The Tree Will Decide

We've got three pawpaw trees online (that is, three pawpaw trees that have been giving fruit): the Shenandoah, the KSU-Atwood, and the Wells. And then one more is coming online this year, probably, since our three-year-old (three years since planting the grafted cultivar) Susquehanna currently has four pawpaw fruits on it.

This year, as far as I can tell, we've had a record fruit set, and I think the harvest will be the biggest ever in September. But on our way to September, the trees are deciding how much fruit they can sustain, and the Shenandoah has dropped a lot of the fruit that set in the spring. In early July, fruit was dropping quick. And on July 8th I gathered a bunch of the prematurely dropped fruit from off the lawn.

I put the premature fruit on the pavement to take a pic. I wonder how many of each types of pawpaw we'll get this year. I still think it will be a record year. But. The trees will decide.