Discover the Pawpaw Difference
What is a Pawpaw?
The pawpaw tree is a native fruit-producing tree known as a favorite tree of President Thomas Jefferson. They have fruits high in vitamins and antioxidants, and these fruits cannot be purchased in grocery stores.
Taste the Difference
Pawpaw is a native tree with tropical-tasting fruit. The taste is between a mango, peach, and banana. The fruit falls from the tree in mid-summer, and wildlife adores it. It is a very sweet-tasting fruit and hardy almost anywhere you plant it.
Our Growing Process
TN Nursery is America's largest producer of pawpaw trees. We plant over 2 tons of pawpaw seeds, and in a perfect world, you may be able to find them online, but most people can not find larger sizes of the pawpaw trees. However, TN Nursery has them in abundance.
Good for Pollinators
The only host plant for the beautiful Zebra Swallowtail butterfly. It has one of the most fascinating pollination strategies among native fruit trees. Unlike other fruit trees, it attracts bees with sweet fragrances; pawpaw blooms emit a faint scent reminiscent of fermenting fruit or organic matter.
Rooted in Tennessee. Shipped Nationwide.
For over 65 years, TN Nursery has been growing high-quality, native plants and trees. With the largest Pawpaw inventory in North America, we are proud to supply homeowners, landscapers, conservationists, and reforestation projects across the country.
Grown in the USA
High Quality Guaranteed
Carefully Packed & Shipped
Pawpaw Tree Information
At TN Nursery, our pawpaw trees come pre-pollinated. We grow them in production greenhouses, and we guarantee your trees will bear fruit once they mature if you care for them properly. Don't worry about figuring it out; that's what we are here for.
This is our #1 selling tree of all time and no wonder. It's a fruit producer that you can not buy in supermarkets or stores. Its fruit is ancient and full of vitamins and antioxidants. We grow over 2 tons of seeds per year, and nowhere online or off can you buy 1 and get 1 free.
Pawpaw Tree is a Favorite of Presidents
Thomas Jefferson was a horticulturist and a huge fan of the pawpaw tree. He grew them at Monticello and he was known to eat the fruits with a custard taste daily.
This tree is a flowering fruit tree native to the Eastern United States and Canada. It usually grows as an understory tree in temperate deciduous forests. The word comes from the Algonquian word papaya, meaning "enlarge," but it has also been suggested that it comes from pawpau, a name referring to the plant's resemblance to a monkey's paw.
TN Nursery grows over 2 tons of pawpaw seeds each year, and if our crop is effective, we will be producing an inventory of more than 4 million pawpaw trees. This makes us the largest pawpaw tree grower in the United States. Our commitment to native species like the pawpaw supports pollinators, biodiversity, and sustainable reforestation efforts nationwide.
Uses of Paw paw Trees in Your Yard
Native Americans used the fruits of this tree for food, drink, and to cure ailments. The fruit was eaten raw, and the juice was used to flavor foods and make a simple syrup. The fruit was also fermented into an alcoholic beverage. Today, the fermented fruit is popular in many parts of the United States and Canada as a soft drink known as "Paw Paw wine."
The seeds have been used to treat diarrhea in children. These trees are the source of a variety of pawpaw medicines. This shrub oil is used for arthritis and relieves joint pain, and its root bark contains an estrogen-like compound that may have contraceptive effects. Its leaves contain high omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A, B, C, and D. The American Indians used this tree to treat skin and respiratory problems, rashes, heartburn, sore throats, and earaches.
Pawpaw Cultivation
The pawpaw is easy to grow in well-drained, moist soil or preferably in a deep, rich loam. It thrives in slightly acidic soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5.5 and can grow in full sun or partial shade, although it prefers dappled shade (light shade with some sunlight). It can also be grown as a container tree. Pawpaw trees are propagated from seed or by grafting onto dwarfing rootstocks.
About the paw paw Seeds
The seeds ripen between August and October, and the fruit forms around March in warm weather areas and later in cooler regions. The fruits mature from late September to January in cold and warmer areas from April to early July. The pawpaw tree is a diploid species with two sets of chromosomes: one chromosome set (n) and two chromosome sets (2n).
Pawpaw trees are propagated by planting seeds, but this takes several years before the seedlings can be grown. The trees are hardy in zones 4-10 and thrive in the coastal plain. Seeds germinate best where the soil temperature is between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It is recommended that the seeds be sown at intervals of 2-3 weeks.
The Pawpaw Tree: Good for You and Our Planet
Native to North America
Edible Fruit with Tropical Flavor
Supports Wildlife & Pollinators
Thrives in Diverse Environments
Low Maintenance & Long Lived
Sustainable Choice for the Future