Not the expert, never had a Papaya, just trying to germinate few seeds myself if they'll ever succeed, but read a lot and watched a bunch of videos.

Papayas can be either Male, Female, or Hermaphrodite, the latter is self-pollinated, but the others aren't.

The Male tree doesn't bear any fruits, and their flowers are smaller, while the female ones are the ones to bear your fruits and need to be pollinated, and I've read that a single male tree can pollinate up to 10-25 female tree, so thinning them is what good cultivators do.

I've seen a couple of videos and read some articles that claimed putting a nail on the bottom of a male tree can sex it and turn it into a female, and God knows how true that is, but other members can answer you better than me, as I want to know about the phenomenon myself.

I shall be posting about Papayas soon as well, and again there is not a single nursery here that provides Papaya, thus take my info with a pinch of salt, as it's all theoretical.

Hi Shep and GTD

Actually, i have had papaya change sex on me after a long rain
i think its any kind of stress.
topping also supposedly works too.

Papaya sex is a strange thing.
very complicated
let me say "most" seeds you will get from a grocery papaya
will be from a HERM fruit (oblong)
whicfh means most of the seeds will be herm
with a few males and a few females.
this is all subject to variety though.

1 male will pollinate over a dozen females , yes,
BUT,
since growers raise mostly herms, you dont even need a male.
so, growers want herm trees which produce mostly herm fruit
which have mostly herm seed.

out of all the papaya i have grown, i have seen 1 male (that changed), 1 female (that changed) and the rest (dozens) were herms.

All that said...
Males and females CAN produce fruit by themselves.
(dont ask me how)
but, i have seen pics of trees with fruit hanging down on a stem, and only male flowers have stems.
i have also grown several seedless papaya.

now, a few things...
they hate cold-wet feet and get root-rot easily.
they are fairly drought tolerant, so let them dry out before watering. - use very fast draining soil.

in-ground... plant on a mound, slope or high point.

they grow fast and need a lot of organics
hot is OK.

chik poo, fish, worm castings are great.
extra N is good also.
they love sun and hot weather.

i love papaya, and tree ripe fruit is always better.
good luck
Brad

Thanks GreenMan it was informative, and very interesting about both Male and Female bearing fruit and changing sexes, that would make me less stressed about my trials here.

I've got some seeds over ebay, both from Indonesia, which their fruits look really big and a bit randomly edgy shaped on the pics, and others from an American grower with a homogeneous pear like shape. So far, got only 1 to germinate and I'm afraid the rest are damaged being too long stuck in the mailing service that took 2 months to reach me.

I have another question, can Papaya grow from cutting/air-layering? And how old should the tree be to air-layer it?

papaya supposedly can be grown from cuttings
but mine always fail
i think you need the woody part fior it to work
which means you have to cut the top off so it can grow multiple stems, then use the stems for cuttings.

they grow so fast from seed, it doesnt make sense to me to use a cuttings, but it looks like Daleys nursery had some success...

i would imagine air-layering would be the same.
you would need the "woody part", which means you need to cut the top off an established tree
By the way, you can get seed from University of Hawaii.
they have dwarf hybrids that are disease resistant, productive and tasty.
x-77... the cost is $1 for a pack of about 40 seeds!
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed/seeds.asp

thier lettuce and pepper seeds are good too :)

also...
dried seeds sometimes take a while to germinate
fresh ones germinate much faster.
grocery store papaya seem to work fine for me.
the ones here are meican maradol, which are probably the best cold-hardy species anyway.
if i want them dwarf, i simply cut the top off when they are 3-4 ft tall

Here is a link that might be useful: Daleys papaya cuttings

Wow! I bought them very expensive! Thanks for the link, I'll buy from them for sure hoping they ship worldwide.

I'm new to the whole thing anyway, so it doesn't hurt. I bought them $10 for 50.

Do they fruit per season or per cycle of something? I've read they usually fruit after 7-9 months of being planted, so if that 8 month happens to be on March, do they still fruit by then? (I mean they would have flowered in the mid of Winter)

Sorry for this flood of questions, I'm still learning, and I don't want to let the opportunity of asking a grower go in vain.

no need to appologize.
i love talking papaya :)

They seem to consistantly flower depending on temperature.
also, with fruit ripining.
mine slow down (or stop) in winter.
i had one turn yellow (get ripe) in January once, but, it was like 75F, and they dont do it often for me anyway.

you can get seeds on ebay very cheap as well.
(sort by price)

and i wouldnt worry about the 8 month thing. its just a guide, it depends on size, health, weather etc...
and it takes several months for them to get ripe.

the good thing, is usually, they are spaced out.
after one gets ripe, a week or so later, you get another etc... sometimes a few days, sometimes 2 weeks or...
thats why its good to have 2-3 trees.

age, wind and cold can take their toll on the trees
some people say they dont produce after 3-4 years, but, mainly i think its that they get top heavy and high wind will knock them down.
so, a lot of people plant 2-3 every year, that way they always have some, and if they loose a tree or 2, its no big deal.

i had 7 trees fruiting at once one time.
i was giving papaya away left and right.

they are so much better when they ripen on the tree.
you can put a plastic or paper bag over them if critters are a problem.
birds and squirrels would eat mine, but not often.

-------------

after their 2nd winter, they looked tattered, but made it through.
in a month, they were back to normal -minus a few fruit.

-----------------

3rd winter...
dead papaya after long hard winter.

They looked like such a beauty though!

I hope you've preserved some seeds, I've read that they'd be more tolerant to the weather they were grown at, hence the cold they've been through would be less effective on them, if I understood right.

I still have only one seedling, the rest haven't yet come to germinate, and it grew first really fast, in 2 days it got to 15cm long, but it worried me as all it had was the cotyledons, plus 2 super tiny true leaves, and I was afraid it's a leggy seedling that might die soon, as happened to my dozens of Kiwi.

It looks like it's stuck now, it's been a couple or 3 days and it hasn't grown since, except one of the true leaves is almost the same size as the cotyledons.

How long does it take to show some more growth? I mean more leaves and a bit of a woody trunk/stem?

I have plenty of blazing heat and light here, and I'm placing it in a shaded place fearing it might get sunburnt.

i would incerase the sun every day.
in 2-3 days it should take full sun.
what i do with smaller plants, is put objects, or other plants in front of the container
with another plant, if its bigger, the top can kind of shade the container, and even the seedling, but just for a while until the sun moves a bit
that way it gets dappled light
or, at least a break for an hour or so during the day...
papaya do like lots of sun... even small ones

seems to work out good for me.

often my cacti get sun for days and i see no growth
then it rains, and the next morning it looks like they double in size.
maybe they hold that energy somehow
or, could be that they are just building roots.

Hello GreeningTheDesert n Greenman62!
I enjoyed reading your conversations n I'm really sorry for taking so long to get back to you.
I plan to plant three more papayas in late September as I only have one now. I would also plant 10 mangos hoping at least one would make it to fruit.
Here's the Papaya pic. It's about 1 meter long n f u can notice there is a twin next to it, wonder f I should take it off or just leave it there.

Hi
Yes, i can see the shadow of it...

i would absolutely remove it.
it will compete for water and nutrients.
just cut it at the base -soil level

i would also compost or mulch around the base of that tree.
you can use any type of plant material, even if its green. it will soon dry out and start to break down.

i am thinking you may have palm trees in that area ?
the leaves would work great. 2 or 3 deep, and about 4-5 ft from the center out.
even rocks would help shade the ground

worm tea might be a good idea too since
you dont seem to have any other trees or even grass around.
the soil biology is probably dead.
mycorrhizal fungi would probably help as well...

Hey Greenman62
Nice ideas about mulching
As to removing the smaller papaya, you know I thought maybe if I keep it, one might be a female n the other a male so it can pollinate it, now what do you think?

I bought a red lady papaya plant in Lowe's a few months ago. They said it was self pollinating. It had both the male & female flowers right away. I am now loaded with papaya's some large and small. Took most of the leaves off the bottom so the sun can ripen them faster. I am anxious to taste my first one since I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast. .

Just cooked my first green papaya was pretty good. Tasted like a squash with the skin peeled off. Did it in the microwave so cooked fast. Family enjoyed it so picked another to try a different way. Leaving the larger ones on to ripen.

I think its wild that in the SF bay area,the best I've gotten with seeds started in winter and planted out in the best spot I could make,was 16" tall. And they fell over in December. No frost yet..just cool and rain.
Mangoes,Citrus,Avocado..even pineapple have been grown outdoors with careful locating.
16"..when the rest of you are at 6' in one summer..or more.

shepard.KSA
honestly, i would cut one of them (smaller one)
at ground level.
they will compete for nutrients, water, sun etc...

mopst of the time they will be hermaphrodite.
i have grown about 30 papaya to maturity
and only one of them was a female (no males)
the rest were herms.

and, IF you do get a female or male
you can drive a nail in the trunk and change the sex

Sueanne

you shouldnt have cut the leaves
direct sun on the fruit will not make them ripen faster.
sun on the leaves creates the sugars needed for it to ripen.

also, you can actually sunburn the fruit.

just an FYI...

Here is a link that might be useful: regarding sunlight and ripening fruit?

I have a 10 ft male tree, driving a nail into it can change the sex?
Does the type of nail matter? Galvanized or plain steel? I'd like to try this on mine. I have a number of small ones started from seed but not flowering yet. Once I know I have some females I'll probably remove the male tree.
I was checking the garden at sunset yesterday and the papaya tree had a half dozen large moths feeding on the flowers. At first glance I thought they were small hummingbirds.

TC Gardner

my understanding is it is the stress that changes its sex.
i have cut the top off mine, and changed sex.
some have reported flooding conditions can change it.

so, type of nail shouldnt matter,
but then, it may take the iron up as a nutrient,
so, who knows
LOL

Thanks, I'll give it a try.