Should I remove or save my pawpaw?
Pawpaw isn't a habitual problem species, so a sound one is usually worth an opinion before it comes out. Pawpaw is almost never a removal — it is the tree people call to identify, because a patch of small tropical-looking trees appeared in the shady back corner of the lot and they want to know if it is a problem. The answer is usually no, and the real conversation is about the fruit and whether the patch can be thinned rather than cleared.
How to tell which one you've got
Individual stems dying back inside an established patch is normal turnover, not a dying tree — the colony keeps producing new suckers as older stems fade. Genuine decline is a whole patch thinning at once, and in central Indiana that almost always traces to something that changed the site: the overstory was cleared, the ground was graded, or the low wet ground the patch depended on got drained or filled.
The structural question
Small, flexible and sitting in the understory, pawpaw catches very little wind or ice load and rarely fails on its own. In practice the pawpaw damage you get called about is collateral — a larger ash, maple or box elder came through the patch and flattened stems, and the patch will regenerate from the roots.
Related
- How much does it cost to remove a pawpaw?→
- When should a pawpaw be pruned?→
- Are pawpaw roots a problem for foundations or pipes?→
- Is my pawpaw dying or just stressed?→
- How does a pawpaw hold up in a storm?→
- How much does it cost to remove an american basswood?→
- Should I remove or save my american basswood?→
- When should an american basswood be pruned?→