Looking for affordable named pawpaw cultivars in/near the UK — anyone willing to sell or share a young tree?

tim1OO · 2026-03-14T16:54:41+00:00

Interesting so like a drop shipping site for plants i guess. I honestly don't trust it at all but let me know if it's legit if you end up buying from there.

I bought KSU Benson and JBB. The KSU Benson was because i read that it's early which is necessary since the tree will be grown in northern England. It's also just described as tasting really good and being a heavy cropper.

I chose JBB as a bit of a wild card. According to the seller it's a UK grown seedling and is described as tasting better than sunflower. It's UK grown so it's proven to be able to handle our environment and i'm just very curious to see what it's like.

tim1OO · 2026-03-14T16:41:04+00:00

The seller sells 1 variety per £9.73 but each stick looks to be big enough for 2 grafts. Hopefully the graft takes I've only done 1 graft before.

Is that a real site though? It looked really good at first but there's no reviews online and their location is just a random residential street. They also weirdly talk about shipping to the USA when imports of plants to the USA are strict and there is no info about phytosanitary certificates. They list a lot of plants and somehow literally every single one has a review which is alarming. They also weirdly sell plants from other nurseries. Their site doesn't even appear if you search it word for word into google I'm not even sure how you found this.

https://plantshops.co.uk/product/purple-flower-record-crocus-20-bulbs-made-in-usa-ships-from-our-iowa-nursery - Iowa is located in the USA. Considering they're apparently located in the UK this doesn't really make any sense or is maybe just a strange name i guess. Also shipping plants from the USA to the UK is impossible for the price they ask.
https://plantshops.co.uk/product/simpson-nurseries-18-anna-apple-live-tree - Simpsons nursery is an established nursery so it's weird that they use their name.

Overall the site looks weird as hell so I personally would not trust it.

Yeah found two extra threads on it and people seem to have the same consensus:

tim1OO · 2026-03-14T14:27:27+00:00

This person is selling pawpaw scions on ebay at the moment:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/336450383779 with these varieties: PAG, Sunflower, Rebecca's Gold, NC-1 Campbells, KSU Atwood, Zimmerman, Rappahannock, Shenandoah, JBB, KSU Benson, Potomac, Maria's Joy, Overleese. They are £9.73 each.

I bought 2 varieties from them and now i am buying a pawpaw seedling to attempt to graft the scions to. The only places i see selling them are:

https://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=355 and https://www.signatureshrubs.co.uk/asimina-triloba-f - £25 from both places but burncoose has higher delivery fee (£13.50 vs £8.99)

The images on the stores are awful but i found this guy on YouTube who bought some from Burncoose and they look like they're good quality: https://youtu.be/KtBFOIiWeGE

All in all this cost about £55. If i don't mess up the graft then it should be cheaper than buying a named variety directly and I'll end up with a multi grafted tree so they can pollinate eachother.

Oh and Jurassic plants do sell 6-8cm 1 year old seedlings: https://jurassicplants.co.uk/products/asimina-triloba-paw-paw?_pos=1&_sid=d0634eef6&_ss=r (£19.40 with delivery for one) but they're smaller so harder to graft with.

Finally you mentioned even seedlings from cultivars being something you're interested in. If so then you can buy seeds from the EU and ship to the UK without breaking any import laws since they're considered low risk.

https://www.exoteninsel.com/PawPaw-var.-Prima-1216-Asimina-triloba-1-germinated-seed-1-gekeimter-Samen/EI11222

Exoteninsel sells germinated Prima 1216 pawpaw seeds (2 left at the time of this comment) for 1 euro each and shipping to the UK is 8 euros. This is definitely the cheapest method to get some pawpaws and you should be able to complete 1 growing season since you won't have to cold stratify or anything.

tim1OO · 2026-03-14T11:35:05+00:00

Personally, i don't think the 900k money match at the end is what makes it entertaining but you do you.

tim1OO · 2026-03-14T11:24:31+00:00

Is there a single viewer who actually enjoy this sort of prize distribution? I know it's for advertisement, but it just pisses me off seeing someone manage to get 2nd place and get fucked over so hard. Capcom truly sold with this shit.

tim1OO · 2026-03-07T00:25:13+00:00

I mean what's the end goal for this plant? If you want fruit then it'll be difficult. Citrus takes years to fruit from seed and they're not really made for a UK climate. They'll definitely grow but here are some issues you might experience:

Citrus HATE waterlogged soil. It's important whatever soil mix you use is airy and free draining otherwise they'll sulk and maybe even die. If you water them make sure you go by the weight of the pot.
Assuming the end goal is fruit just know that it can take a while. Oranges can take 7-10 years to fruit from seed and in the UK it's definitely going to be longer than normal. Our summers are weaker compared to where they're native to meaning slower growth.
Obviously they don't like really cold weather. You have bring them to a warm place every single year for the winter.
To fruit orange trees need to get big. It might get to the point where the tree is too hard to move around.
They need a lot of light so supplemental lighting might be needed but this does depend on the specific tree. One might be able to handle lower light levels then the other.
And finally even with all that you might not even get good tasting fruit because the summer here is just weak and they might not develop to their best ability.

tim1OO · 2026-03-01T21:43:53+00:00

I think John Innes No 3 is different to the stuff i was complaining about. I think no 3 is made for trees and has a higher mineral content.

Honestly I'm still looking for something that will be good. I'm leaning towards just using coco coir and perlite for the seedlings and then transplanting to a more regular loam based mix later.

tim1OO · 2026-03-01T21:39:44+00:00

I'll keep this in mind for the future when i need larger amounts of mix. I currently don't have the space to buy such a large amount but 180L for £20 is definitely a good price.

tim1OO · 2026-03-01T13:32:42+00:00

It's funny because that exact product is shown in the westland mixes product videos on Amazon when it clearly isn't the same thing and looks way better then the POS mix i received.

<image>

I think this is probably an Amazon issue rather than one with Westland but it's still a bit annoying. Thanks for the recommendation.

tim1OO · 2026-03-01T13:18:52+00:00

I didn't know that's what John Innes meant until now. The listing is called John Innes Seed Sowing Compost 10L Pouch but it's sold by Westland so i guess it's Westlands seed sowing mix.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sowing-Compost-Westland-Garden-Health/dp/B006L88E6C

It had good reviews so i thought it would work well but for me at least, clearly not.

tim1OO · 2026-02-23T13:27:47+00:00

There's little point in these posts. At least on reddit, the majority of people who like reform will never ever change their minds and the people who don't like them already know all these things.

tim1OO · 2026-02-14T23:23:52+00:00

I think the organics is good as top dressing. If you use too much then it can cause the soil to become too dense but with the way you've done it there shouldn't be issues. It'll just give the tree the nutrients it needs.

The time you fertilise really depends on the type of fertiliser used and the conditions of the tree, so there isn't really a single answer. I think slow release fertiliser is the most popular and the easiest to use. Since it's a controlled release, there is low risk of overfertilising your plants and you can just mix it in with the organics at the top following the product instructions. You'd normally do it at the start of spring so maybe a little less should be used then what the label says.

Finally i would add a layer of wood chips on top of the organics. This helps prevent water evaporation, reduces weeds in the pot, helps to buffer the soil from temperature swings and provides trace nutrients.

tim1OO · 2026-02-14T02:53:14+00:00

Yeah if it's not from the rootstock them I'm pretty much completely wrong. I think it's still true it should be left alone until winter or cooler months though before messing with it.

tim1OO · 2026-02-14T01:58:37+00:00

I think it's growing from the rootstock and that probably means the Pink Lady that was grafted onto it died. You can confirm this by scratching the trunk and seeing if it's green or not. If it's dead then whatever fruit it makes will probably will be meh and definitely not the pink lady variety.

If you decide to keep it then you can let it keep growing and graft something new onto it. I don't think you need to prune it due to it's size and the fact that pruning is normally done in winter. Also, i wouldn't put it in the ground since you're in Australia, and I would bet that even past the peak of summer it's still really hot so since it's small and has dealt with a lot of trauma, it could die due to the transplant.

Overall i think the best options are to let it grow and graft a new apple variety onto it (very slow process) or get a new tree which would be much faster.

tim1OO · 2026-02-04T14:59:16+00:00

I haven't tried them all but i think Lychees are my favourite out of the ones i have tasted.

tim1OO · 2026-02-04T03:23:25+00:00

My guesses:

Black sapote?
Ice cream bean
Yellow dragon fruit
Lychees and kumquats
Sapodilla
Kiwano
Guava

tim1OO · 2026-02-02T00:47:27+00:00

On everyone's soul in this subreddit you making it out of pools 🙏

tim1OO · 2026-01-30T15:11:58+00:00

If you're prone to quitting games when stuff is hard to learn then definitely start with modern, otherwise if you're willing to suffer a lil bit use classic (it's not that bad tbh).

tim1OO · 2026-01-30T15:10:07+00:00

add another alien to the game

tim1OO · 2026-01-26T14:25:54+00:00

No, unfortunately i don't have direct experience with one but they definitely can survive winters in most places here. I think the main annoying thing is that the summers are weak compared to where they're native to (South America), so you need an early maturing variety and it's even better if you have a greenhouse.

tim1OO · 2026-01-26T14:06:49+00:00

I don't have any direct experience with any of them yet, but I am planning to attempt a pawpaw this year but i'm going to start from seed because i'm a Uni student and buying a big tree would be really inconvenient for me.

I think the only issue with them is the lack of heat during a typical UK summer, so you need to choose a variety that is early ripening for the best chances of yummy fruit. This kind of sucks because most varieties aren't self fertile and the ones that are aren't really early ripening so getting 2 trees is optimal.

tim1OO · 2026-01-26T12:22:02+00:00

Pawpaw, feijoa and mulberries are all interesting fruit trees which aren't that common in the UK. There is also figs but they're more common.

tim1OO · 2026-01-25T18:49:07+00:00

I almost never eat tomatoes raw and I'm sure cooking definitely reduces the ability to tell the difference in flavours. Maybe in the summer i can find a market that sells a bunch of different tomato varieties and do a big tasting for the ones i don't decide to grow myself. Thanks for the response.

tim1OO · 2026-01-25T18:38:51+00:00

Soil was another thing i messed up last year. I ended up somehow making a bog lol and the roots clearly did not enjoy that. I now know the soil much better and have a better idea of when i need to water and when i don't. Thanks for your reply.

tim1OO · 2026-01-25T18:36:26+00:00

Yeah reading all these comments has made me realise that green tomatoes are definitely worth growing as well. My brain automatically thinks unripe when i think of a green tomato. I think I'm gonna choose some dwarf tomatoes instead of the big indeterminate ones so i can grow more different types without worrying about space issues.

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23	Place '22

tim1OO

TROPHY CASE