R. Neal Peterson

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. Asimina triloba, domestication, new crops, breeding, selection

SUMMARY. The pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a new crop in the early stages of domestication. Recently commercialization has become feasible with the availability of high quality varieties. The history of pawpaw varieties is divided into three periods: 1900–50, 1950–85, and 1985 to the present. The history before 1985 was concerned primarily with the discovery of superior selections from the wild but experienced a serious break in continuity around 1950. The third period has been characterized by greater developmental activity. Larger breeding programs have been pursued, regional variety trials initiated, a germplasm repository established, and a formal research program at Kentucky State University (KSU) instituted. Future breeding will likely rely on dedicated amateurs with the education and means to conduct a 20-year project involving the evaluation of hundreds of trees. For the foreseeable future, governments and universities will not engage in long-term pawpaw breeding.

In 1917, the pawpaw seemed poised to become a new fruit crop. In the previous year a contest for the best pawpaws had been held, sponsored by the American Genetics Association. This contest generated so much interest and so much “better fruit discovered than most horticulturists thought possible” that the sponsors thought that it was only a matter of time and “intelligent breeding” before commercial quality varieties were developed and an industry begun. An industry did not develop, however. The problems of the pawpaw proved greater than imagined. And the breeding, scientific studies, and applied science necessary for their solution did not materialize.

In 2002, 85 years later, we are finally seeing the first faint glimmers of a pawpaw industry. Many factors have converged to make this possible. Consumer demand in America for new and unusual produce, such as pawpaw, is strong and growing, as is an interest in native plants. Low net farm income and persistently depressed commodity prices have prompted many farmers to examine alternative crops, particularly high value crops such as fruit. Steady progress has been made on the scientific study of the genus Asimina. High quality pawpaw varieties of commercial potential have been bred or selected and are commercially available.