Visited the parents today and harvested a bowl of soft-to-the-touch paw paw fruit. Quite alot of the fruit was already on the ground and some black. I saved seed from both the original unknown cultivar I obtained from Mr. Sherwood in Sibley, LA and the root clones that have popped up around the original tree. I have since forgotten the name of the tree, but I remember that Mr. Sherwood was out of the Sunflower variety and had some others. I remember getting a Wells, but the Wells slowly succumbed after being transplanted at the wrong time of year.
The seeds are now cleaned, sterilized in 10% bleach solution for 5-8 minutes, rinsed, and stored in ziploc bags with slightly dampened paper towels. Most of the seed is from the parent cultivar. Interestingly, I did not detect the faintly bitter aftertaste while eating the raw fruit as I did eating homemade paw paw icecream a couple years ago.
In the near future I will use the saved paw paw mash to make a pie using a method of roasting the mash sprinkled with sugar for about 30 minutes in the oven. This cooking method brings out a caramelized flavor using ripe bananas and brown sugar, and I wondered if it would do something similar with the paw paw. Come to think of it this method might make a better icecream. Cooking the fruit in a pie would probably suffice instead of roasting it beforehand.
I hope to try (first time) grafting at least one pawpaw with the seedlings from previous seasons fruit harvests. There's about a dozen 3-to-4-year-old trees sitting about. And I should try researching where to get some of those deep seedling trays for starting more seeds next spring.
I don’t grow paw paw’s but some in my area do. Yours sound good! I’ve an idea regarding your grafting / propagation project. Now I hope others speak up if they feel I’m wrong, but I’d think ‘right now’ would be an excellent time to Bud (Graft) those ‘seedling’ (root clone) paw paw’s with buds from the parent or another producing tree.
Our organization had its “Budding Workshop†yesterday (I missed it with a commitment at the Yamhill County Fair) but ‘up here’ it’s time to Bud! I do a lot of ‘Bench Grafting,’ some fruit trees take well to that, some don’t… My suspicion is paw paw’s may not. Therefore, Bud grafting, as used to commercially propagate about every fruit tree sold, may be your best bet for propagation.
You can research the technique online; there should be all kinds of video and pictorial links on the process, or find it described in most ‘good’ gardening books. It’s simple! You basically slice a ‘fresh bud’ from the base of a leaf on the parent plant; make a “T†cut maybe 8 to 10 inches up the ‘trunk’ of the seedling; gently peel that T open to insert the bud (right side up) between the bark and the ‘slick cambial’ layer of cells against the ‘wood’ then wrap it from bottom to top - leaving the bud exposed - but sealing the sides; then let it alone.
I’m not sure about your seasons in Texas, but with seasons, it will often ‘take,’ or mesh, then wait until next Spring to begin growing. Once you’ve determined it’s alive, cut off the entire tree above the bud graft and allow its shoot to become the ‘new tree.’ The best thing about this process, to me, is if the budding process doesn’t work, you’ve only got a small scar on the base tree and have lost nothing but a bit of time. And, you can always attempt a bench graft - lopping off the entire upper portion first then splicing on a producing cultivar at a later date - but I’d Bud, now!
You’ve got a cultivar you like, and if you know of another producing variety, all you need is a ‘bud stick’ of this years growth from that tree - maybe a dozen ‘leaves’ with their buds at the base, which wouldn’t do much (if any) damage to the parent tree - and place several of those on some of your seedlings, too.
I’ll see what you think 
Here's some details on bud grafting, along with some video footage from yesterday's bud grafting workshop. I asked Ted for permission to video it, but if anyone else objects, let me know. I put in a strong plug for the Home Orchard Society. It was a great workshop!
I also posted some pawpaw photos and other examples from the arboretum here:
http://www.plantworking.com/farmers/4bf ... 173d000003
Go figure! Idyllwild
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