How I Pick Perfectly Ripe Pawpaws

Ask a pawpaw old-timer when is the best time to pick pawpaws and you will often get this mind-stumbling answer in response…

“The perfect time to pick pawpaw is after it drops from the tree and before it hits the ground.”

The tongue-in-cheek response is meant to convey that it’s impossible to pick a pawpaw at its perfectly ripe stage. So most people either settle for harvesting a bit early by shaking trees and causing the fruits to drop or they settle for harvesting late by picking them off the ground after they drop on their own.

I wasn’t about to settle for a compromise. Harvesting early is risky since pawpaws do not ripen off the tree when picked early. Harvesting late by picking up dropped fruit is less than ideal since the fruits will be bruised and the bruising accelerates the ripening and degradation of a fruit that is already stigmatized for its short shelf life.

Being OCD, I instead decided to solve what was meant to be an impossible riddle so I can pick my pawpaws at the most optimum time. I do this by bagging my fruits as pawpaw season nears and then tying the bags to the branches of the tree. This way when the fruits drop, they are safely caught and hang waiting for me to pick up.

If you also want to harvest perfectly ripened pawpaws in pristine condition, you can find the bags I use in the “Backyard Orcharding” section of my Amazon shop!