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Tropical Plants

New Papaya trees leaves turning yellow??

16 years ago

I bought 5 trees, 2 papaya and 2 guava and one barbados cherry. while I have been researching what the best planting option will be for them...one of the papaya has started turning yellow. They are still in their nursery containers, but getting watered regularly. (drying out completely in between).

This one tree is the only one affected. (I"ll take a photo tomorrow) and post it.

Any thoughts?

I will add in case anyone has any planting suggestions, that where they came from says that all the plants they sell are to a cold hardiness of 10 degrees. We have never been that low here, last year we had a few days in a row under 32 and that was it. We dont get any snow here either.

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Comments (7)

karyn1
16 years ago
Sometimes the older leaves on my papayas will yellow and drop but not the new growth. Other than over watering I'm not sure what would cause it. I don't know about the guava and barbados cherry but I've never heard of a papaya that can withstand even near freezing temps. I winter mine over in a heated GH.
Karyn
Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
16 years ago
You probably need to get it in a much larger pot or in the ground. Is it root-bound?
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rjinga
Original Author
16 years ago
Karyn, so you have a good sized GH? I am getting materials together to build one, but I was probably shooting for something like 6x8, maybe 8x8? If these trees alone are in big pots, that would fill up the space...How big of a pot do these really need to be in to give them the space they need to grow properly?

Has anyone ever used something like a free standing individual greenhouse like covering? I had read something about this recently, where you could basically erect a GH when needed to protect specific plants/trees etc when there was going to be frost then take it down again. It was built with some kind of pole like frame that was put into permanent "supports" that are actually left in the ground near the tree all the time and then they used some kind of plastic and put up a cover for the tree? I guess I'll try to search again and find the info and post it as a new question...
karyn1
16 years ago
I have a commercial GH, about 200' x 70' but I've also wintered papaya trees over in my house. They aren't as fussy as some of the other tropical fruit trees but I only get fruit when it's wintered over in the GH. They don't live for too long and will start producing fruit very early as long as you have both male and female or a hermaphrodite tree.
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sandy0225
16 years ago
sounds like it could be a fertilizer problem, or ph problem with the soil mix creeping up over time. Are they a light yellow green, and maybe thinner and weaker looking, shred in the wind more easily and just seem delicate? If so, it's probably an iron availability problem which can be corrected easy enough by repotting in a fresh soil mix and watering with fertilizer water adjusted with some vinegar to change the ph.
rjinga
Original Author
16 years ago
can anyone suggest what size of pot these should be in? I've decided that they are going to need to be potted to have any chance during the "winter colder days" so I've got a few big pots and even 2 bid whiskey barrel planters that they could go in? I'm just afraid if put into the whiskey barrels, they will be too heavy for me to move anywhere but where they are set out...sigh...
franktank232
16 years ago
You could try using a dolly, but it would have to be one of the bigger ones or have a strap. I have a small dolly with small tires and it was a pain trying to move a half whiskey barrel.

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