You have to look up the nutritional value in the fruit. The nutrients content level in the fruit must be in the soil.

The organic fertilizer might be missing some nutrients.

I think I should have asked "in addition to potting soil" what FERTILIZER to use? I have not heard of Vitamins listed on soil amendments.

Thanks figsinhawaii! Great link! I do have their main requirement. Well drained soil! We chose their planting locations today, and plan to dig in some good potting soil. That link has a lot of great info! Can't wait to get the seeds planted and watch them grow!

I know, I'm excited for you! I'm always so happy when people discover that papaya *can* taste good. These little solos are sweet and I can't wait for your updates!

I've seen some huge Papaya plants in soucal, Great 20' landscape sepcians to boot.

But ,I see also many photos of Yellowish leafed plants. I tossed some cheap vigoro on my bay area plant..it turned dark green. But,I know that those aren't really as good as good organic ferts or liquid manures. With those,you get happy earthworms and soil bacteria.

I have had a lot of papaya here in So. Fla. and my sandy loamy "soil" is fine for them. Any fruit fertilizer with minor elements like palm or avo fert will be fine.

The best advice I can give you is TOO MUCH WATER WILL KILL THEM!!

Seriously they do not like wet feet at all

Honestly, I grow them in our sandy rubbishy soil here in Florida with just a bit of water soluble miracle grow every 3 or 4 weeks. They over-produce on fruit as well. In California, I think these will be very low maintenance for you. I don't think you can really hurt them -- like a big weed. The flowers smell great too.

Well, today is my birthday and we planted our seeds. Since we have 2 varieties (Solo Sunrise and Solo Waimanalo Low Bearing), we made 4 planting plots and put 10 seeds per variety in two plots each. Hopefully, after we cull out the weak ones, there will be at least one self pollinating survivor for each variety. I hope to eat fresh papaya next year on my birthday!

@Chobrego, I hope you are right! I'll give them miracle grow on your schedule. Thanks!

ive seen tons of them grow wild all over the caribbean, Fla, central America etc...

Unless fairies and trolls come and fertilize them at night, they produce fruit without any ferts at all.

i MUCH rather use organics in the soil like compost, aged coffee grounds etc... than use any chemicals on them. THey are herbaceous, not woody, and respond differently to chemicals than something like mango.

my favorite thing to do lately is add compost worms and coffee grounds over the soil, then some newspaper, then a heavy mulch layer.

if you have really good draining soil that should work very well.

Belated Happy Birthday Suzi. Turning 30 must be fun!

Suzi, how many did you get and how many germinated? It sounds like you got 40?

Some store bought varieties like solo had poor germination while some like the TR Hovey seeds had a high (~50%) germination rate.

Fyi, I buy grass plugs for my lawn in large sectioned trays and they make great seed starter pots.

Thank you stanofh! It was a good birthday!

gnappi, I got way more than 40. Saving a bunch for backup. It takes a couple weeks for them to germinate, so around the 15th, I'm hoping. It's perfect weather now. Fingers crossed.

Update: It's been 16 days since the seeds went in ground. Out of the 40 planted, so far 3 have germinated and look healthy. I just searched the web and found that it can take up to 5 weeks for them to germinate. Wow! PATIENCE!

When the seeds are fresh (not dry) they germinate fairly fast, but once they dry out they take a lot longer. I don't know how long they remain viable for, fresh is always better. The best fertiliser for them is poultry manure, aged of course.

Thanks tropicbreezent! I had no choice but to order my seeds from the Univ of Hawaii because they had the varieties I wanted. Our stores locally only carry Mexican Papayas which aren't the sweetest, so fresh seeds aren't an option.

If I only get 3 plants from this bunch, it's ok! I still have seeds and can try again. I may try soaking a few in warm water to give them a kick-start. But, for the cost of shipping, the University of Hawaii seeds are a great deal! I've got patience! .... Sort of :-)

"When the seeds are fresh (not dry) they germinate fairly fast, but once they dry out they take a lot longer."

- very true.

fresh seeds have a high germ rate, and germinate pretty fast, although sometimes i see them come up in compost months or even a year later.. i have dozens of little plants popping up all over my yard from compost.

When using fresh seeds, I saw a site recommend that you pull off the slime coat to speed up germination. I tried that with about a dozen seeds and after about a week, three have started to come up. Fingers crossed for the rest of them.

ive tried both. leaving the skin/coat on and taking it off.

and while they might germinate a tad faster removing it, i think they actually do serve a purpose. i think that covering has fatty acids which promote good fungi. the covering also keeps moisture in, stopping the seed from frying out and keeping moisture at an even level.

this "even level" is critical for certain types of fungi...

this is my speculation and i could be wrong, but i did see one report that showed seedlings grown out with the coating left on to be healthier in the long run.

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Papaya seeds collected from unripe fruits were submitted to various treatments. They were desiccated in the sun or in the shade. A lot of seeds was deprived of sclerotesta. Germination increased in seeds desiccated in the shade and treated with gibberellic acid, while average time of germination decreased with the increase of the desiccation time in the seeds deprived of sclerotesta and treated with GA3.

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washing the seed does obviously help...

http://www.arpnjournals.com/jabs/research_papers/rp_2008/jabs_0108_64.pdf