What is the best way to grow Papaya trees from seeds, Being from Mexico my wife and I often buy the large Papayas that the local Pak Foods stores sell as they remind us of home. I would like to try my hand at Papaya trees and there is plenty of room in our conservatory which has a microclimate akin to the Yucatan Jungle especially during a hot british Summer. I have tried letting the seeds dry out first and then plant them but with no results so far, can i plant them from fresh, do I dry them out first and then soak them or how can I get them to shoot? Any advice would be most welcome. Nath
Hi Nath, I realized that I could grow Papaya trees after I threw away Papaya remains (skin and seeds) while we were having raccoon in our garbage cans problems. The trees started sprouting all over, and it took me a while to figure out what they were. Once I did, I thought it would be beneficial to have our own source of free fresh Papaya, so I started tossing the seeds in the area where I wanted them to grow, and I have a nice cluster of Papaya trees about as tall as I am growing there now.
I need to add that I can't say for sure if the Papaya plants that grew were the seeds I tossed, or seeds that had passed through the digestive tract of the raccoons....
Hi, I am not sure of the best way, but here in Detroit I have been able to propagate papaya plants from planting seeds in soil. However, these are decorative plants and live in pots in the sun room, they, will most likely, will not make it to be over a few feet tall.
The following pictures are of a Highland Papaya (more cold-tolerant species from the Andes). These are easier in colder climates and the fruits are supposedly good (any first hand experience out there? I obtained it as Carica quercifolia - however, I don't think it is this species (anyone know which one?). It doesn't seem to be self-fertile though - is this also true of ordinary Papaya? I don't have two plants and therefore tried to cross with another species that I have, Carica goudotiana. This resulted in a small fruit! However, I unfortunately managed to knock the fruit off while moving the plant inside for the winter (I was cursing as I'd waited 5 years for the happy event...). I have my Caricas outside in the summer (which are cool with an average of 16C) and they flower practically all summer... I've germinated ordinary papaya from the supermarket, but I haven't managed to keep them alive for long...
Thanks for all of the replies, if I can get them to grow they will be living in the conservatory where its hot and gets lots of sun, luckily it also has a very high roof space especially in the apex. I have been told that one needs to get rid of the slimy coating off the seeds before planting, not sure if anyone has tried that method, it seems like just chucking them out onto a patch of soil works just as well, so i will have to keep persevering and see what happens. i have a plentiful supply of seeds to experiment with in any case so hopefully one of these days i'll come up with a method that works. When i do, i'll post it here on the forum. Nath
Stevil - re: Highland Papayas I've eaten them, in comparison with lowland papayas, and I'd have to say the flavour is almost superior, so long as the fruit is allowed to mature on-tree. Anything picked before ripeness, whether it's true papaya or highland, tastes like old shoes to me. Only Carica papaya is now recognised in Carica; the rest of them have been moved to Vasconcella. Highland papayas are Vasconcella cundanimarcensis. Both types reproduce sexually; there are male and female trees. Cross-pollination between species happens frequently in the wild, and while commercial papaya growers tend to select for the female trees, which are the ones to produce fruit, they will always ensure that at least three of the trees on their plantations are male. From your photos, you have a female tree, and that's half the battle. I'm astounded to see you're growing them in Norway! Very cool. All of this is in stark contrast to the Papaya's fizzy relative, the Babaco (Carica pentagona or Vasconcella x heilbornii) which reproduces parthenogenetically. Generally, this one is propagated by cutting only; however Babaco doesn't seem to really make it out of South America, where it's an extremely popular juice fruit and can be used to make mock-apple pies. I bring this up, because Babaco is a hybrid fruit based on the V. cundanimarcensis mother plant; if the flesh of your singular fruit tastes slightly effervescent, you've managed to create a Babaco through cross-pollination.... Certainly the shape of the fruit is correct, although typically Babaco are more elongated. Nath - for optimal sprouting, ret (allow to ferment) the seeds a bit until the coating comes off when you rub it. You can just plant them with the coating on, but this increases your chances of damping off. Down here seeds are retted by putting them in a plastic tub with some water, lidding it, then putting that out in the sun for a couple of days. You could probably do it on your counter in about a week. Missa - some of the best, and largest (over 5 lbs!) papayas here come from trees no taller than 4 feet; this makes it easier to pick them, and eliminates bruising in case of fruit drop. There are 10 foot papaya trees here, but they're regarded as extremely inconvenient, since you need a ladder to get the fruits. Farmers tend to chop them off about 5 feet down from the tops, and replant the slip at the more convenient height.
Lorax, Thanks for this. Does this mean that I don't clean the goo off the seeds and dry them off before planting, that its best to soak it off. Also in some of the research i have been doing it has been suggested that you choose the darkest seeds to plant as these are matured and ready for planting. Do you agree with that or will any of the seeds do? I am astounded at how fast they are supposed to grow, it seems they really take off! I guess I will find out for my self when I finally get some to sprout. Knowing that they are growing in Norway makes me feel a whole lot better about the project too. How many years do they take before they fruit? i did find this link on the net, a wee bit odd but informative none the less. http://www.all-creatures.org/pics/papaya.html Nath
I'd select for the darker seeds, because you've got the best chance with them of getting a seedling. However, if you don't want to spend a whole lot of time sorting gooey papaya seeds, just use them all. The underripe ones will simply decompose and provide nourishment for the ones that do sprout. With regards to retting the seeds - you have a choice, and could make it into an experiment. Try soaking one batch and removing the goo, and try planting out a batch with goo still on it. I wouldn't let them dry at all, since that's definitely not what happens to them in the wild when they fall from the trees into the dirt, or pass through the intestines of a bird or peccary. Here, it's about 5 years from seed to commercially viable fruiting, but the trees start to set little papayas around year 3. Of course, if you're growing from a cutting you get fruit the second year.
Keep as many seedlings as you can, Nath. It will increase your chances of having a hermaphroditic tree, or at least a good mix of male and female ones. Hooray for papayas!
Talking about Papaya, I remember an old traditional recipe for this tree when it stop to fruits. You may cut the tree as high as about 1/2-3/4 of high and then cover the cut with plastic and tie with rope tightly. In next couple weeks the tree will start to sprout new branch(s) from the tree itself. It can be just one or if you are lucky, you will get 2 or more.
That'd do it alright. You can also root the part you cut off, and it will give you about three more crops.
Sounds good to me, but i guess i need to get the seeds to become trees first! May take me a few years to try this one guys but thanks for the tip!!! Nath
Well Lorax, I now have about 100 seedlings that came up and some that are very advanced and are now 2 -3 foot tall. I have the larger ones in the conservatory and have experimented with putting some outside in the garde, which apart from a little wind burn as we had some crazy unseasonable wind last week with gusts of 70mph. But they seem to be holding their own, though I have learned to my cost with a few of the plants that they don't seem to like transplanting and repotting very much. They may be growing tall, but they don't seem to be thickening out very much yet and they all have some sort of flowers coming at the very tips. I have since sown some more from another papaya to make sure I definatly get some male and female plants. We'll see how we go. I'll let you know. Nath
Sounds like a great success! You say they look like they're starting to bloom? They won't start to thicken for about a year or so, at least that's what I've experienced. I didn't know about the not-liking-transplantation-thing, though. I guess it's because I've always just planted mine out and then left them where they sprouted, thinning a bit here and there. If they are flowering, you'll be able to gender-separate them. Female plants produce blossoms close to the main stem, and male ones bear the flowers on longer offshoots. Goes without saying, then, that a hermaphroditic tree does both versions. Pictures say a thousand words! We'd love to see your seedlings!
