Hi Everybody, Thought I'd bump this thread while I'm awaiting the arrival of Jenny's monster papaya seeds.
I wrote to the owners of www.jlhudsonseedds.net about our papaya seed germination experiments Received a very nice response today, detailing their experiments with germinating a lot of different papaya seeds. If anyone wants a copy of the email send me a dmail giving me your email address and I'll forward it to you. In short, just as we have discovered, germination is all over the map.
katiebear
Papaya 101 "My Experiences"
okay..thanks..
I've been discovering that this fall. I have seedlings popping up all over, which blows my theory about needing to be hot.
I found the best germination with papaya is when the seed has gone through a bird. Gosh, Katie mail takes a long time to get to you!
I know. It varies a lot. I'll be going to Ca. in about ten days. I hope they have arrived by then. If not, Sharon can check the mail and open them up if they arrive after I've gone.
kb
Fixing Katie's link. :~) www.jlhudsonseeds.net/
Thanks.
kb
No problem. :~)
My best efforts to germinate Papaya is to let the birds eat the fruit and then fly low over some out of the way patch of ground in the garden. Works everytime!
What if one were to own a parrot, a parakeet or some sort of large pet bird...
You could feed papaya seeds to the bird and just plant the sheet of newspaper at the bottom of the cage after the bird is finished "processing" the seeds. It seems easier than training some wild and ungrateful bird to poop in a certain spot. I know for a fact that our Florida birds are just plain untrainable.
Come to think of it, my friend Cassandra has 2 or 3 large birds. I think I will ask her to do that for me. It's so crazy, it just might work.
Aloha,
Sylvain, a.k.a. Pu'ole.
Wonderful idea, Sylvain. Let us know if it works. After reading the varied results the people at JLHudson have had I'm hoping we can come come up a more reliable method for germination. I can see troops of DGers going to pet stores, asking to "rent-a-bird" for seed germination purposes. Maybe someone could have a small home business as I think there are other seeds that must also make this trip in order to germinate. I should have planted the dog poop after the dogs ate some of my papaya seeds. See if a dog's intestines have the some effect. I can see a whole new area of scientific inquiry opening up here.
katiebear
Oh yeah, I can just see it from here:
Step right up ladies and gentlemen. Here are first quality, pre-digested papaya seeds, at the amazingly low price of $5.00/sheet. Just lay the sheet flat on the ground, cover with 1/2 inch potting soil, keep moist and watch your papaya seedlings sprout. (The crowd claps appreciatively).
Astound your friends, amaze your neighbors, amuse your children. Great for window sills. Makes a great holiday gift. Results may vary. But wait! Order within the next 12 minutes and we'll include 2 sheets for the same very reasonnable amount of $5.00 or 2 easy-pay payments of 2.50. Hurry, quantities are limited; our birds can only produce so much.
Take care
Sylvain.
LOL!!
And for an extra $2.00 we'll include an enlarged photograph of your seeds being "born."
kb
Come to think of it, some of the most successful Papaya's I can remember were at Brother Wrights chicken farm in Liberia. Aside from the digestion, perhaps the bird dooo works almost as well. Have to make a note of that.
I'm about to cut open a Papaya I picked a couple days ago and share it with the office.
Thanks for that info on the seeds! It's pretty consistent with my experience. They sproute when they feel like it and not before then!
Sounds like just about all the babies I know of. Ha Ha
Yokwe,
Shari
Me too! LOL!
I had real good germination with mine. My babies are about 5" tall. They are in the swingset GH. They need repotted.
LOL! Pu'ole, you always make me laugh!
The unusual way I look at life and its viscissitudes makes you laugh. There is nothing funny about selling the newspaper sheets at the bottom of the budgie's cage. What's funny is that people might be willing to pay for soiled newspaper. That right there is funny. I'm just the guy who writes about it.
Aloha.
Sylvain, a.k.a. Pu'ole
That's as maybe - but you do have a lovely turn of phrase, and a sense of the ridiculous!
Please don't laugh: Everyone laughed at Ben Franklin when he invented the electric kite. OK, it didn't really catch on but everyone laughed. Hey, I still do.
Sylvain.
Bump.
kb
Yes..it's getting to be that time...all of my trees are full of Papaya...I'm going to do a blog in the Houston Chronicle soon about Papayas.
If anyone wants to read the former blogs they are listed here
http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/rjuddharrison/10741/
Bump
Observing some seeds that sprouted wild in the garden, I noticed that seeds coming up in very loose soil with large mulch grew extremely fast, in fact the same tree that volunteered in very little soil is 5 times the size of others growing from the same time. Sooo...I prepared a loose mixture with quarter sized pine bark mixed in, and the propagation rate is off the hook.
The seedling, more treelike, you brought to me last year grew beautifully and even teased that it was going to bloom and then the frost got it even though I had wrapped it as carefully as I could. This spring, as with most of the tropicals, it came up from the root with 5-6 stems. I cut all away after a few weeks leaving the strongest. It is growing very fast and more like a vine. Thin stem from top to soil level and seems to be attempting to wrap around a nearby banana. We shall see.
PK
Mike is saving a mango seed for me. Don't expect much success but I sure enjoy trying.
hmmm, take some pictures...the recovery process on these is kind of unknown for me except what I've experienced here...Each plant seems to re-act differently during the recovery process.
hahaahaaaaa....no..I hear ya...! Try this one..
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/997032/
Just checking in on this papaya theme after a few months. Just want to say that for the first time in my tropic gardening life I have two healthy five foot papaya trees in the back yard with flower buds on. After trying for years on sandy soil, killing with fertiliser, etc.....I think I finally have figured out how to do it by accident. I made a wire framed compost in the back part of the yard. A couple of volunteer papaya plants started growing on the edge of the compost from food scraps. When they got several inches in height I transferred them out of the compost to about 1 foot away on each side of the compost....and have been watering them. They are looking wonderful.....sandy soil for drainage....me to water them.....and roots growing right under the compost heap to nourish them. I have finally have hope of harvesting home grown fruit.
By the way, I just want to make sure you all know that green papaya makes a beautiful vegetable in your stir fry....just cut up small.....as well as for eating ripe. The soft overipe fruit also make great jam....just add a bit of ginger powder as well to balance the strong papaya flavor. aloha
congradulations...that is what I had discovered on the loose soil...is volunteering in compost bin, or on top of the soil of other potted plants...
and....for those of you who live in countries where apples are rare, green Papaya can replace apples in apple pie..you'll never know the difference..we use to make "Papple" pie in Liberia all the time.
This is a very long thread, had anyone ever pickled green papayas os use green papayas as a veggie with meats.
i wish i can grow them in my backyard.
Belle
Hi..there.....a few months since I looked in. Just to say that I use green papaya cut up into small bits for stir fries and stews. It is a good extender. If very green...flesh is white in color with not much taste. If getting near ripe then the flesh may get a yellow color to it when cooked and a bit more flavor. Some papayas are not that tasty so if I have a tree like that I will not wait until it is ripe but use it as a vegetable.
That's an interesting idea! When I grew up in Liberia, apples were hard to come by, so we made apple pie, from green papaya, affectionately named Papple pie. Could not tell the difference!