Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden #2, 1 by rjuddharrison

rjuddharrison wrote:
I'm not sure what my variety is, as I bought the actual Papaya from Fiesta Super Market, about 5 years ago.. I have propagate the subsequent generations from the fruit it produces. It is a hermaphrodite variety and all trees produce fruit. I suspect by the leaf habit that it is a Central American variety as I saw simlar trees in Costa Rica. They produce fruit the first year, and I have loads of seeds for the asking. I grow them like annuals in the event of weather like we are having now...So if I lost all of my trees, I have 2 year old ones in the green house to take their place, and smaller ones I started last season. The 2 year old ones planted in Feb or Mar usually are 8 to 9 feet tall by the end of the summer with fruit. This varieties leaf has an extended stem, and really looks exotic. The fruits are delicous and amongst the sweetest. Hurricane Rita year when that winter was really warm, my trees produce so many fruits that I just let them fall from the tree. As a result there are little wild ones growing here and there.

Christi, Red Oak is pretty close!

Dammage status report from 2008 Deep South Freeze-
A bit early to tell, but so far the dammage is isolated to the usual Brugs and AloCalacosias. I see some dammage on my Iochroma, but the darn thing is getting so tall it's cresting the eve of the roof on the house..it's blooming too. The Papayas are looking okay, but they can be deceiving as it seems they are a bit slower to show the dammage. Minimal dammage really, even the wood rose is showing no dammage, but we'll see tomorrow. My location seems to be spared more often than not. I suspect we had a couple hours less of below freezing than weather reports indicate in this particular area.
I think that part of the dammage comes from the temperature swings, like we are about to have. Last year it froze and was 80F the next day..wreaked complete havoc.