Papaya

Jungle room indeed. I wish my palms looked half as good as those. Great pictures by the way.
Andi

It's early yet,I hope they look that good come spring!!

Hi Tropicman!~ Welcome to the forum! Great pics!! I was drooling and then I noticed you are neighbor to the North West.. I'm SE corner of KS.. when I go to "The Big City" I go stomp around Wichita... hr to 2 hrs depending on who is driving.. LOL
Every time I'm up that way I never get to stop at the tropical store there on the highway.. Frustrating.. most of the time I'm up that way is running errands for others..
Hubby and I have spent a few anniversaries kicking around town but we always make it too late to do much.. The Shamrock pub usually sees us though (I found it on a wrong turn once).. LOL
If you try papaya again let me know.
If you are interested in exchanging some citrus budwood let me know..
I don't have much else that is fruiting age..
Wouldn't happen to have an Avocado you'd like to get rid of would you?? My oldest son is looking for an avocado to give his girlfriends mom..
Nice to see a "local".
Gina *BabyBlue*

Hi Gina,
Well I hope you can come visit next time your in town.
I visited Nature's Way yesterday,sadly to say they didn't have much at all,and what they had look as if it had been thru some cold temps.
Couple years back,I grew a blood orange,and was able to get one fruit from it,the best tasting orange I'd ever ate!!!
But sadly I lost it over the next winter.
I have growm nany avacodoes,but haven't lately.
At the present I'm growing a red grape (outside),and a couple pineapples,one just recently fruited and tasted great!
In the 60's I grew up in Haysville,south of Wichita,and worked year round for a lot of the peach orchards,we were know as the peach capital of the world,they kept me busy doing everything from planting, harvesting,pruining,every facet of caring and growing peaches,pears,apples,cherries etc.Now none of those orchards even exsist,no one seems to can or freeze fresh fruit anymore,so now those orchards are housing communities.Progress!!! Sad at best sometimes!!!
I grew a mango from seed last year,reached over 4ft tall,then died,almost like over nite,have know idea,what happened.
I have a key lime seedling,I got in a trade last summer,and it has not even grown at all,it has a stand of leaves on it,I have it right next to some palm seedlings that have doubled in size,I treat it the same as I do them,and nothing,I'm lost!I can't figure out why it doesn't grow!
I too grow many banana plants,and even had a few to produce fruit,but sadly I had a heart attack and was in the hospital and a freeze took them before I got the chance to harvest them. They were black bananas time I got home from the hospital.
Next time your in town look me up for the grand tour!!!LOL
Don

Aloha Seed is actually in California but they do have a Hawaiian sounding name.

Papaya plants do need a male and female plant to make fruit. The flowers on the male plants are on long spiky stems and the flowers on the female plants are short and plump and near the stem.

There are a bunch of different papaya plants, too. Most of the commercial ones seem to be the smaller pear shaped ones. Those are tasty if they are ripe, but if they aren't ripe, they are nasty. There are also some other papayas that have huge fruits about the size of a football, but those plants aren't as common.

A ripe papaya should have at least some yellow spots on it if it isn't almost entirely yellow. The meat should scoop easily with a spoon. If it is almost entirely green or the meat is hard to scoop, then it isn't ripe and shouldn't be eaten as a dessert fruit, although there are some chutneys and other recipes which call for green papaya.

If you get a ripe papaya, they are tasty with just a spritz of lemon juice on them.

Hotzcatz,,Your posting was great..Thank You so very much for sharing this informatiom with us

Hotzcatz, is correct that Papaya's are sexual plants, in that there are male trees and female trees. However, approximately 66 percent of papaya seed produce hermaphrodite plants. Hermaphrodite Papaya's produce complete flowers containing both the male and female parts. Hermaphrodite (bisexual) Papaya's do not require cross pollination to produce fruit. A female Papaya must be pollinated either by a male tree or a hermaphrodite tree. Usually male trees are discarded, that is unless you only have one female Papaya.

Variety and ripeness when picked are both important for papayas. I never much appreciated papaya taste, but had a caribbean red, which was somewhat good. A year ago had 'solo' which was excellent. I now have 3 solo's with fruit on. If we don't have a freeze, and papaya flies don't inject eggs, I'll see what happens. Solo's produce fruit without male and female flowers being on separate plants.

Gary