ECHO is where I buy my papaya seeds. They have the Red Lady papaya that is a dwarf. It is a good producer and the fruit tastes good too. I start my seeds in September and keep them in a pot so I can protect them from the cold since I am in zone 9a, then I plant them in my garden in March. The seeds can be ordered by mail. I highly recommend this variety that ECHO sells.

I know what many of the people/experts/references say... But I think tropical fruits are pretty tolerant of pH as long as they get all the nutrients/drainage they need. I grow in the ground, 100% red clay- (I assume it is though I have never tested it) alkaline/ not great drainage. But many are planted on hills, so the water runs off. I grow about 80 different tropical fruits very easily here. I add grass clippings around the plants when I remember, I fertilize with citrus fertilizer every 3 months. But that is it. Growing in pots is different. The soil pH may be more important.

Hi, everyone. Thanks again for the help. Sorry for our late reply. We have been busy and still trying to set up something again with the plastic. :-) Hi, Harry. It must be very hard during hurricane season. I know I am emotionally attached to our plants already and they are all new and young still... Just hope Mother Nature doesn't get too brutal... Hi, Mango_nut! Thank you for the link. I have browsed it and will look at it in more detail. I would love to have a sapodilla to serve as a windbreak but as you have mentioned it would take too long for it to help us in the interim. :-( It would be nice indeed to have fruit trees serving as windbreaks too. :-) Hi, Mango_kush! Yes! Our neighbors have those cement blocks too for walls. For fencing otherwise, it is metal? With large gaps. But their trees are all mature... So I guess they don't have to worry much about the winds damaging young trees... Hi, Gomango! Wow, a lot of mango lovers here besides us! :-) That was what we were afraid of with planting windbreaks: 1) time it needs to be fully functional and 2) growth that will not be too vigorous so as to affect our fruit trees. I was thinking of bamboo but I read on the forum those are very vigorous growers and can grow very tall... If planting windbreaks, I will have to do so in containers. Unfortunately, the garden is too small for them to co-exist in the ground.

Waterfowler, Thanks so much for the very interesting information of the propane heater. Sorry that I did not respond to it in a timely fashion--my apologies here. I have in fact acquired a propane heater and have intended to use it. This Winter, we wanted to set it up, but wasn't able to get the propane to be installed properly for use here ... It's good that we're now warming up, so I don't have to think of how to set it up again .. at least for now. But, it's good to know that some people out there are using this as an idea for warming up their plants. You've mentioned your intention to place them in between your cherimoya trees in the open. My question here is will they give the heat sufficient for warming the plants in the open? But, I'm also thinking ... any heat is better than nothing. So, maybe it's an idea here to consider for myself as well as I do have quite a few tropical trees growing out there in the open space. Thanks once again for your post. I do appreciate the information you posted here. I hope all your plants will go well for you where you're enjoying your gardening :) By the way, what's your planting zone there, may I ask?