NC1 Pawpaw Description

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Good quality, large, round fruits with few seeds. Great flavour and a nice, thick texture make NC-1 a great cultivar. Very cold hardy, early ripening and proven to grow and fruit in cooler climates! Considered a good cultivar in general but also has good potential for developing other early-ripening, cold-hardy and resilient northern cultivars, due to its Ontario, Canada origination. Fruit texture and flavour is very good, smooth, buttery and very sweet.

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Very sweet, tropical flavour but not overly strong. Banana overtones with mango undertones and melon aftertaste.

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In our opinion not as good as some of the top varieties but far better than wild pawpaws or low quality ones like PA Golden or Taytwo.

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Seedling of Davis x Overleese; selected by R. Douglas Campbell, Ontario, Canada, in 1976. Fruit has few seeds; yellow skin and flesh; thin skin and an early ripening during mid September in Ontario and early September in Kentucky. Fruit size large; averaging 180 g/fruit and 45 fruit per tree at KSU. Highly recommended. 

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Pollination: A seedling pawpaw or any other grafted or seedling pawpaw tree will pollinate. For good pollination, plant trees 8-15 ft away from each other only. Pawpaws are not male and female, but rather have “male and female” flower parts on each flower. Every tree is capable of bearing fruit if pollinated well with pollen from another genetically different pawpaw tree. Hand pollination results in heaviest fruit set.

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Resistant to: This cultivar shows resistance to extreme cold and Phyllosticta fungus. Pawpaws are generally remarkably disease and insect resistant. See our pawpaw growing article for full information.

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Ripening: Early/Mid Season 

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Site requirements: Full sun location for best fruit production. Pawpaws will grow in shade but produce much less fruit. Pawpaws tolerate a range of soil types provided the planting location is well drained and there is heavy mulch and plenty of fertilizer and water. Protected locations, such as on the South, East or West side of a building is ideal on very windy sites.

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Size at maturity: 15-20′ tall and wide, depending on location, care and pruning to reduce height. We recommend heading them at about 10″ and removing suckers, both of which keep the trees very manageable and small.

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Pawpaws (Asimina Triloba) are related to custard apples and cherimoya, in the sugar apple family, and yet they grow in the temperate zone, having moved north as Ice Age glaciers receded. Flavours of mango, melon, banana, raspberry and pineapple come from this creamy fruit. Like many fruits, if you don’t know what you’re doing and you let them get bruised, or you pick them under-ripe they won't taste very good!