From the Tropical Fruit News, Rare Fruit Council International Miami RFCI
by William F. Whitman
The Challenge of
Pawpaws in the Subtropics
I have always been intrigued by challenges: the
challenge of growing ultra-tropical fruit like the mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana,
where the occasional frost occurs; the challenge of bringing temperate
zone fruits into our near tropical South Florida climate. Some have
been partially successful, like fruiting the mangosteen and introducing
the 'Dorsett Golden Apple,' Pyrus
malus,
into Florida from where it has gone worldwide. One challenge that has
been a complete failure were my attempts to grow the pawpaw, Asimina triloba,
here in the southern end of the Sunshine State.
I
first became aware of the pawpaw in 1955, about the time the Rare Fruit
Council was formed in Miami. It seemed rather exciting to realize a
relative of our tropical Annonas
actually
grew over a thousand miles north of here in lands of winter ice and
snow. An order was placed through a temperate zone nursery catalogue
for plants of this Annonaceous fruit. The pawpaw arrived bare root in
apparently good condition. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise to
find that shortly after being potted up they all died. (!) Next I got
northern friends to forward ripe fruit which I found to have a pleasant
flavor but which were a bit on the seedy side. As these seeds were
rather large and were taken from the mature fruit I had high hopes,
upon planting them, for a good germination rate. Surprisingly, none
came up. (!) Some years later I was told these bare-root pawpaw
shipments were seldom successful. I also found a West Coast nursery
that shopped both seedling and grafted pawpaws growing in pots with
their roots undisturbed. Here was my chance to receive named, grafted
pawpaw plants from the Northwoods Nursery in Molalla, Oregon.
After placing an order with this Pacific Coast nursery, the plants
duly arrived in excellent condition. I thought I now has a reasonable
chance of success. after putting out a few small leaves, these northern
custard apple relatives went into a growth freeze and finally gave up,
dying eighteen months later.
I next received ripe pawpaws from
friends in Michigan and New Jersey. After eating and enjoying the fruit
I placed the seeds in our refrigerator (not the deep freeze). Four
months later they were removed and potted up. I got 100 germination
with plants as healthy as any newly sprouted Annonas I have ever seen.
The juvenile seedlings were soon putting out new leaves and my hopes
for their future looked good. Unfortunately our climate seems to be too
consistently warm for these temperate plants. After several months the
seedlings stopped growing, wilted and died.
From my experiences
it does appear the pawpaw is not suited to south Florida culture. Ifwe
are to ever have any pawpaw successes I feel different approaches must
be tried. One approach would be to search for a suitable rootstock
among the Annonas, one that would be compatible with Asimina triloba and
hopefully allow it to tolerate warmer year -round environmental growing
conditions.
Another
approach is to get plants and seeds from indigenous pawpaws growing
wild in their most southerly range, instead of those from more northern
regions. Possible plant breeders can cross tropical Annonas with their
northern cousins producing hybrids with climatic requirements more
favorable to Southern Florida.
Back to
Pawpaw Page
|
|