Strange Papaya Tree

[Gary A]

We have volunteer papaya trees growing all over. This is ONE tree. All of the other trees produce in a single bunch. Some are very tall and others are short.

[jandtaa]

Hi Gary

Is it possible that it has been cut back at some point ? This looks similar to regrowth from a mature plant that we lopped last year when it caught up with the TV aerial.

cheers J 

[Gary A]

Hi Gary

Is it possible that it has been cut back at some point ? This looks similar to regrowth from a mature plant that we lopped last year when it caught up with the TV aerial.

cheers J 

That's very possible. I asked my wife and she thinks she may have cut it off at one point. If they all react like that, people could cut them off, let them grow and triple their harvest. She normally cuts down the tall trees to get the fruit.

[Maizefarmer]

Yer - thats been cut back at some point, and its regrown - still, very nice crop, so long as they're sweet when they ripen.

Isn't by any chance a drain running along one side of that wall next to the tree? (the best papaya tree we have grows alongside the drain pipe that runs from our house to the sceptic pit)!

Edited October 9, 2009 by Maizefarmer

[brahmburgers]

they look like Gamima momma's mammaries - oh yea, dem drooping dromadairys is good to get lost in.

I got a papaya which had a stringy long trunk, so I lopped it off, and three stout branches are growing just below where the cut was, and each are full of fruit.

I read somewhere that papaya is the earliest known organism that shows male and female chromosomes.

Here's how I remembe the Thai word for papaya (malako). The Mexicans have a word for butt-fckr; 'marikon.' Not a word you want to bandy around with some back alley ruffians in Tijuana.

[Gary A]

Yer - thats been cut back at some point, and its regrown - still, very nice crop, so long as they're sweet when they ripen.

Isn't by any chance a drain running along one side of that wall next to the tree? (the best papaya tree we have grows alongside the drain pipe that runs from our house to the sceptic pit)!

Actually it is growing along a retaining wall. The other side of the wall is a half meter or more lower than the tree side.

[Maizefarmer]

Yer - thats been cut back at some point, and its regrown - still, very nice crop, so long as they're sweet when they ripen.

Isn't by any chance a drain running along one side of that wall next to the tree? (the best papaya tree we have grows alongside the drain pipe that runs from our house to the sceptic pit)!

Actually it is growing along a retaining wall. The other side of the wall is a half meter or more lower than the tree side.

mmm ..... wall acting as a moisture barrier in favour of the tree (?) was just curious ............ because it seems a good productive tree. Pity they don't all grow like that.

[Haroon]

We have volunteer papaya trees growing all over. This is ONE tree. All of the other trees produce in a single bunch. Some are very tall and others are short.

Hi Gary,

If we cut their branches , then is it can regrown and have fruits. In my country , we have only one core and very few trees have such branches. You can assist me in seeds and i need help to grow more fruits of papaya.

[villagefarang]

We have one similar with multiple stalks and a trunk like a palm tree, huge. Puts all the others to shame and was never cut. And yes it is located near where the construction workers had there outhouse before it was filled in. A somtam induced papaya tree I guess. This was early on before it started sprouting branches.

Edited October 10, 2009 by villagefarang

[69690jay]

One of my papaya trees has two fruit from each stem, i pointed this out to my wife and she got a bit excited, not having seen anything like it before....telling her friends as well, I suggested they look for lottery number...

yes they do like good drainage and moisture, poor drainage makes for root rot. This particular type of papaya is old school/native), the long ones are hybrid?

Mine are 50 meters from the beach and the soil consists of sand and some concrete rubble with very little soil mixed in. I will occasionaly throw a few 20-20-20 pellets and run the hose on them when it's extra dry. Lovely flavour, if i had a horse i would make give natural fertilizer. Guess i could put some fish heads, too many flies...

[69690jay]

Here in Rawai Beach, Phuket we get heavy rain Sept/Oct, everything grows like crazy but fruiting tends to slow down.

[jaideeguy]

I've never had much luck with the 'volunteers' that the wife replants in the wrong places. She's happy with them in the green state, but I've been spoiled by the 'holland' type that is a really full, sweet fruit with consistant taste and am now growing some from certified seed and the plants are now a meter high and just showing their sex and soon will have real fruit. will post fotos when they bare fruit.

[Gary A]

I have a dislike for ripe fruit. I think the bright orange fruit tastes like some type of meat gone bad. The green shredded fruit is fine in somtam but I always pass on the ripe fruit.

[Lickey]

Hi Gary, have you been in my back garden? a full papaya tree,pink wall,Tamarind!!!

Seriously, we have a plant thats nearly 4 mtrs high,it was a wild seed from a bird i would think,it has 2 trunks from the ground up,weve just left it grow,now our back garden will fill with water up to a foot deep with a good rain,but this plant has been undettered by all this water,perhaps because of the ferocity of its tall growth and lots of fruit,you will see by the pics there is no black lesions round the base or on the trunk atall,suggesting root rot or "wet feet"..

I have had plants on the farm that if they look a bit sick, i cut them down about 2feet from the ground, some will sprout new shoots and carry on to fruiting,but not very special in size or flavour, but i will be saving seeds from this garden plant and see what happens with them on the farm,,

Cheers Lickey.

[Harcourt]

I had assumed that papaya grew well in Thailand....but reading the posts here I get the impression that they don't. The tree looks normal to me, with nothing extraordinary about the amount or size of the fruit.....but I grew up in Fiji where the weather is not as hot or wet.

Interesting.

[David006]

Yer - thats been cut back at some point, and its regrown - still, very nice crop, so long as they're sweet when they ripen.

Isn't by any chance a drain running along one side of that wall next to the tree? (the best papaya tree we have grows alongside the drain pipe that runs from our house to the sceptic pit)!

Actually it is growing along a retaining wall. The other side of the wall is a half meter or more lower than the tree side.

Yes they seem to like walls... I have several growing along our retaining wall below the house ..all feral from the wife, I guess, sitting on the veranda making papaya salad ??? Great fruit/veggie?..

Interestingly we have a non fruiting one with stemmed flowers instead of fruit..wife says "its female..cut!" taking jealousy a bit far?? lol

[sbk]

Actually, non fruiting papaya trees are male and most Thais remove them since they are non fruiting, guess they don't realize they help pollinate the other trees.

Here is a good PDF article on why some papaya trees fail to fruit, discussing the three sexes of the different papaya trees. Apparently Hawaiian style papayas are self fertile and do not need a male tree to fruit.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/F_N-5.pdf