You might get better response in the tropical plants forum.

Sorry you haven't gotten a response to your question here. The forum isn't very active this time of year and I guess there no one who grows papaya in Houston is reading it right now. I had papaya plants volunteer from seeds and a ten foot or so plant produced big fruit, but being in San Antonio the plant succumbed to freezing temps before the fruit ripened. If you do a search for papaya you'll find some pictures I took. Let us know what you find out on the tropical plants forum. We wish you luck!

I would definitely plant it in a large container. Our papayas in the lower Rio Grande Valley have lost fruit due to freezing temperatures. In addition, a young Hawaiian Sunrise Papaya we had just planted was killed by last year's cold.

Ty

Some papayas grow to 30 feet in height, but I'm not sure what a dwarf grows to since I've never even heard of a dwarf papaya.

I always planted mine in the ground after the last frost from a pot which I planted the year before...that way the plant gets more size and the papayas get time to ripen before the Winter frosts set in.

My trees grew to between 12 and 15 feet usually, and the fruit were just below the top growth.

Some Summers, the trees re-grew from the lower trunk which didn't freeze in the Winter and produced fruit by Fall, but Winter protection would be very helpful.

Kt

thank you for your replies. For now, I am overwintering my tree in the garage. That buys me a couple of months b4 I have to decide on a location. I will post in the Tropicals forum.

I grow Mexico Papaya last year in Houston TX from seed in 4/1/2011, 5 ft tall in 4 months and max about 8 ft. Hawaii papaya 10 ft in 4 months 14 ft tall before winter. All leaves drop and new leaves start to come out. Both have a lot of fruits but not mature so I have to cover them from frost and some still survive until today. Enjoy growing Papaya and good luck.

my neighbor had one that was about 15' tall, but it leaned over so easy to pick the fruit. The cold year before last killed it. They grow fast from seeds but for fruit you might want to start with a tree that is already growing.
Don't top them, most are not normally branching and it can kill them.
Tally HO!

I have planted Mexico papaya seed in May 2013 in Sugar Land , Texas. Some are planted on the ground and others in pots. As of today, they have grown almost two feet. I will protect the ones in pots by bringing them in to the garage in winter. I will cover the ones planted on the ground. Hopefully, they will all survive the winter cold. Can anyone tell me how long will this Mexico papaya start bearing fruit when planted from seeds? Thank you most kindly for anyone's useful feedback.

papayas will produce the first year.
Keep them covered and they will do fine. Ed grows them up in your area.
Tally Ho!

I love growing papayas, not to fond of the taste, but I still enjoy their nutrient enriched fruit, not to mention their beauty. I live up here in New Caney and have a garden of the following: edible red banana (Musa zebrina), red banana (Ensete maurelil), jackfruit, lemon meringue mango, pineapple, papaya, pride of barbados, tamarinds, purple passionfruit, and trying yellow passionfruit from the snippets of the wild vine growing at my college, and a couple others but those are my favorites. The papaya will be fine, I have maradol papaya trees. Personally, if they're about 1-2 1/2ft. tall then they're only about 5-8 months old. If they're still in that range then keep them in a pot until about February when any questionable frost might be done and over with. Then plant them in the ground, I'd say against some building on the sunniest side of the building. The wind will seriously mess these plants up. Once planted, come, roughly, April they'll start producing fruit all the way through, again roughly, September-mid October. I'd use a ladder unless you're a ten foot tall giant haha. Don't wait till they fall to the ground, they ripen pretty fast, especially during our summers. You have to remember our summers do they get hotter than in tropical climates because those climates have the coastal winds to keep it decent, not 115 degrees like us. Not always, but sometimes it doesn't matter if you chop these guys down. They have a tendency to act like bananas, just grow back, then again, not always. I broke one by accident once and popped its' top half in the ground and it winded up growing back and the other half grew a new tree. Then I tried it again and they both died, so it's a gamble. Good luck to you, and I strongly recommend growing a jackfruit or mango, the mango is slow but beautiful; not to mention, they both taste amazing!

-Don't forget to cover during a freeze!