Ordering from Trees of Joy + Puyallup Fair + Tasting Paw Paw for the first time

Ordering from Trees of Joy + Puyallup Washington State Fair + Tasting Paw Paw for the first time

In this video:
1. I ordered a Bass's favorite and Koura Black from Treesofjoy
2. We go to the Puyallup WA state fair to pig out

3. and I finally get to taste my 1st ever Paw Paw!

Paw Paw trees 2017

This is my 2nd yr with Pawpaws. And I'm patiently waiting for the day my trees will produce some fruit.

The good news is that it's May and the flowers have bloomed. Time to do some hand pollinating.

 

6/22/17 Update: So it looks like my crude hand pollinating may have worked. One of the flowers seems to be growing fruit from it, and I'm extremely excited!

Something I've noticed is that the female and male flower tend to grow next to each other. So if you are hand pollinating try to tickle the flowers back and forth since it's hard to tell the flowers from each other until the petals fall off. 

Growing Pawpaws in Seattle

So besides my fascination with figs, Paw Paws are 2nd on the list for fruits that I'm extremely fascinated with.

First of all they are the largest American fruit. However sadly, I haven't yet to taste the fruit. I've heard it been described as a custardy banana even though they resemble a mango.

My initial experience with this fruit came from buying some small bareroot pawpaw seedlings off of Ebay.  2 out of 3 took but then quickly died the next winter. Fail #1

I then bought 2 larger bare root plants and those never woke from their dormancy. Fail #2

So I bucked up and bought 2 live plants from Flower world in Monroe. I put them in ground last year and this year they are still alive so I'm extremely excited about that.

The larger of the 2 trees also set flowers to my surprise. It could be our unnaturally warm weather too that is causing this. 90s in Early April is record setting here.

Paw paws do not ship well so it probably explains why not many Americans know about them. They are also only pollinated by one type of moth, which explains why not everyone has success growing them. I did speak to someone who has experience with them here in WA and they used the trick of tying a piece of chicken or fish to the tree to attract flies.

And if you hate flies you can always hand pollinate.

The flowers turn from green to deep red as it blooms.