Tropical Zone Gardening: papayas, 1 by Braveheartsmom

Braveheartsmom wrote:
Aloha Molamola,

I had to laugh about your thinking you could grow everything on Island - I thought the same thing too! I do kind of miss the spring flowers, but now just enjoy them through everyone's pictures - no fridge chilling for me.

I am certainly no expert on papaya - but here's what I do know..

There are some cultivars of papaya here that are dwarf size, bred for ease of picking, I don't seem to have any of those! We follow the local tradition of topping the plant when it gets too tall. You simply cut off the leader and put a bucket over the stump to keep any water out because papaya will easily rot. They then branch lower down the "trunk". Having said that, we also have papaya that branch naturally all by themselves, as in the picture. Sorry the picture is so poor, it's only just daybreak here.

Whoops, edited for spelling!



This message was edited May 28, 2008 5:46 PM