My papaya - Orchid Board

b amateur · #1 12-04-2009, 07:16 AM

A few years ago while scooping out a papaya for a fruit salad,I got this crazy idea.I took a couple of the seeds and stuck them in potting soil and this is what happened.It's about 3'[1m]tall now and the flowers smell like the ripe fruit.Fun stuff. Brad

johnblagg · #2 12-04-2009, 08:35 AM

They are cool looking plants too I have seen them in houston several times and have thought about planting a seed too

RosieC · #3 12-04-2009, 01:05 PM

That's really cool!

b amateur · #4 12-04-2009, 07:25 PM

Thanks. If I had planted two of them,I might have been able to get fruit. Brad

Swamper · #5 12-06-2009, 10:36 PM

Beuatiful plant and delicious fruit. I have a bunch in small pots and a couple in the ground that are about 7 feet tall. They grow really tall though. Good luck.

b amateur · #6 12-07-2009, 05:53 AM

When I was 23,I had a chance to house sit in Hawaii. We were on the Kona coast of the big island south of Captain Cook.I would park at the back of the Buddahist mission and walk about a mile up the jeep trail to a shack in the coffee plantation.The deal meant I had to tend to 5 acres of coffee.The garden had bananas,papayas,two kinds of guavas,and passion fruit.As coffee likes a bit of shade,there were avocados and various citrus scattered around also.To this day,I do not know why I left. Brad

Swamper · #7 12-07-2009, 06:45 AM

Hmmmmm, Hawaii or Kalamazoo,MI. Tough choice.

b amateur · #8 12-07-2009, 06:54 AM

Actually,Swamper,I went to Vancouver,B.C. from there.Brad

fotofashion · #9 12-07-2009, 06:53 PM

It may depend on the variety, but you may need a male plant. The one you have is a female, it will bear the fruit. The male plant's flowers grow on a stem that sticks out from the trunk of the plant. The female's flowers are on the trunk.
I have one in a pot, for now, that supposedly does not need a pollinator. I got it on eBay and it is not the usual type we see here. I'm glad I did not leave it out this week with the 25 degree temps we had. The two self-seeded plants that grew up in the compost heap were severely burned.

Beverly A.