My friend has an immature papaya growing (one 1/2 meters tall), no flowers/fruit yet, but now has small seedlings coming up around it. He's wondering if they sucker, I thing a squirral dragged another fruit nearby with seeds inside. Any ideas?
even though papaya seeds are as a rule not viable for very long i have had seeds sprout up to one year later that where from a fruit i threw in a compost pile when the pile got down some and i turned it they sprouted so if he had placed more than one seed in the planting hole they may have just taken there time to sprout.it could also have been that a bird or squirrel used the spot as a potty spot and they sprouted
You will often find that Papaya growing from the seeds out of the fruit without exactly flowering as such will produce a type of feathery tip which contains hundreds of tiney seeds smaller than mustard seeds. These in turn grow everywhere like weeds. My Garden is full of them and the green house where i grow the ones I don't want to lose in the winter. Next time you look at the plant examine the top of it, and shake it into your hand you will find lots of tiny seeds. They can also lie dormant during the winter and then come up in spring and summer as happens here in the UK. Nath
