Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) Cultivars Southern Climates: 5 DELICIOUS Varieties for Zones 7-8 (&9a). 

If they've just been put in the ground bare-root, they will be slow the first few years. Especially if they didn't have a feeder root system yet (a fine network of tender roots). The general rule is sleep, creep, leap for years 1, 2 & 3. In general they like water every day that it doesn't rain, or at least 3x a week. That supplemental water is very helpful to them. Fertilize a little in year three As far as what varieties you have, if they were bareroot, they were likely just random seedlings, which means the fruit quality may vary. Cultivars are grafted to ensure a consistent clone of the parent plant.

@@abyssquick thanks for the info

If they are not grafted, then they are seedlings not cultivars. To accelerate growth, suppress all grass/weeds around them, mulch deeply and make sure they never experience drought. Seedlings appreciate shade, small grafted plants can handle sun better because their scion has already gone through the sun sensitive immature stage.

Fruit trees don't come true from seed, though seedlings usually have some characteristics of their ancestors. If you want a specific variety, you need to buy a grafted tree or scionwood (& a seedling rootstock if you lack them) and graft your own.

they will grow, but i'd advise you to 1. mulch the roots alot ( up to 2ft!! ) during the winter. Don't expect to get fruit though!

if you want to TRY to get fruit, i'd recommend kentucky champion and summer delight.

If you protect it in the winter with warm covering, yes. Also if you plant it on the southern facing side of your house.

You are outside the native range of Asimina triloba, though perhaps southern types ("Mango" came from Tifton, GA) is experimental. Florida has many (shrubby) endemic species though they have smaller fruit usually harvested by the wildlife (tortoises etc as with gopher apples). They are more commonly planted to support Zebra (kite) Swallowtails (Protographium/Eurytides marcellus) which exclusively uses Asimina as a caterpillar host, than for eating.

depends. do you live in southern or northern Oklahoma?

@@beacon6424 I live in the northern part of Oklahoma

@@piehnoharmony i wouldn't recommend it, it's either zone 6a or 6b. if you live more to towards the south but still in the north it should be okay.

Yes, I recall the cultivar is named for the river as it intersects WV. It's a longer-season cultivar that ripens up late season. While it may grow in PA it's better suited to more southerly locations with long, hot growing summers.

@@abyssquick Thank you

@@EgyptianQueenTiye Peterson didn't name his cultivars after the location that they originated from. He collected plant material from older collections that had themselves been established with scionwood from all across the native range. From this starting point, he bred pawpaws for years before selecting the cultivars that he named and released. The name Susquehanna just followed his pattern of naming them after rivers.

@@danielsmith336 There aren't rivers in the south?

@@EgyptianQueenTiye there are rivers all over. He chose the particular names that he used when he trademarked his patented varieties. You would have to ask him why he chose to name it after a northern river rather than a southern river. Susquehanna was originally labeled 11-5, then it was named Levfiv at the time of patenting. It was then trademarked as Susquehanna. The parents of Susquehanna were seedlings from an orchard in the Blandy Experimental Farm pawpaw plot planted/grafted sometime between 1922 and 1955. The Blandy Experimental Farm had acquisitions from across the pawpaw's native range. Peterson collected his breeding material from multiple old orchards such as this one as they were the result of previous generation's searches for higher quality trees, rather than having to start from scratch searching for suitable wild trees to breed.

Yeah, the cultivars aren't well known in general. But they are well worth planting. They have better flavor, bigger fleshier fruit, and no aftertaste

@@abyssquick thank you!