Regarding the comment about "A potting soil made from pine bark, peat, perlite ... works OK for a year and then shows strong nutritional (disease?) problems (general chlorosis) ... I'm still baffled." What is the pH and composition of mineral salts in the irrigation water. This type of problem is common in soilless mixes after they are watered for a while with groundwater that is relatively high in pH and high in disolved lime (Calcium carbonate). It's a very common problem in my potted, acid-loving plants like citrus, camellias, gardenias, etc. My groundwater is very hard and very high in lime -- it crusts over shower doors, coffee pots, etc in just a few days. Aside from using a water softener, 'Lime-Away' brand lime remover is a constant in the household, because the water softener doesn't remove it all no matter where it's set. The untreated groundwater is even worse -- even a single, hour or two session of watering with a sprinkler can leave everything coated with lime scale. For the potted plants, I find it necessary to remove them from their pots about every other year, wash all of the potting mix from their roots, and repot in fresh soilless mix. I also use acidifying fertilizers and trace element supplements in between. I wonder if you have a similiar problem. Initially, the orginic compounds in the soilless mix can absorb and neutralize the calcium, but eventually, the amount of lime from the water just overwhelms the ability of the soilless mix to act as a calcium sink, and the pH rises rapidly, resulting in the chlorosis symptoms you describe. There is realistically next to nothing you can do to purge all of this lime out of the soil at this point that wouldn't also fry the plant, so it's time to replace the soil.

Could you describe what is going on? Is that a black scale on one of the new trunks? I would remove the dead bits back to green tissue and seal the cuts with plastic paint with Copper-Oxychloride mixed in. But thats just a wild guess

mmmmm yeh well 50% hit rate sounds better than the current rate of about 10% or so of seeds planted turning into female trees. tried the rusty nail routine driven into male trees but that was a furphy lol. anytime i transplanted seedling all the roots looked the same to me but maybe just maybe hey. tried a bi-sexual one once was most dissapointed when it turned out to be a male it did fruit but nowhere near as prolific as female trees can. rang nursery who rang the growers and they said they could only guarantee a hit rate of 20% trees sold being truely bi-sexual or female. of course the red ones are i am told all bi-sexual sorts. have heard of people simply buying a yellow paw paw liking the taste and planting some seeds and getting predominately female trees. anyhow don't know if i have the patience for the pendulum thingy so will plant a wack of seeds and see waht happens. len

I purchased some mosquito fabric small enough to prevent noseeums with intentions of making my own papaya bags. Does anyone know if the wasps can sting through the fabric? My Red Lady (double) just produced about 15lbs of fruit that I had to destroy. This is a prized tree with cropped tops and vibrant purple stems so I don't want to go through this again. I've also heard that hanging brown bags stuffed with plastic grocery bags from the branches can deter bees/wasps from even coming into that trees space in fear of pissing off another hive. Similar to a scarecrow? Paw Paw