1 Cultivation

Although it is a delicious and nutritious fruit, it has never been cultivated on the scale of apples and peaches, primarily because it does not store or ship well. It is also difficult to transplant due to its long taprootA plant's taproot is a straight tapering root that grows vertically down. It forms a center from which other roots sprout. Plants with taproots are difficult to transplant. The taproot is why dandelions are hard to uproot — the top is pulled, but the long. CultivarA cultivar is a cultivated variety of a plant species. Modern cultivars are often, but not necessarily, hybrids between species; they may equally well represent particularly desirable selections from populations of a single species. Cultivars generally ars are propagated by chip budding or whip graftIn horticulture, a graft is where the tissues of one plant are affixed to the tissues of another; the process is called grafting . In medicine, the same term is applied, particularly often for skin grafting, but also for other body tissues moved and re-joing.

In recent years the pawpaw has attracted renewed interest, particularly among organic growers, as a native fruit which has few pests, and which therefore requires little pesticide use for cultivation. The shipping and storage problem has largely been addressed by pulping the fruit and freezing the pulp.

The commercial growing and harvesting of pawpaws is strongest in southeast Ohio. The Ohio Pawpaw Growers' Association annually sponsors the Pawpaw Festival at Lake Snowden near Albany, Ohio. This group is also urging the Ohio state legislature to make the pawpaw the state fruit.

The flowers are self-incompatible, requiring cross pollination; at least two different varieties of the plant are needed as pollenizers. The flowers produce an odor similar to that of rotting meat to attract blowflies or carrion beetles for cross pollination. Lack of pollination is the most common cause of unfruitfulness, and growers resort to hand pollination or to hanging chicken necks or other meat to attract pollinators.

2 History

The earliest documentation of pawpaws is in the 1541 report of the de Soto expedition, who found Native Americans cultivating it east of the Mississippi River. The Lewis and Clark Expedition depended and sometimes subsisted on pawpaws during their travels. Chilled paw paw fruit was a favorite dessert of George Washington.

3 Other species of pawpaw

• Slimleaf pawpaw (Asimina angustifolia) - Florida, Georgia and Alabama
• Woolly pawpaw (Asimina incana) - Florida and Georgia
• Bigflower pawpaw (Asimina obovata) - Florida
• Smallflower pawpaw (Asimina parviflora) - southern states from Texas to Virginia
• Dwarf pawpaw (Asimina pygmea) - Florida and Georgia
• Netted pawpaw (Asimina reticulata) - Florida and Georgia
• Fourpetal pawpaw (Asimina tetramera) - Florida

4 See also

• List of fruits

5 External links

• USDA distribution of Pawpaw
• Pawpaw Information from Kentucky State University
• Asimina Genetic Resources
• Clark's September 18, 1806 journal entry about pawpaws

Fruit

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