They might add some Eloise. In that same row my Ice Cream banana's top leafs were singed. When you read of papaya's from seed to fruit in less ten a year? that's impossible in the bay area with Maridols.

That's great! I don't believe I've ever tasted a Maridols. Are they good?

Maridols are the big Mexican Papaya's that look like melons. I have a hard time seeing mine ever holding a 10 pound papaya on it. Let alone sweet ripe. This is just a trial - I'm surprised Eloise I got this far.

Well perhaps I have eaten some when I bought a piece of papaya. Know what you mean; I'm playing with the idea of trying to grow a Jackfruit :-) Just got some seeds from a piece of fruit I got at a store. If they sprout, I probably won't see fruit in my lifetime, but thought it would be exciting to grow anyway. We'll see. Meanwhile, my babaco papaya still has about 4 fruit holding on, but they haven't gotten any bigger since it got so cold.

Thats good results with Babaco. When I had mine- they never really matured right as winter storms would knock the bigger fruit off.

Remember- you don't eat them like tropical Papaya...Babaco usually are cooked with some sugar.

No wonder the babaco fruit I got from a member of my CRFG group wasn't that tasty. Still I ate it with lemon juice because I didn't have lime juice. He brought cuttings to our group, and these two took and are about 3 ft. tall. Babaco with 5 papayas, and the other plant is mountain papaya. Have no clue what the fruit of mountain papaya taste like.

I never tried Mountain Papaya Eloise. I do remember that the SF (then strybing) botanical garden had a big one at the entrance. Multibranched,thick trunk and roots,sandpaper like leaves. They aren't very long lived like a normal tree or shrub I read 10 years? My Babaco was around the ten year mark..still doing fine. I moved it,it died months later.

papaya need a LOT of sun and heat to grow and fruit. often without it, they will just not grow.

there are several varieties... some are dwarf.

i have one that hasnt gotten over 3ft tall and has 2 fruit on it. i am just hoping we dont get a hard freeze this year...

this one is only 3ft tall, hard to see the fruit, but it has 2.

-----------------------------

this one is next to my house (south side) gets a lot of sun, and the warmth of the house protected it last winter (it hit 26F)... the top died off, but it came back and produced leaves and fruit... it took a few months, the first ripe fruit i had was in September

i tried seeds for Mountain papaya 3 times... i think they were old every time.

i could use some fresh seed if anyone has some.

-----------------

FYI...

Vasconcellea pubescens is one of the parents of the 'Babaco' papaya, a hybridcultivar widely grown for fruit production in South America

Mountain_papaya / Vasconcellea pubescens

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mountain_papaya

better angle, you can see the fruit.

At least your getting adult foliage along with the fruit. Mine..still has small leaves. Like a Bonsai Papaya. I cant complain too much. My plant is almost 3 years older then any other papaya plant I raised.

once it gets a little taller, it might start getting more sun ?

they grow directly proportional to the amount of sun they get.

i had one in a 3gal container for 2+ years, and as soon as i put it in ground in a sunny spot, it took off... it doubled in size in 3 months.

i would probably try to chop back any plants in the way.