Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. At the Musser Farm at Clemson we filmed a segment on their pawpaw orchard. Search Making It Grow Youtube Pawpaw and see our interview featuring fruit specialist Dr. Greg Reighard. This orchard had huge clusters of pawpaws, called hands, and sometimes growers actually thin them to prevent branches from breaking.
But not all pawpaws are planted in areas with the required species of beetles and flies who serve as pollinators for their peculiar smelling flowers that have all sorts of obstacles to pollination; self-infertility and bad timing in female receptivity and pollen ripeness. Some growers collect ripe pollen in a container from male flowers, using a small paint brush. They immediately transfer this to the receptive female stigma, which will be green and glossy, on a separate but compatible variety of pawpaw. If you live near wooded areas, you probably will have the native pollinators necessary.
