North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Peter Chrisbacher <pxbacher.ls@comcast.net>]

Backyard Fruit Grower (BYFG) had their annual pawpaw "tours" two 
weekends ago - 9/16 & 9/17.

The Saturday tour is of backyards & home orchards (all trees were 
selected from the wild as far as I know; no named cultivars at the 
backyards/orchards we usually visit).  I'm told this year's harvest was 
huge, but I didn't make the Saturday trip - maybe someone who did will 
chime in.  It seems like getting the timing pretty much dead-on this 
year helped.

The Sunday tour is of a few wild "patches" down along the Susquehanna 
river.  We seemed to be just a bit early this year at our first 
location, but we still collected quite a few ripe pawpaws.  There may 
have been fewer this year than the most I've seen in past years in that 
location, but not by much.

At the second location a bit lower and facing more to the west, the 
pawpaws weren't yet ripe.  When we time it right, the fruit has started 
to fall but most are still on the trees.  This time there was nothing on 
the ground, and shaking the trees didn't get us anything either.  
Looking up, I did see a fair amount of fruit, but I think noticeably 
less than I've seen in "banner" past years.

My two Peterson pawpaws (Susquehanna & Shenandoah) were just old enough 
to flower this spring, but one was early and the other late, so no fruit 
this year :-(  If that happens again next spring, I'll visit a friend 
with a larger collection a few towns over for some pollen :-)

Pete Chrisbacher
SE PA - Zone 6B