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Satisfying work.
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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Native Plant Gardening
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Very jealous. I've been trying to grow Pawpaw in zone2b climate but I've not yet managed to get a sapling to survive past two winters yet. However, those were in scorching summer drought years too so that did not help. There's a man in Quebec whose been working with these trees so they can survive extreme cold up here. Now we had a year's worth of rain in one month early summer and still more rain since so I'm hopeful this time.
That's gonna be a challenge. Most of the time I see zone 4 listed as the coldest zone they can survive. You may want to look at some of the techniques people use for overwintering citrus in cold climates to try and keep your saplings alive.
Also if you haven't already you might want to look into service berries as a fruit tree you could grow in your climate. Some species are hearty to zone 2, so with your 2b zone they should be happy in your climate.
Saskatoons, Alberta native species of Strawberry, Honeyberry shrubs, and two Evan's Cherry trees are what I have for fruit so far in my backyard. I plan to add short row of Sea Buckthorn too once my end of life cherry tree dies, I think this will be its last year, I'm amazed it managed to produce fruit at all this year given how haggard the poor old bastard is lol.
Burlap probably doesn't cut it for Pawpaw experiment/challenge. Greenhouse build long term.
https://www.greenbarnnursery.ca/products/paw-paw-taylor
Keep trying. Hopefully at some point it will stick. The breeding and grafting of these has gained traction. So someone really might develop a resistant version at some point. It's a fun hobby to mess with them that I think is inherently rewarding for its own activity, rather than necessarily requiring any perfect outcomes. So, document or share your experiences. Someone else can learn from what you learn. And we can all work together to help keep this wonderful tree common throughout North America.