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Pawpaw Seeds

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Pawpaw Variety Flavor Chart

72 cultivars scored across 10 flavor categories - 0 to 9 scale

Compiled from r/Pawpaws community tasting reports, Blake Cothron 2025 commercial list, and KSU trial data. Expert scores (★) from AlexanderDeGrape, r/Pawpaws. Scores 0-9 per flavor category. Click any row for details. Filter the heatmap by your USDA zone.

Flavor Profile Radar

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Soil & Climate Influence on Flavor

Scores are not numerically adjusted - this panel explains expected taste shifts in your region's soil. Reference: USGS SIR 2017-5118.

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Full Flavor Heatmap

Click column headers to sort. ★ = expert data from AlexanderDeGrape, r/Pawpaws. Scores 0-9. 🍮 = caramel-prone cultivar. 🍂 = Phyllosticta risk level.

Sources & Data Attribution

Flavor scores (0-9 scale) are aggregated estimates drawn from multiple growers, tasters, and published sources. Ripe pawpaw flavor varies significantly by region, soil chemistry, ripeness at harvest, and pollination partner — treat every score here as a reasonable midpoint, not a lab measurement. Where a cultivar's detail panel lists more than one source, later/more rigorous data (e.g. KSU trial rankings) is given preference over older or informal descriptions, and any real disagreement between sources is called out directly in that cultivar's notes.

AlexanderDeGrape — r/Pawpaws community authority, 150+ cultivars personally tasted. Primary source for this chart's 0-9 flavor scoring system, category structure, and expert-scored cultivars (★). Contributed via Reddit/email, 2026.
Peaceful Heritage Nursery (Blake Cothron) — Kentucky-based nursery and licensed KSU pawpaw propagator. Source for commercial cultivar descriptions, fruit size, seed weight %, and ripening notes. peacefulheritage.com
KSU Pawpaw Program — Kentucky State University's dedicated pawpaw breeding & research program (Dr. Sheri Crabtree, Dr. Kirk Pomper), the only full-time program of its kind. Source for official cultivar releases (Atwood, Benson, Chappell, Pomper's Choice, Dunnigan) and consumer tasting-panel rankings. kysu.edu pawpaw program
Peterson Pawpaws (Neal Peterson) — Breeder of the modern Peterson-line cultivars (Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Wabash, Potomac, Rappahannock, Allegheny, Tallahatchie). Source for cultivar lineage and official flavor descriptions. petersonpawpaws.com
Petrichor Pawpaws — North Carolina pawpaw nursery and breeding program; detailed catalog flavor writeups for both their own named releases and many other named cultivars they propagate. petrichorpawpaws.com/varieties
cultivar.guide — Independent grower-run cultivar reference aggregating zone hardiness, ripening windows, acetogenin content, and disease-resistance notes across many pawpaw sources. cultivar.guide/pawpaw
England's Orchard & Nursery — Kentucky nursery specializing in named pawpaw cultivars, source for several newer/rare England-line releases (Mwab, Windstar, Mammoth X).
Deep Roots / Lehman lineage — Sources tracing the late Jerry Lehman's (Terre Haute, IN) breeding collection, carried forward by nurseries propagating his named selections (Jerry's Big Girl, Lehman's Delight, Ve 21, Benny's Favorite, October Moon, KY Legend Titan).
Ohio Pawpaw Festival records — Public contest results (Best Pawpaw Tasting, Biggest Pawpaw) cited as corroborating evidence of fruit quality/size for award-winning cultivars.
NACAA Journal / KSU trial publications — Peer-reviewed and extension-published cultivar trial data, including the KSU consumer preference tasting panel (Table 1, KSU Cooperative Extension PR706) comparing Susquehanna, Sunflower, Potomac, Taytwo, Mitchell, and KSU-Atwood on a 1-5 flavor/texture/appearance scale.

Dataset licensed CC BY 4.0. Factual data (flavor profile, zone, size, season) is not independently copyrightable, but every source above is credited for its contribution rather than reproduced verbatim — descriptions here are paraphrased summaries, not copied catalog copy. Corrections or additional published data welcome via contact.