I don't know if this is related to the non-flowering issue, but those pots seem WAY too small for the papayas.

I did some looking around the internet, and found that there are 3 kinds of papaya trees - male, female, and hermaphrodite. Having only male or only female means no fruit. Since from what I read, they should be bearing by this age, you must have only male or only female. Also, they are heavy feeders, need a lot of water (without overwatering, as they are prone to root rot), and yes, they do need bigger pots. So, go get yourself some big pots, and some more papaya seeds to plant. One website said that if you plant 3 papaya seeds, you have a 96% chance of getting a hermaphrodite plant, which should flower and bear all on its own. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. I've done extensive online reading about the plants of the years, and know about the different genders. But that's just the thing: the way one can discern which plants are male, female and bisexual are from the flowers (shape, primarily). Those grow and blossom on their lonesome, regardless of opposite gender plants being near (or they're supposed to, anyway; mine seem exceptional in that manner...) So even if I've got a boy's club of two, they ought to be budding now and again, even in reproductive futility.

The mystery widens in noting I initially had an additional half dozen plants thriving in pots until I got too zealous with watering during the winter months and -- as you rightly note -- provoked their demise by root rot. My point in mentioning that is that none of those plants flowered, despite a few having gotten past sapling age into adolescence. And -- even if gender were a limitation to flowering (which it isn't, but let's just pretend) -- odds are more than high that one of those other plants would have been female or hermaphrodite and blossomed. But no go.

So I'm really stumped. Either I've done something crazy that made them all incapable of flowering; I sprouted the seeds from some genetically modified variety that doesn't blossom (never heard of that, though); or am not finding papaya growers out there who have discovered some plants simply never bud. I guess that could be, yet in the lack of any supporting evidence, I remain flummoxed.

Oh, and per your urging, I'll replant in larger pots after this winter. I was on my list of things to do, but your reminder will help me from letting that slip.

Do you know anyone who has had luck in growing papayas in the non-tropics? Could it be as simple as it's just not hot and humid enough?