North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lon Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Pawpaw is also a common name of Carica papaya, the papaya of commerce.  
There are a number of species of it and it very well could grow in the 
jungles of India.

Bloom dates of ANY fruit aren't always going to be what the catalog 
says.  In the South, the Mayhaw (for example) blooms in February.  Here 
in Oregon it blooms in May, about with or just after apples, most 
years.  120 days could be enough if you have sufficient summer heat, 
especially warm nights.  And if you never got a fruit, the tree and 
flowers are still very interesting.  They are also slow growing enough 
that they will probably stay small (not over 20 feet tall) at least for 
a long time.
-Lon Rombough

On Sep 22, 2004, at 7:55 AM, Pat Meadows wrote:


> http://ydr.com/story/foods/41856/

-----------
According to Baloo the Bear from Disney's "The Jungle Book,"
the papaw grows in the jungles of India.

In "The Bare Necessities," he sings "now when you pick a
pawpaw or a prickly pear and you prick a raw paw next time
beware."
-----------

Poor Rudyard Kipling must be spinning in his grave in
horror...

I have still never tasted a pawpaw and I'm giving up on it
(almost).  We could plant two pawpaw trees but from what
I've read they would not fruit in our relatively short
frost-free season (often well under 120 days).

If it flowers in late April or early May, as I have read,
this is way before our last killing frost date - which is
often in June, sometimes in mid-to-late June.  This year,
our last killing frost was June 4.  (And the first killing
frost of Autumn was September 20.)

If I'm wrong, and if frost doesn't bother the pawpaw
flowers, will someone please tell me?