No one has succeeded. It would be a great achievement!

There's a research program at Kentucky State, and they have tried many ways to clonally propagate pawpaw on it's own roots, with no success.

Alex

A guy I know came up with the idea. I thought brilliant.

Thank you, Alex.

Dax

a nice challenge, I would like to try this even if one claimed that it is impossible.

Just so you know, even though many people said it would be very difficult or impossible, I was able to transplant several wild paw-paws to my property. It was true that they had long, deep tap roots and some were sprouts off the root of a large tree. I transplanted some into a pot and some into the ground. I dug huge, deep root balls with them and had a success rate of 6 out of 10. I honestly think I could improve on that rate next time, meaning several deaths were my fault due to errors/mishandling. I know this is a far cry from air layering but I thought it worth mentioning in case you were researching air layering because you thought transplanting was impossible. Good luck.

I have only air layered mulberries, figs, and pomegranates, but I will offer an uneducated opinion on paw paw air layering potential. Since paw paw's new shoots have such super thin "skin", I won't even call it" bark". I think that to air layer a new shoot with the very fragile skin would just result in fungi/bacteria quickly eating up the skin and killing the shoot. On the other hand, older paw paw sticks that do not grow much and have grayish bark that is almost strong would be the only place that I might try air layering. However, instead of cutting out a complete ring of bark around the stick, I would probably follow the example of a guy who only uses a potato peeler to shave fig bark to a shallow depth when air layering figs rather than cutting out a complete bark ring. Just guessing.

I am air-layering American persimmon this Spring to see if it roots. While at it, I will try one branch of Mango paw paw for trial. In addition, I will do a bark graft of the Che to the wild mulberry to see if it's compatible. I will update the results in late Summer.

Tony

Has anybody had some success air layering since this thread died down 3 years ago?

Well, I'm also zone 5 so I guess I should take the warning, and just buy more trees or start seeds when I have some.

I'm planning to try the wire technique and the toothpick technique on my paw paw trees this summer. I'll report the success or failure.

I have just found an explanation of the toothpick technique but haven't found the wire technique. Could you explain this one?

It's described by Alcedo in this thread: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/rooting-peach-and-nectarine-cuttings-dsvw-vd~1515992

Yep. God blessed him. Alcedo passed away about a year ago. Very knowledgeable fruits propagator.

Tony