papayas

ive got a nice little clump of them going and there growing out of control, but i dont have any flowers yet. when do they begin to flower? and so im not taking up two posts, does anyone know anything about silverline melons? i think theyre tropical too.

Hi there! Sorry, can't help you with the melons, but maybe some help with the Papayas. Usually they will flower about 5 or 6 months after germination - but sometimes sooner. A lot depends on what kind of papayas you are growing and whether they are male or female - which unfortunately you can't tell until they flower. Most of the papayas out here will have both flowers and fruits at the same time. You say "little clump". Make sure they are not too close together! These are trees, after all. I'm sure others will soon pipe up in here to give you more information. Good luck!

Yokwe,
Shari

thanks island. when i bought them it was a clump of three or four or it was a trunk with a couple of heads buryed where it looks like multiple trees. im hoping for some Hawaiian papayas. ive also noticed some will have yellow flowers and some will have white. is this a clue to the cultivar?

That I'm not sure of. I have only seen the white, as far as I know. There are two main varieties of Papaya - and then cultivars and hybrids within them. Mexican and Hawaiian. The Hawaiian are generally smaller and sweeter, but there is also a smaller than usual Mexican hybrid that is very sweet. There is also a hybrid that is hermaphrodictic and is easier to cultivate into a fruiting tree. Without knowing which you have, any further info I could give would pretty much be guesswork. But, many of us here in TZG grow papayas - so I'm sure the others will have more info. Be patient my friend - they will be here eventually.

Yokwe,
Shari

Shari, Randy brought a papaya with all the other goodies when he came last month. It is only about 18" s tall right now. As of today, it has some new top growth. Are you saying it will produce by the end of this year? Jen's trees were so tall it took a special tool or ladder to reach the fruit.

Now I have a photo of the girl, if anyone wants.
Posting this just for fun. This plant was in a ditch, but the girl was all alone, and the fruits weren't setting. I think someone has since cut it down. Sigh. If there's a stump left, maybe I'll bring that home and see if she'll grow for me. I have about twenty boys, and no girls!!! Planted seed over a year ago, and the poor things are struggling along with much neglect. Dry season now.

And a boy

I found one on the edge of a sandy beach, must be salt toerant! I'll go take a photo in a day or two, it's the biggest one I've ever seen.

They do best with plenty of room, but at the University here, they have about a quarter acre they plant every year, and a lot of what they have are two plants together. I didn't see anyone there that day to ask, I need to go back and quiz the man!

Oh, no. I googled "silverline melon" and got one of those gardener's nightmare pages. Go look, and tell me I didn't get a headache!

http://www.seedsavers.org/products.asp?dept=24

scroll down for silverline.

What gave you the headache on there?

Overload! I cannot try growing each and every one! But I want to! hahaha

LOL. My grandma grew the Charantais ones last year. She loved them so much she saved seeds so she could do it again this year.

learn about what u want/need to grow first to avoid frustrations later... specially tropical plants .....
http://www.geocities.com/dacaraga/farming_tips1.htm
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Caricaceae/Carica_papaya.html
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/papaya.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/papaya_ars.html
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/F_N-8.pdf

Aloha Ly, welcome!

Interesting about the flowers on your papaya, I had to run out right away to look as I have several different varieties which are all bird planted. I really don't know what varieties I have, but on mine they all start with white flowers and then the color changes to a creamy yellow after they have been polinated...we have a couple of different types of red papaya, which are our favorites, those we keep lower to ease picking. The rest go their own way, branching when they want to, and are a delight to the flocks of small greenish birds that greedily hollow them out. As far as I know we only have one large male, and I am not sure if he is even needed, or if we have hermies. Ours are all Hawaiian type.

Do let us know if you find out that the flower color has anything to do with variety..

Hmm, I'll ask the horticulturist about flower color at the University when I see him sometime in the next two weeks.

I should have said 'female bud' It's substantially larger than the male, and shaped completely differently.

I saw a papaya last year that had fruits on the long male flower racimes! No one home, I got some seeds, but I don't think I had any luck with them. They sure can be fickle sometimes!

I'd keep the male, myself. Hummingbirds like them.

Ma Vie, I have a lot more trouble with plants that need temps below 68*.

Great to have an expert's point of view, thanks Molamola! We can't grow anything that needs the freezing temp of below 68 degrees either LOL!
No humming birds in Kihei, but the bees sure love him!

Can still recall the wonderful flavor of the papaya. Just can't get that at the store.

thanx for all the good info guys. does anyone know if you can prune the climbing grabby tentacle things off of climbing melon vines?

I would think so. The vines might say "Ouch!"

Mola2, when u say

Ma Vie, When I first moved to the Caribbean, I thought you could probably grow everything. But finally I learned we have long, 'hot' nights, and many plants just won't tolerate that. You can have an east-west house, but no north-south, as the sun hits the north side in the summer, and in the winter it's totally shaded.

The days and nights are so equal year around that some plants think it's either spring or fall, and they do crazy things. Tea roses try to bloom themselves to death. The warm nights in our summer prevents tomatoes from pollinating. And spinach seedlings just expire upon sprouting, any time of year.

I'd like to have a small space that I could aircondition at night, for some things that require cool, summer tomatoes, and other things.

You probably know all this. Bulbs? No daffodils or narcissus, booo. No lilacs, either, but I have a tree that smells just the same!

Now I'm wondering where was it warm that you lived? A zone 11? Am I off base with the spinach? I'm not really fond of Malibar, but I have developed a taste for Chard.

Thank you for your shared experience and knowledge.

Mm

Mola2,

that is the very reason why i tell people to read and learn about plants that tickle their fancy. it is very disappointing to start a plant, then later find out the gardener is not meeting the plant's needs.

when i used to live in Los Angeles, i have always yearned to grow Stargazer's Oriental lilium. waste lots of $$ and everything went in vain... to later find out, i can not grow lilium in the area. that was very frustrating, not to mention wasted money.

air conditioning ur place of growth is not the answer. research plant that u anticipate to grow. learn more about their growing habit. remember plants are like people that migrate from one place to the other. plants like people have their specific needs and requirements. plants are also affected no only by temperature, but also atmospheric environment. some mountain plant will never make it lowland areas.etc. etc.

if u need help in researching, send me a d-mail and i will help u.

btw... i am originally from the Phils., were lots of tropical plants grow. when i 1st came to the U.S.; i went to the library to research plants i wanted to grow [internet wasn't born then yet.] i wrote different companies to learn about products to aid plants [i wanted to familiarize myself with fertilizer. in the Phils., we never use fertilizers to grow plants.] our soil in the Phils. is well rounded, no need for fertilizers to grow plants. we never pamper plants like it is done in the U.S.

the basis of good plants is good soil. i see a lot of people make mistake. they plant first then overload the plant with fertilizer. if the soil is well prepared prior to planting, plants pretty much grow on their own without pampering. i am sure if plants are planted this way, u will be well rewarded.

drop me a line if i can be of service to u,
ma vie

mix in some cow manure compost, i live in south florida where we have the crappiest soil in the world and thats what we do.

Hey there PK! It's possible...but I really don't know how pawpaws react to Texas seasons...Randy would know more than I.

Yokwe friend Christi!
Shari

RJ must be on a vacation week. Haven't seen him around for several days. Boy, would that ever be a treat. Papayas in the backyard.

Hey Shari, are pawpaws and papaya the same thing? I thought they were different, but my SIL from Australia calls them pawpaw too..

There is an apparent confusion in the common name "Pawpaw" exists only in Australia and possibly in some other member states of the old British Commonwealth where the Papaya (Carica papaya) is known as Pawpaw. The American Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a native of the United States and and is virtually unknown outside of the US. http://www.crfg.org/descr/descr_main_c5.html , http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/papaya.html , http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pawpaw.html

i hope provided info helps
ma vie

Thanks Ma Vie, now I understand why my SIL and Shari were calling them pawpaw, funny though I am English and have always called them papaya as distinct from pawpaw - if you know what I mean! Hey Shari, you are speaking Australian, good on yer mate!

Ma Vie, you are a veritable fund of knowledge, usually I bug Carol with all my tropical questions by d-mail, poor girl - look out! I have so much to learn about gardening in the tropics!

Mahalo,

Jenny

Jenny, u're very welcome. it is my pleasure to be of assistance, whenever i can. i am originally from the Philippines. my English command may not be at par with other, but i have the gift to find good results in my research.

btw... nice to meet u Jenny ^_^,

i do not know how others eat their papaya. in the Phils., we serve ripe papaya http://www.stuartxchange.org/Papaya.html with our version of lemon [we do not have Lemons in the PHils.], locally known as "kalamansi". http://www.stuartxchange.org/Kalamansi.html if i am not mistaken, it is more sour than lemon. we were taught by the Chinese to balance our food intake. the sweetness of papaya, is balanced by the sourness of Kalamansi. unfortunately the sample of kalamansi they have on that site does not do justice to Kalamansi fruit --- normally are either green or yellow in color. regardless if fruit is ripe or unripe, it is always very sour.

papaya is also eaten in green form or unripe papaya. we use green papaya in making pickles, we locally call atsara. or green papaya salad.

if u have notice, i am sharing with u a web site of plants in the Phil., scroll down and click on Latest Updated Tagalog and English Lists of Philippine Medicinal Plants to be able to see locally grown plants in the Philippine Islands. perhaps some of those plants exist in ur area. i heard from the old folks back home, some of the earlier immigrants to Hawaii, brought with them some plants from the old country.

enjoy!
ma vie

Braveheartsmom, you said, "red papaya, which are our favorites, those we keep lower to ease picking."

Do you pinch the little top when the plant is small to make it branch?? How do you keep a papaya from heading off to the sky??

I, too, was confused about the pawpaw name. In grade school we had a dance and a round where we sang something silly about "pickin up pawpaws". Have never known what a pawpaw was before. Thank you ma vie for clarifying that for us.

Christi

my pleasure Christi. i have "seen" that confusion for sometime. am glad i found the answer. ^_^

Melissa, papaya if memory serves me right, only grow upward, not sideways. it just grows taller, the fruit appear on the branch itself. the very reason why a few trees are planted at a given time. if i am wrong, i stand corrected.

in the Phils. i do not know what they do, but they grow the tree to be midgets size, for easy accessibility and easy to pick the fruit. how they do that? i do not know. hopefully someone can chime in to help?

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

Makes me hungry just looking at it. Not for just anything now mind you...just papaya.

do u folks know papaya aids our body in numerous ways? http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=47 http://www.thefruitpages.com/chartpapaya.shtml

there are also papaya diets out there for losing weight. i do not know about it, as i have not personally tried it . http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Papaya-Diet:-A-Guaranteed-Loser&id=41668

I think there still might be some confusion re: papayas vs. pawpaws. There is a native american fruit called a pawpaw - which is somewhat similar to papayas in appearance, but they are not related. It is actually related to custard-apples and soursop. I started calling papayas "pawpaws" when I was a child in Mexico! Can't tell you why - but everyone called them pawpaws. Maybe there were some Aussie's in our town that I didn't know about. Have heard them called that all my life, and never even think of the real pawpaws - always only papayas. I think that the American Pawpaw is a south-eastern thing, so unless you are actually from there, a pawpaw would be a papaya.

Yokwe,
Shari

Shari, sometimes it can be play on words, specially when people have difficulty pronouncing word/s they are not familiar with. although in my research noted on links i posted above, both has its own specie or Latin name

There is an apparent confusion in the common name "Pawpaw" exists only in Australia and possibly in some other member states of the old British Commonwealth where the Papaya (Carica papaya) is known or called by these people as Pawpaw.

The American Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a native of the United States and and is virtually unknown outside of the US. [HYPERLINK@www.crfg.org] , [HYPERLINK@wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm] , [HYPERLINK@www.crfg.org] this maybe also the same variety growing in Mexico????

Ma Vie, your last links didn't work.

it is same as the post i did on this thread on May 28, 2008 3:26 AM Post #5013873 that i copy and paste

There is an apparent confusion in the common name "Pawpaw" exists only in Australia and possibly in some other member states of the old British Commonwealth where the Papaya (Carica papaya) is known as Pawpaw. The American Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a native of the United States and and is virtually unknown outside of the US. [HYPERLINK@www.crfg.org] , [HYPERLINK@wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm] , [HYPERLINK@www.crfg.org]

here u go, i thope it work this time. sorry about that. links below is about Pawpaw

http://www.crfg.org/descr/descr_main_c5.html , http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/papaya.html , http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pawpaw.html

edited to add link to papaya http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/papaya.html , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaya , http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/papaya/papaya.html

This message was edited May 29, 2008 8:42 AM

I grew up in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. I remember there being Paw Paw trees in a low valley amongst larger trees, protected by surroundings that were warmer than the hill tops and open places. They were woody trees, and had great large oval leaves. I never was lucky enough to find or eat a fruit.

Quite often Islanders say paw paw when they're talking about papaya.

I'm going to go take photos of the big old papayas here, some are huge! Old is two years, maybe three, haha!.

I've had males bloom at a foot tall, when confined to a large yogurt container, no females(yet) And this one at Logee's must be a hallucination! See:

http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R1776-4