ASHS 2025 Conference

The North American Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a tree fruit native to the Eastern U.S. which is being produced in commercial orchards across the U.S. and internationally, with an increasing market and interest. There are approximately 50 pawpaw cultivars available, but many of these varieties have low yields with fruit sizes below the threshold of 120 grams needed for commercial sale and processing. New high yielding cultivars with excellent fruit quality would further assist in the development of the pawpaw industry. Kentucky State University serves as the National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Pawpaw. Two goals of the Repository research efforts are germplasm acquisition and evaluation. The repository contains over 2000 accessions from 16 different states; additionally, both open pollinated seedlings from superior genotypes and crosses of superior selections have been incorporated into the repository collection. Fruit weights, percent seed by weight, and soluble solids content from six of KSU’s advanced selections (Hi 1-4, Hi 7-1, G4-25, G6-120, G9-109, and G9-111) were compared to the cultivars ‘KSU-Atwood’, ‘KSU-Chappell’, and ‘Ralph’s Whopper’. All advanced selections had average fruit weights over 120 grams with Hi 1-4 having the highest fruit weight (229.8 g). ‘KSU-Chappell’ had the lowest percent seed (4.7%), with Hi 1-4 having the second lowest (5.9%). Hi 1-4 had the highest soluble solids content at 25.9 Brix and all selections examined were above 21 Brix. Several selections including Hi 1-4 and Hi 7-1 show potential to be promising new releases and have been budded onto seedling rootstock for further evaluation.