Pawpaw - the "Banana" for Northern Gardeners

The pawpaw tree is a native American fruit that really does taste much like a banana. The creamy white flesh may also have hints of vanilla custard, pineapple and mango. You'll rarely, if ever, see this fruit in the local grocery store, but you can easily grow a few trees in your garden for a yearly treat of fresh, banana flavor for northern gardens.

The pawpaw tree grows wild all along the eastern seaboard, and as far west as Nebraska. At one time pawpaw fruit was sold in many city and village markets, but the fruits are fragile and do not travel well for long distances. You may be able to find these fruits in your local farmer's market.

Recent research has discovered natural pesticides and antitumor agents in all parts of the pawpaw tree, so you can expect to see more orchards specializing in this uncommon fruit tree for the pharmaceutical industry.

To grow pawpaws in your back yard, you will need two trees, because they are not self-fertile. When you buy your young trees, they will need shade for the first few years, but can be grown in the sun when they're mature. Permaculture enthusiasts might plant the young seedlings in the shade of a Siberian pea tree, and then remove the nurse tree when the pawpaws are old enough to tolerate direct sunlight. You may also want to plant your new pawpaws a certain distance from the house, because the flowers have an unpleasant fragrance.

The pawpaw tree is easy to grow, and is cold hardy from USDA zones 4 through 8. These trees usually grow wild in forests, so they do like cool, moist soil under a mulch of leaves or straw. The fruit needs warm summer weather and at least 160 days to ripen, and the trees also require a cold period each winter. They do not do well in the maritime Northwest.

Pawpaw trees have large leaves that look somewhat tropical, and they change color in the fall to a beautiful, bright yellow. The trees normally grow only ten to twenty feet high, but some trees have been known to grow higher. It is common for new trees to sprout from roots growing horizontally underground, but unwanted baby trees can be easily kept in check by cutting them with a lawnmower. If you have room, you might want to leave the trees to grow a natural thicket at the side of a pasture, and let local wildlife harvest the extra fruit.

You'll get about a bushel of fruit from a mature pawpaw tree. Like bananas, they can be picked when not quite ripe, and will continue to ripen on your kitchen counter. Unripe fruit can be kept in the refrigerator for a few weeks, and it will finish ripening when you put it back in room temperature. Fresh, ripe fruit does not keep more than a few days.

To keep fruit that can't be eaten fresh, you can remove the skin and seeds, add a bit of lemon juice, and freeze the pulp. You can also dry the pulp in a food dryer, and then used the dried fruit in ice cream, baked goods, and drinks. The fresh fruit is very soft inside, with a consistency of custard, so you can eat it with a spoon. Some people are known to be allergic to the fruit.

If your local nursery doesn't carry pawpaw trees, you can order them online. To learn more about this rare fruit, visit the Pawpaw Foundation website at http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/ppf/default.htm