Asimina Triloba Fruit Set

Same fruit cluster from May 2 to May 19

In the past, I have seen tiny pawpaw fruitlets that seemed to be pollinated. Each day I would search for the fruitlets, hoping that they were still present. Within a week or two, I would return to those trees and discover that the little fruitlets had disappeared. Now that I have cross-pollinated some pawpaw flowers, I have noticed some early indicators of potential fruitset.

Successful fruit set is most readily achieved by cross-pollination. Although there is a slight possibility that self-pollination might result in fruit set, my experience with self-pollination shows otherwise. All self-pollination attempts resulted in aborted fruitlets within 2 weeks after petal drop, save one little self-pollinated fruit borne in 2012. A fruit cluster that has been successfully pollinated will plump slightly while each fruit/finger slowly spreads apart. This plumping and spreading of the tiny fingers takes about 1-2 weeks. Self-pollinated and cross-pollinated fruitlets both undergo this process for the first weeks. Do not be fooled into thinking this is an indicator of fruitset.

Fruit set is indicated by steady growth of the fruitlets. After week 2, successfully set fruitlets will continue to plump and elongate. The increasing size of the fruitlets should be visible on a daily basis. The fruits grow quickly and unmistakably. However, self-pollinated fruitlets will stop growing after the fingers have spread apart and abort within the week. Pawpaw fruit can grow from the size of a dried pea to the size of a marble in a week. I'm sure that the fruit will stop growing at some point and focus on maturation and ripening of the seeds and pulp, but the first couple months after pollination will result in steady growth.