Papaya tree

[Urban Rainforest]

I have this 15 foot tall Papaya that looks as healthy as any I've seen in Hawaii! The thing just went nuts this year but I'm wondering are they like other trees that live long lives or do they reach a certain size and start to decline? They for some reason to me don't seem like they would live a long life( ie 20 years or more). I know as it gets taller it's getting harder to pic the fruit which taste incredible. Any help appreciated. Thanks, Steve

[Urban Rainforest]

Close up of the fruit. The things loaded!

[amazondk]

Steve,

I look at them more as a vegetable than a tree.  They can live for quite a few years, but they get too high to pick the fruit easy and it is easier to just grow new ones.  They sprout up here all over the place, either planted or just were the seeds get dropped.  A lot of them are farmed as well.  I don't see the production plants getting maybe over 10 feet tall or so before they are replaced.

dk

[spockvr6]

Steve-

My papayas are also now loaded with fruit.  Yours look similar to mine that started as seeds in April/May 2005!  These trees grow very very quickly.  With lots of water and fertilzier, they also get very fat trunks and as such make respectable landscape accent plants.

And, assuming yours are the varieties mine are (which is unknown to me), then those fruit are going to get a alot larger in the next few weeks  

I do not like the taste of the fruit, but my neighbors do, so suffice it to say that they probably about to get sick of it

Ive heard that, when it comes to fruit production/quality, that the trees are best cut down after 2-3 years.

[AS in SA]

A bit off topic, but I recently purchased a triple potted carica papaya, all three about a foot tall.  Can I separate these??  Just wondering if anyone had tried or knew if papayas would stand having their roots disturbed.  Thanks.

[spockvr6]

Separate away AS.

All of my trees started as seeds thrown (literally) into the same pot.  I separated them as they got larger.

[Kathy]

I remember reading somewhere that Papaya's aren't actually classified as trees but as giant herbs?  And that they do have a limited lifespan?.....Someone will probably know better, but that's what's in my memory about it...

[Kathy]

Steve, BTW, that's a beaut!  Wish I could do that here.

[bgl]

I have no idea what the lifespan is, so can't help there. Here in the Puna district of the Big Island there are large areas that are covered by Papaya plants. And once they get up to about 15 ft or so, they cut them down and start from scratch. I have always assumed that they do this because it's just too difficult to harvest the fruit when the plants get that tall.

[ron@springhammock]

If they're cut back they will tend to sprout new stems along what is left of the old central stem forming a bush.  Typically, these bushes can't support much fruit production, but I've seen some well loaded.

Papaya plants are tough to transplant, so I would be very careful about dividing them.  If they're small, you'll probably be OK with lots of tlc. If they're big and the roots are crowded, it will be iffy.

I can't remember keeping them around much past five years; about the same as keeping a pepper plant.

[spockvr6]

(ron@springhammock @ Dec. 08 2006,17:39)

QUOTE

Papaya plants are tough to transplant, so I would be very careful about dividing them.  If they're small, you'll probably be OK with lots of tlc. If they're big and the roots are crowded, it will be iffy.

Yes...make sure they are small (before they have developed stiff stems if possible) when you divide them.

But beware......a few seeds of this plant can take over ones yard!  I ripped out half of mine before they were even a year old!

[AS in SA]

thanks for the info everyone.  These guys are still pretty small - trunks are all green and soft.  Should I wait until spring to plant them - or can they handle a socal (zone 10a) winter?  How do these compare - growth wise - to bananas... faster, slower, the same??  thanks again...

[spockvr6]

I cant help with the SoCal winter part....but as for speed....whoa!  

These things are FAST.  Mine went from seeds in April/May 2005 to 10 ft woody trunked trees by late fall of that same year.  They are now heavily bearing fruit (thank goodness my neighbors like papaya fruit) and added about 4-5 ft more trunk this year.

[Carlo Morici]

Here, papayeros are replaced every 2-4 years in commercial plantations.

Home owners chop them down when they get too tall and fruits too small and make them sprout back from the base. If they are left on their own they become branched trees well above 10 m tall and they die after 20-30 years, due to a windstorm or a fungus, or a... whatever.... There are quite a few here left as ornamentals by the old houses in the city.

Papayas (and bananas!) are the perfect plants to start a palm garden. It is fast and beautiful, provides shade for the seedlings, fruits for the gardener and winterstorms reduce their crowns just enough to allow some extra sunlight in the coldest months.

While your "Dypsis slowissima" are starting to form their heels you can wait in the shade of papayeros... eating papayas.

Carlo, Tenerife

[epicure3]

Papayas, at least the solo variety, last about 5 years then need to be replaced. I gott atell ya, that is one mice plant Steve. My 3 don't look nearly as good as that thought my fruit looks to be a little largr at this point. Yours is niiiice.

[ruskinPalms]

Papayas are instant jungle. These things grow wicked fast in one summer which makes them appropriate to use in colder areas as very cool looking tropical annuals.

This first photo was taken July 10, 2006:

And December 13, 2006:

If they kept this type of growth rate for 10 or 20 years then they would take over the entire yard!

[DoomsDave]

Don't know how long they live, but I do know they croak fast if they're given soggy soil in our winters.  They rot like blighted potatoes, ICK!

dave

[paulgila]

ruskin i am SO jealous!i can't find a spot in my yard where they will grow

[Bilbo]

Steve

are these not regarded as a weed over there???

I am well aware that very many of the plants we would love to grow over here are notifiable weeds in the tropics!

Ipomea, Psidium and Passiflora for starters.

Cest la vie - thats life!

I have a nice little seed raised Psidium catt against a West wall.

Its growing slowly but real well over here on a West wall.

Regardez

Juan

[Walt]

I've always wondered myself how long a papaya would live, as I spotted this 20+ footer here in Lake Placid, Florida. The main trunk near ground level was huge, then it branched off up along the trunk. The mobile home roof and 10 feet high basket ball rim can be used for scale.

Best viewed full size for detail:

waltcat100

[spockvr6]

Oh my Walt!

That is the largest I have ever seen.  I am going to let a few of my trees (now about 20 months old) grow as long as possible to see how big they get just for fun.  A few of mine seem to have some good genes as they are developing fat trunks (the biggest is over a foot wide)....nowhere near the size of the one pictured in your photo!

Ive got one of mine that has also branched off.  I believe it is trauma to the growth point which causes this?  I think this one of mine got nipped by cold (I saw some leaf damage of the most tender top growth last February) and a few months later the competing leaders developed.

[Walt]

Larry,

Your papayas have grown big time. I think it's the variety and/or genes that has allowed them to grow so big so fast.

Walt

[spockvr6]

(Walt @ Dec. 18 2006,22:33)

QUOTE

Larry,

Your papayas have grown big time. I think it's the variety and/or genes that has allowed them to grow so big so fast.

Walt

I wish I knew what variety they are (other than "Papaya carica var. Publix".....LOL).

If one of mine gets to the size of the one in your photo, I will be ecstatic.  That thing is ridiculous.  I guess one has to wait for those fruit to fall if they wish to eat them!

[Walt]

Larry,

I could care less about the fruit. Iwould love to have a plant the size of the one in my photo just because it is awesome. A papaya of that size would be a great addition to my palm and tropicals garden.

[Alicehunter2000]

What variety taste best? The ones I have tasted had a kind of a "nasty" smell/taste. Are there varieties that taste better? Are they easy to grow from seed? What is the process for growing?

Thanks,

David

[amazondk]

I have an interesting story about papayas from here.  A few years ago I took a co-worker from Miami to see a friend of mine´s heliconia farm.  The guy is the pioneer in tropical flower arrangements in Brazil.  He is a very unique fellow in his 60´s.  He and his partner make up one of the best known gay couples in Manaus.  They do all kinds of high end events with indoor landscaping and the works.  We were walking around his place looking at his plants when my co-worker friend noticed a few papaya plants, one of which was a stringy flowered male,  and asked him a technical question.  The question was - " My Cuban neighboor in Miami Springs said that if you stick a nail in a male papaya plant they turn female"  My friend looked at him and answered him to great amusement - " Have you ever seen a male that got a nail stuck in him not turn female".  My friend was a very redneck type, we all laughed a lot at the scene.  My friend is quite a character and runs the garden during the day drinking cold beer for refreshment.  He has an incredible collection of heliconia and alpinias on a 200 hectare farm, about 5 hectares are in plants.

dk