Hi all, i have been trying to grow papaya trees for the past few years and had some success in 2015. To date, i do have approximately 15 of them in all shapes and sizes...some of which already produced fruits for the first time (i haven't had tasted them yet). I am crossing my fingers that the they will last through this winter. If they do, i am bound to taste some delicious home grown papayas next year.

Looking at the ones that has fruited, i noticed that I may have 3 different varieties. based on the pics below, can anyone help me identify them? Thanks a bunch!

that is really hard to do.

a couple of reasons...

Roundish fruit "could" mean a female tree

longer fruit could mean a bi-sex tree.

Some males are known to produce fruit (normally skinny)

but,, i have a maradol (mexican) and an asian (torpedo shape), and they look very similar. - even if you leave sex out of it...

if that doesnt make it hard enough, some papaya, like maradols, can produce either.. male... female... bi-sex... male tree with female flowers, female with male flowers, a bi-sex tree with male, female, AND bi-sex flowers etc... etc... there are at least 7 types of flowers (some say 11)

one more monkey-wrench... trees from seed do not always look exactly like the parent.

They right now look like Maridols. If you are in California and planted the seeds from store bought fruits,its only Maridol or Hawaiin Solo's...although I was told that Trader Joe's sell's 'Red Carribbean'. That seems to be more oblong.

Thanks greenman and stanofh.

I am in Socal...LA to be exact. I did not keep track of the seeds I kept and planted. All of the seeds either came from store or from the neighbor. Most likely these are Maridols. My neighbor has the dwarf variety from Taiwanese...perhaps a Taiwanese Maridol? From the store, i remembered buying 3 different types...mexican, hawaiian, and another that the fruit is similar to hawaiian/brazil type (dont recall the name of it). Anyways, i would be happy if the trees can last through this El Nino season and have fruits next year. any pics of your papaya trees? I will post more pics as things developed.

I was told by a friend in San Diego that Maridols are slow growers.. Solo Hawaiian Papayas are much faster and more tender to cold. They can go seed to fruiting in a little over a year.

I have a few Maridols that are almost through their 2nd winter outdoors. Not a blemish even on near freezing temps- cold enough to burn half of my Ice Cream banana leafs.

BUT!..those Maridols despite being started from seed by me three winters ago..are only about 3' tall. Still,in soucal they eventually become tree's. I've seen photos of 20' Maridols with huge fruit around the San Diego area.