Bring an almost-forgotten fruit back to life-and into your business.
Pawpaws, also called "Indiana bananas," are North America's largest native fruit. Long overlooked, they're now exploding in popularity with chefs, craft brewers, and fruit lovers-and Pawpaws is the first comprehensive guide to small-scale commercial pawpaw production.
Why This Book Matters
Whether you're a market grower, orchardist, or food forest steward, adding pawpaws can diversify your crops, strengthen your bottom line, and connect you with a fast-growing niche market. This book shows you exactly how to cultivate, manage, and market this unique fruit for success.
What You'll Learn
Inside, you'll find practical, field-tested advice on every stage of pawpaw cultivation, including:
- The fascinating botany and cultural history of pawpaws
- How to site and plan a productive orchard
- Tips for selecting top-quality nursery trees
- Descriptions of over 50 cultivar profiles
- Propagation, grafting, and organic growing techniques
- Effective pest and disease management strategies
- Marketing fresh pawpaws, seeds, and nursery starts
- Processing and creating value-added pawpaw products.
Why Trust This Guide?
Author Blake Cothron, organic farmer and nurseryman, brings over 20 years of hands-on expertise in horticulture and sustainable agriculture. He operates Heritage Nursery, a USDA Certified Organic research farm specializing in pawpaws, and is widely recognized as a trusted voice in organic growing.
Endorsements highlight the importance of this work:
"A much-needed contribution to the pursuit of pawpaw culture." - R. Neal Peterson, founder, Peterson Pawpaws
"Blake Cothron is an authority on pawpaws and provides a clear, detailed guide for commercial success in growing this oddly appealing species." - Pam Dawling, author, The Year-Round Hoophouse
The Opportunity Is Now
Interest in pawpaws is skyrocketing. Don't miss the chance to grow this extraordinary fruit, diversify your offerings, and lead the way in a growing the movement for local, sustainable food.
Discover the commercial potential of pawpaws-and start building your own success story today.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Foraging for Wild Pawpaws
Chapter 2: Description of North American Pawpaw Fruit
Chapter 3: Flowering and Pollination
Chapter 4: Site Design and Planting
Chapter 5: Choosing Your Trees
Chapter 6: Maintaining the Orchard
Chapter 7: Harvesting Pawpaw Fruit
Chapter 8: Tree Propagation
Chapter 9: Pests, Diseases, Disorders and Their Management
Chapter 10: Pawpaw Fruit Marketing Strategies
Chapter 11: Pawpaw Cultivars
Chapter 12: Troubleshooting, Cost Analysis, and Calendar
Chapter 13: Conclusion
Resources
Notes
Index
About the Author
About New Society Publishers
