Expanding the Pawpaw Orchard

 I expanded our planting of pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba) again this past season. I have wild pawpaw stands that I harvest fruit from and manage at a very low level of intensity, and I have young trees planted in orchard settings that receive more management (and will definitely out produce their wild neighbors in the future). If you want to have a crop to sell quickly then you can cultivate the wild trees, but your crop may not be very uniform in production, size, shape, or quality. This is not unique to pawpaws, some other examples of crops in Missouri that are also grown in orchards AND harvested from the wild are pecans and elderberries. In fact, in a number of states harvests from wild pecan trees still make up a sizeable part of the industry. 

Left: Typical small wild pawpaw tree in the understory. This one is actually large enough to have some flowers on it and it may produce a few fruit. 

If this were a grafted pawpaw tree of this size of a 'good' cultivar, on a good site, in a well managed orchard, it could be capable of producing a few pounds of fruit at this size. However, being a small wild seedling tree in a heavily shaded area, it may make a few small fruits if I am lucky. 

Almost all of the pawpaw trees I plant are seedlings, which I will graft later in the field. There are a few reasons for this. A major one is cost, grafted pawpaw trees are expensive. Another is that good establishment in the field is never guaranteed for anything. If a tree does not establish well and dies I would much rather it be a relatively inexpensive seedling versus a much more expensive grafted tree. The main downside of planting seedlings and grafting later is you do lose a little time until you get to fruit production AND you will have increased labor cost of doing the field grafting. Field grafting a large number of trees yourself can take a lot of time and there is some periodic maintenance that may be involved that first season to ensure the grafts are successful. 

Below: New pawpaw trees just watered in after planting. This orchard was established over a site where garlic was grown last season. 

After the ground was prepared and the trees planted, I seeded a groundcover of white clover, creeping red fescue, and perennial ryegrass.

 In my newer pawpaw plantings I have moved to a more intensive spacing of 15+/- feet between rows and 12 feet (or less) between trees within the rows. 

  Above: Caging and placing shadecloth over newly planted trees is in progress 

I use cages around pawpaws for two reasons: 

1) prevent deer from rubbing on their trunks

2) I think some shade their first season seems to promote survival of the trees (especially if the trees are very small) and the cages give me something to easily attach some shade cloth on.