1765119635 | Kitchen Dispatch: A Quest to Create the Perfect Pawpaw Ice Cream | https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kitchen-dispatch-a-que... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46182152 | 0 comments

1790509089 | Behold the pawpaw, the tropical 'alien banana' that grows right here in Canada | https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/9.7356882 | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49865771 | 0 comments

I am surprised it died with the mower, I had one snapped in half, put the up part in the soil, now two pawpaws...

The seedlings can be disappointing. Pawpaw is a lot like peppers. Selected cultivars are good, but wild ones can be awful. I strongly advice to plant certified cultivars of your preferred flavor. My Shenandoah has a lot of banana mixed with caramel and the texture reminds to a lemon mousse that does not taste at all like a lemon. Also wait for them to be really ripe but not overripe (The flavor spoils). The fruits fall when are ripe and then is a speed race with slugs, coons and squirrels.

It needs water and grows well were hazelnuts also grow. Take advantage also of the relatively brief but good butter yellow fall color placing for example some chokeberries (melanocarpa Viking for fruit, arbutifolia Brilliant for red color), or a Japanese maple like Seiryu fast grower vertically providing a decent canopy, rusty fall color and great under spring lights, Hogyoku or Emmet's Pumpkin have great oranges and reds in fall and a decent sized leaf that unlike Seyriu will not dissappear around the huge leaves of the paw paw but is a question of personal taste. Put each tree well spaced but close enough to be seen as one scene and plan in advance as this trees don't like at all to be moved later.

Paw paws grow happy under canopy, specially for its first years, but produce much better at full sun (flies don't like shadow). Can be hand pollinated in any case.

Yikes!

I’m in VA too and have been thinking of putting them in

I have peach trees going into second winter and they will likely fruit next year and are way more work to train than I want in the future.

How much labor are they for the yield and any major downsides?

The magic is a tropical tasting fruit! I have a tree and it's tough to actually get one of the fruits when they are ripe. This year I got lucky with a few that feel into my fenced garden section and I got them before the critters.

If this worries you, can try the cultivar Wells, selected by its low level of acetogenins.

Wild paw paws with high levels of acetogenins announce it, with horrible flavor. The domestic fruits are selected against. A correct amount adds a lot of complexity to the flavor, so can be desirable in a fruit that you eat just a month at year. I bet that you never worry about the fact that your potatoes have a little bit of solanin after all.