Want Them All

Had a nice, sweet papaya tonight after dinner. Lots of the seeds inside have sprouted. I got a bunch of 'em in wet napkins, will put 'em in some planting mix tomorrow. I read somewhere that people in colder zones in the US who can't have these plants outdoor year round, have been able to start a plant from seeds during the cold season, plant it in ground in spring, and get fruits before the cold season arrives the following year. Is that true? I'm not worried about the cold, as Zone 9 (Bakersfield, CA) can support a papaya just fine. I'd be happy if these seeds can grow to mature trees that bear fruits within a year.

Thanks,

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bencelest

I am in zone 9 and I am not successful growing papayas in my area for 4 years now. They all die every year every winter. If you can tell me your secret I'll be happy to know.
When the temperature goes below 45, they turn to mush. If I keep them inside, the spider mites and aphids get them.
I'd like to know a papaya that can bear mature fruit in less than 9 months.

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Banana Nut

ClevelandCATHY

I'm in zone 7. I got fruit last year, but it didn't have time to get ripe.

Want Them All

Got this info from a member at gardenweb. I underlined part of Christine's response to another member living in Houston. So, apparently, if you get the seeds to sprout, keep the seedlings in containers during the winter, plant them inground in March, get fruits in November.

The link to the entire thread is: Red Lady papaya photos - Florida Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

Randy---It sounds like you are determined to grow papayas. So, I will do my best to tell you how.
For next year: Your papaya seeds need to be started in the summer and potted up until your freezes are over. The size of young plants would not be so large that you couldn't lift them. For the plant you have now I would use a "hand truck" to save your back. I am a petite built woman and this is what I use for heavy plants.

If you are able to plant the papaya plants in the ground by mid-March, you will be eating papaya starting in November. Keep in mind that they are heavy feeders and like a lot of compost. The compost also helps the plants to not dry out. Papayas thrive in the tropics so your summer heat will not be a problem.

Papayas get a sizable root system so if you put them in a pot that is too small it will stunt the plant. The dropping leaves can be caused by letting the plant get too dry, too cold, or not enough sun from keeping it inside too long. Keep the plant that you have now in a large pot by itself.

As for variety, the plant you have now came from a grocery store fruit which may not grow true to seed. I tried that once and the fruit tasted terrible. It is best to get a named variety such as the Red Lady papaya that I described in an earlier post. Another advantage to the Red Lady is that it is a dwarf and all of the plants are self fertile. That means no male is required so you could grow just one plant if you wanted.

A friend gave me 2 papaya plants recently that are extra dwarf and grow easily in pots. If I get it to fruit and produce seeds next summer, I will post that I have seeds available to give away.

Hope that info helps. Good luck.

Christine

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lorax

Best of luck with that. Even in the tropics it's normally around 16-18 months from seed to mature fruit (and don't buy that garbaggio about picking them green and ripening them in paper, doing it that way makes the fruit taste like old gym socks. Tree ripening is a must.)

Benny - get a honking big pot and overwinter your papayas indoors with a banana pup or two - it helps the resistance to disease and mites and whatnot. Regular misting does wonders.

Want Them All

If I can get them to survive and become mature trees, I'll be very happy. This is my 1st attempt at papaya. Green papayas are great as a salad too.

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Dalmatiansoap

[quote=lorax;96873]Best of luck with that. Even in the tropics it's normally around 16-18 months from seed to mature fruit (and don't buy that garbaggio about picking them green and ripening them in paper, doing it that way makes the fruit taste like old gym socks. Tree ripening is a must.)QUOTE]

Thrue. I never taste "natural" ripe tropical fruit and I admit that what I have tasted is pretty bad or tasteless at all. Just would like to taste fully, natural ripen fruits and hope will do once. Wish me luck!

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supermario

Red Lady Papaya is a dwarf variety that fruits at about 3 feet tall. They are fast growing, but I don't think they will fruit within one year.

I had the above mentioned variety up until this summer. I purchased a small plant(about 1.5 ft. tall) at Home Depot for under $10. It was loaded with large fruit about 8 months later. So, I would guess from seed to fruit is about 16 months.

Insects usually got to the ripe fruit first.. but when they didn't, the fruit I harvested was watery and tasteless. I think the ants knew the good ones!

I decided to remove the papaya tree in order to make room for pitaya!

Caloosamusa

I have two different cultivars of Red Papaya, one is larger than a grapefruit, and roundish like a grapefruit. The other gets over 18 inches in length and is almost as large in width as a grapefruit. Both taste wonderful!! I have many small plants about two feet high I'll be planting soon and many new seedlings popping now of the long one's! They taste fantastic tree ripened!!

planetrj

Much of that info is right. Each cv is a little different. If you really want to grow a papaya looking plant (for the appearance and acceptable fruit), then I might recommend the "Toronché". If you want it specifically for fruit, then bear with it for the first couple years, unless you're in Z10. I lost even some of the hardiest tropical papayas in the 07 winter blast in SoCal. They are very tender the first 2 years, then the cuticle develops more on the trunk and foliage, and they have much better resistance to the cold. Again, this is subjective to just how hardy the cv is that you plan on growing. It's really helpful to know exactly the one that you plant before you plant it. Planting commercially grown fruit can be fun, but sometimes these become 'throwbacks' because the growing fields may have insects inducing cross-pollination, and then you end up with a fruit that looks completely different than the one that you ate. If you are going to go through all of the effort to grow a Papaya (and yes, they ARE effort), you may as well at least buy seeds from a reputable grower you can choose the hardiest variety for your area, and even a tastier one. There are so many that I could recommend that taste 150% better than the ones you can get in the store. Sunrise comes to mind as an awesome flavored, short time to ripen and compact growing specimen. Some of the Mexican (store) varieties need to grow to 10' tall before flowering, then you have an issue with winter storage and seed-to-fruit time.

Good luck with what you decide! 8)

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you will never have enough bananas ^_^

Want Them All

Well, at least with these seedlings that I have, I can experiment with them. Different locations around the yard, if they die, so what, much of the enjoyment I get from growing different non-native fruit trees is from watching them grow, and maintaining that growth for as long as possible. Sort of like a challenge to me. My current "challenge" is a jackfruit seedling that is now at 8", looking very healthy. Thanks for your advice. I'll check out your recommended papaya varieties.

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Want Them All

I'm about to put those sprouted seeds into a pot. Question is, what potting mix should I use? I have some Kellog Gro-Mulch-Compost that I mix 50/50 with native soil for planting other trees around the house. Is this mixture OK for the seedlings? Currently they're between 2 damp paper towels on a plate.

Thanks,

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musaboru

Have 3 year old papayas growing fine on the east side of the house, better protected. They do produce fruit, but the fruit are all stubby and never really get big.

supermario

You should be fine in terms of getting the tree to grow. They seem to do fine in any kind of soil.(down here at least)

lorax

Papayas here don't care about soil so much as water and sunlight levels. I have grown them to equal success in full sand and also full forest loam - so long as they are well-watered once they sprout and given plenty of sunlight, they'll do fine.

supermario

As mentioned previously, This has been my experience as well. I just wanted to point out that while growing the tree is not a problem, the taste of the fruit is rarely as good as the hawaiian varieties. Even then, I have yet to taste a papaya that I would deem worthy of growing for flavor alone. I grew a few plants just to grow them, but I find the fruit to be far too bland. I tried growing a tree from seeds of the best tasting papaya I've had('solo' I think)... with minimal results. Plant grows fine, fruit does not.

planetrj

I agree with Mario, but what I was essentially communicating, and might not have done an effective job at it, apologies. I also live in CA, and though the other more fortunate people here who are living in ideal climates for Papaya. Unfortunately, as our Cali weather isn't even near to what they get, we deal with dry cold winter air with the combination of rain in the dead of winter, which for Papayas, cold and rain don't make a happy plant. I agree about Solo, but for some reason, they too suffer greatly in the hardest part of winter, and also the dry hot spring days we get, where there's no humidity in the air. However, I've bought Solo as a 3 gallon at Lowe's, and it did fine till about mid-December, where I wish I would have changed over the soil to 50% Sand and 50% Perlite, because they completely mushed at the soil like an overwatered Plumeria. It was a mess, and I was left with a 5 foot tall "pudding stick". lol What I might recommend is making a cutom mix for the Papayas, instead of pre-bagged. Maybe something like 1/3 Cactus Mix, 1/3 Sand, and 1/3 Perlite. This should help it drain quickly yet provide the softer soil combination that allows their roots to venture. Also, young seedlings have a tendency to dampen off, so I'd keep out too much organic material and rely on something that drains pretty quick.

I hope that bit of sideways advice will help, knowing it came from a fellow Californian who has similar weather through the worst of times.

BTW - I have 3 Papaya trees that are 9 feet tall right now, and I just had a problem where a mouse was crawling up the stalk and eating off all of the foliage. Not pretty.

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you will never have enough bananas ^_^

sunfish

I had the same thing happen to me with Papaya I bought from Lowes. It was doing great until around Dec. ,loaded with fruit, and then it turned to mush. If they are planted in containers I read the trick is to cover the soil with cardboard or plastic to shed the water. Anything to keep the rain out. And if it's planted inground on a mound that should work also.

Want Them All

Tony,

How big of a container do you think is needed for the papaya tree in your picture?

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lorax

Ok, for those of you who are pining for the flavour of the Hawaiian papayas and want a slightly hardier version, I have seeds available for Sunrise Round, which is a smallish (not dwarf by any stretch of the imagination) plant that bears round, red-fleshed fruits with a flavour similar to the Hawaiians. It's an Ecuadorean heirloom variety, and is specially adapted to cooler conditions....