congrats, that is a very exciting accomplishment, pictures would be great to see. I've tried papayas here but have killed them all. After reading your story, it makes me want to try again.

-Ethan

Nice job!!! Makes me ashame I can't get mine going in a zone 10. =)

Wow, I love stories with a happy ending. Oddly, the reason people aren't successful in planting papayas in the warmer zones might be mainly due to their having to fight an enemy that you don't have--those nasty papaya fruit flies? Whereas the challenge you're facing seem to be around keeping your plant alive over winter which proves to be the lesser enemy of the two. So, afterall people in the colder regions do have this privilege that we don't have here. I am done with planting papayas after a few try outs because those papaya creeps simply won't let up.

Thanks for sharing your Papayarella dreams come true :)

I am new to this, how do I know what zone I am in ?

Live in Miami, FL?

Here are some photos of the papaya plant:

The plant, after the winter ended-note how lush, full, and healthy it looks:

The fruit, as it was ripening:

The fruit, in all it's asymetric glory:

The plant, this morning: Fruits are barely visible on left side of trunk,among the leaves.

and dr. Scifi, here's a site to help find your zone...Miami is in 10b.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-ne1.html

That is a GREAT looking papaya...I'm sure you enjoyed it!Thanks for posting the great pics!!

Bananafan, I am so lucky I don't have those papaya fruit flies you are talking about. I have seen posts on the FL forum about them...they sound really disgusting. I have had my Papaya trees for almost 2 years now, so far I have gotten 10-12 papayas and I have about 15 fruits right now developing. So far all the fruits I have picked have been bug free and hope it stays that way. I live 2 hours south of Orlando, in highlands county...thanks for mentioning it, I will have to keep my eye out for them...

how do you know its a hermaphrodite

One lesson here is that he didnt fruit a dwarf Papaya..in fact,it's the giant Maridol. I have had Maridol flower at 3' in a warm greenhouse.Just didnt get lucky to be self fertile.So,dont blame you dont have some Cambodium dwarf carica available to only Indiana Jones. It can be done with the local piggly wiggly mart produce.

This is indeed a great news for me. I will try to grow papaya in Atlanta GA. Lot of people on the internet are talking about cancer healing properties that Papaya (leaves and fruits) have. They make tea from papaya leaves.

How do you know which seeding is hermaphrodite?

Papaya itself is very healthy.
it is grat for stomach problems, and breaks down proteins. it has the most powerful enzymes of any fruit, and the seeds fight cancer.

I had 7 mature trees last year.
Normally here in New Orleans area, we dont get hard feezes, but this last year we had 3.
i built a greenhouse, but these were in the ground.
i lost them all.

I have several growing now
(about 30) most are seedlings, but 5-6 of them are 2-3 ft tall
i have one TR Hovey (dwarf) which is 4ft
so it should produce fruit soon.

I dont really understand why people dont grow them more,
they grow fast and taste great.
fairly easy to grow.
ive never had any problem with pests at all...

Yo can buy seeds for dwarf plants on Ebay, several places sell them as well...

University of Hawaii has dwarf seeds for $1

Waimanalo Papaya (X-77) is a yellow flesh solo papaya, which bears low to the ground initially. It is larger than Sunrise weighing 22-32 ounces.
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed/seeds.asp

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Hawaii Papaya seeds

I love papaya! I really want to try going some now.

Greenman62 sorry to hear you lost all of yours last year, that's rough.

thanks
"How do you know which seeding is hermaphrodite?"

the flowers are fat, which means a female.
skinny and on a stem are male.
papaya propagation is interesting, and pretty complex...

usually thee is a percentage of male/femal/herm ratio
that percent is different , depending on variety, and if its a female or herm fruit.
if you keep reseeding herms, you will get majority herms.
but, its also variety dependant.

90% of the plants i have grown have been herms

you can also change the sex by putting a nail in the tree, or stressing it in another way.
one of mine changed from F to Herm when i cut the top off...

Here is a link that might be useful: UH papaya sex ID

Thanks for the info.

This post was edited by veggie_girl on Fri, May 16, 14 at 15:02

you just missed the best part of papaya- the leaves...see this!

Hi. My 7 yr old daughter decided she wanted to plant papaya seeds from one we bought at the store. We planted them in a cut open orage juice container

(think large minute maid) and after 3 weeks we didn't see any sprouts. The container was in full sunlight but I hadn't put any holes for the water to drain......I figured the seeds had rotted and dumped the planting soil out.......put as I was going to mix it with dry soil for a different seedling....I noticed that alot of the papaya seeds had barely started growing out tiny white roots. I picked through the dirt and had quite a handful of the barely sprouting seeds. I made plenty of drain holes and replanted them with about 1/4 planting soil on top. I also watered the soil since it had dried out. I live in zone 6a Carson City, NV. We live in an apartment on the ground floor.....our "backyard" is cement covered........I read how you grew yours but don't understand the soil terms you used. If you don't mind, could you explain the soil you used in terms a completely new gardener, me, would understand.....please? How big of a clay planter pot does it need? And, well, the weather here reaches 112° during the summer, but during the winter it snows, sometimes quite heavily....last year in Oct it got down to 3°. The soil I have it in now is Sta-Green Flower and Vegetable garden soil plus fertilizer only. I didn't mix it with dirt. I have been watering it every other morning. Should I leave it in direct sunlight or bring it under the deck from the apt above? The wood from the deck is spaced about an inch apart so some sunlight does filter down, but only until around 3pm....then the sun is past and it is shaded.

BTW....my name is Cristina.

Email is jcje98116@gmail.com if you would like to email me directly.

Thank you so much for your time. I hope you can give me some pointers. I really don't want to let my daughter down.

Sincerely

Cristina J.