2019 ASHS Annual Conference

The North American pawpaw [Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal] is a native tree-fruit that is in the early stages of commercial production. Pawpaw fruit have fresh market appeal for farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and organic markets, as well as processing potential for frozen pulp production. In 2018, the Kentucky State University Land Grant Program released the pawpaw cultivar, KSU-Chappell™. This cultivar is the third pawpaw cultivar released by the university and follows KSU-Atwood™ released in 2009 and KSU-Benson™ which was released in 2016. The KSU-Chappell™ pawpaw is a mid-season ripening cultivar that is extremely vigorous and high-yielding. KSU-Chappell™ bears large fruit with a creamy, sweet, mild banana-pineapple flavor with floral notes, and low percent seed. The average fruit weight is even larger on average then currently available large fruited pawpaw cultivars. From 2016, 2017, and 2018, the average fruit size for KSU-Chappell™ was 214 grams, compared to Susquehanna, a large fruited commercially available variety, at 180 grams. Additionally, from 2016, 2017, and 2018, the percent seed in fruit for KSU-Chappell™ was 5.9 % seed, compared to Susquehanna, a low seed commercially available variety, at 5.8%. Therefore, KSU-Chappell™ can be classified as a large fruited and low seed cultivar for production. This cultivar is easy to propagate clonally via a number of budding (e.g., chip budding) and grafting techniques (e.g. whip and tongue, bark inlay, etc.) on pawpaw seedling rootstock that is actively growing. Trees of KSU-Chappell™ are available for purchase from licensed nurseries. A list is available at kysu.edu/pawpaw.