Quick Facts
Exposure: Full Sun to Part Shade
Height at Maturity: 15-30 Feet
Usage: Fruiting
Shipped As: Bare-root
Planting Zones: 5-9
Product Details
Pawpaw trees for sale, bare-root, in 25-packs and 100-packs. You can pick 1 to 2 foot or 2 to 3 foot trees. They ship in November 2026.
Pawpaw Tree Size, Sun and Soil
Asimina triloba, sometimes written paw paw, is a native understory tree that tops out around 15 to 30 feet and grows in zones 5 to 9. Give it sun if you want fruit. In shade it lives, but you'll get a few pawpaws, not a harvest. Wet feet are the one thing it can't handle, so dig a test hole and watch whether water sits in it overnight.
Getting Pawpaw Trees to Fruit
Plant two or more, never one. A lone pawpaw sets almost nothing. The flowers are maroon and open in early spring. They smell like yeast. Flies and beetles pollinate them, not bees, so if you don't see many insects, use a small brush.
The fruit grows up to 6 inches and tastes like banana with a little mango. It ripens from late August through September and keeps about five days. Expect the first fruit in 3 to 4 years and a full crop in 5 to 7.
Planting Pawpaw Trees
Plant them 6 to 10 feet apart. If you're setting out rows, leave 15 to 20 feet between them. Small trees under 24 inches need shade the first summer or the sun will cook them. Unpack the box the day it shows up and wet the roots. Don't let them dry out while you wait to plant. Then pick your spot and stay with it, because pawpaws are slow to recover from a move.
Before You Order
Older trees send up suckers. The fruit skin can irritate your hands, and neither skin nor seeds should be eaten. Raccoons, squirrels and birds will beat you to the fruit, and zebra swallowtail caterpillars chew the leaves (that's fine, they're the reason many people grow it). More is in our pawpaw tree garden guide, and you can look through other fruit trees for sale.