall color has been a lovely consistent yellow. The leaves seem to drop all at once when the temperature gets low enough. There has been no fruit.

The 'Pennsylvania Golden' was a very small plant and thus well within reach of the snails/slugs, and as bboy indicated above, they have been ruthless. I wrote it off last year but it survived and looks a bit better this year, but still has not grown much. No flowering and thus no fruit on this plant, and also no cross pollination for the 'NC-1'.

Both plants have been very drought tolerant in my rather dry sandy soil with only occasional watering.

I would like to see more of these planted based on my experiences, but larger specimens will be a better bet if you have slugs or snails.

When I was in the Horticulture program at South Puget Sound Community College, they had a paw paw tree in their orchard, but it had never set fruit. I was told they would not set fruit unless there was another paw paw tree. They have perfect flowers (they have both male and female parts) , but they aren't self-pollinating. So it isn't as if you need a male and a female tree, just a different tree. I looked up some information online, and on the website linked below, it says that paw paw trees have always had poor pollination, even before being cultivated.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paw Paw Tree