Oh boy! I misunderstood! I did just like you said, dried them in paper towels over the fridge, etc...but after a couple of weeks when they were dry I sowed them! Bummer...
Papaya 101 "My Experiences"
well no worries..I didn't know about the 6 month thing either..It was another random dumb good luck event, and it does explain why some that I planted may have not come up..
It kind of makes sense though because of the gelatinis cocoon around the seeds ..I often wondered how they ever get around to sprouting due to rotting first with that stuff around it.
I guess I'll have to try again and sit tight!
I knew the enivitable would happen..and it has...for several years nothing bothered the Papaya's...but something has discovered the delicious taste, and have had two of them munched on the trees this summer.
I wasn't anywhere near your house!! Really!!!
kb
LOL....
If a bird finds a papaya, look out! Cover them on the tree with a plastic trash bag, or just about anything.
My seeds from a fruit sprouted in a timely manner, a week or so. The mail-ordered seeds took more than two weeks to sprout.
I got the little water sac (??) off the fruit-seed by dumping the seed on several layers of news papers, putting several layers of news papers on top, and rubbed them gently. After several changes of newspapers, most of the seeds were free from the sac. Planted right away in Pro mix, 1/4 inch deep. I think I wrote this before.
No seed from dropped fruit made it past something?? Lots of earwigs there, maybe them, they eat new sprouts, I hear. Or maybe field mice.
Boy, this is a popular thread!
I threw my papaya seeds in the mulch pile and now i have little papaya trees everywhere. I also have one large tree with about 35 fruits on it.
My papaya seeds were at least 7 mos old when I planted them in the Miracle Grow. I planted about half of my seeds. I just dumped them in several 4" pots, and I believe almost all of them have germinated. They are growing like little weeds. They are several inches tall. I will have to separate them eventually. So far so good!
Thanks Randy for this thread! It really has been fun!
Well see...reports are they grow whenever huh?
Maybe the "fragrant papaya" is a male tree. The flowers on a male tree smell wonderful. thanks for the papaya growing tips. It always seems that the volunteer trees grown from seeds deposited by birds grow better than the ones I try and grow. Am still trying though.
LOL....no kidding..I had so many Papayas a couple years ago I just let them drop from the trees...I have quite a few growing from that drop, and like you they are doing quite good.
Does anyone here have any spare seeds for trade? I am so disappointed I still have to wait another 6 months for mine to germinate!
- the beggar
What seeds are you looking for? Leeflea51
I'll send you some....I'll send some from various dates including this year..we gotcha covered.
The variety is the one I talked about where every tree produces...
Sorry. must have posted on the wrong site and to the wrong person. Thought someone was looking for seed. I see posting from rjuddharrison re: papaya. Was that the question regarding seed? Leeflea51
Yes, she is looking for seeds...She planted some fresh seeds, and then read that they are dormant for 6 months I think before they are ready...I hadn't heard that before, but...I have seeds from a variety of times...1 yr 2 yr...
I think the info on seeds is rather ambigous as I had read..fresh seeds were the way to go..so...who knows.
Rj
Sorry about the posting. I can't help with the seed in question as I live in N.E. Mississippi. However, as a child, I did get a papaya to grow from seeds but in zone7a it was killed by the first frost. Warmly, Leeflea51
While puttering in the yard yesterday I was thinking about this thread and I put some ideas together. I have read that there are seeds which have germination-hindering thingies (a technical term I picked up) in them which are removed in the digestive process if eaten by a bird and then pooped out (don't know if it would work with humans and I'm not about to experiment). The papaya might be one of those seeds since many of those who've had seeds grow say it was the bird-planted ones that germinated.
Just another thought to add to the mix.
katiebear
Interesting thought Katie, certainly my papaya all over our garden are bird planted! Even all the babies under the trees have probably gone through the birds first as they spend hours hollowing out the fruit!
Edited to add a Bon Voyage Randy, I am sure you will have a great time with Carol on the BI!
This message was edited Aug 24, 2008 6:27 AM
Thanks! I certainly will. I'm leaving fri morning from LAX.
I spent most of the morning cutting down Hawaiin Wood Rose...the vine managed to cover much of the back garden via the mid ranged canopy...it invaded the big Papaya tree, and that was all I needed...mess with my papaya tree..hmmm...
Have a great trip, Randy.
katiebear
I've a roughly 1-year old papaya tree. Does anyone know how old will the tree be likely to yield flowers and fruits? I don't know of its particular kind of papaya. A seedling was giving to me last year. It's now about 5-6' tall.
At first glance, this looks to be quite similar of the tree I'm growing from Hawaii. I think the ones I'm growing from Hawaii are Male, Female types.. I don't have much experience with this variety..this is my training tree!. My tree is about 8 feet, and a year old as well. Mabe Jenny can shed some light?
Thanks Randy, hopefully Jenny will find our posts and share some info.
Here is some reading on Hawaiin Papaya
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/papaya.html
Unfortuneatly there are 8 types listed, all of which seem to be I.D. by the fruit.
Katiebear...have a look at that link. It has a section about seeds, you may find it interesting.
Aloha, goofing off at work - with our climate we usually have fruit within 9 or 10 months from a bird sown seed, type unknown of course!
Some papaya, as I am sure you know, are male or female and you will not know which you have until they flower. With this type you will, of course, need both sexes to get fruit.
Many Hawaiian papaya are bisexual, so you only need one tree although I believe that having a male tree around is just so much the better. I may have this totally wrong though, perhaps Dave or Carol would know. We have one huge papaya with many branches (a male) which we never completely chop down just for this reason - the tallest branch is taller than the house, so I would guess he is about 25 feet tall. I rather suspect him of fathering many papaya in our neighborhood!
I do have one papaya that everyone calls a papaya on steroids - it is certainly not a mexican variety. I have never seen such huge fruit running around 4 lbs in weight each. I wonder if anyone can name my noid? Bird sown of course! We have to use a bucket on a pole to pick them as they are far too large for the usual pickers to handle. If anyone knows which variety (if indeed it is a variety) this might be, I would love to know.
I am afraid I am not much help as I pay no attention to the papaya at all, except for pulling them up as weeds. I do know that there are certain Hawaiian varieties that are well thought of as far as flavor and the fact they are bisexual (I know there is a proper botanical name for bisexual - but I can't recall it). I rather think that most of my papaya are so cross bred they are types unto themselves!
Jen
Thank you, Randy. I guess the question about when the seeds germinate best remains open for discussion and field reports.
There is one error for sure in that posting. We have salty soil here by the Sea of Cortez and papayas do well here. Maybe they have them confused with avacados.
katiebear
Thanks, that does shed some light. I would suspect that blooming on the 1 year old trees would be soon.
I'm not sure what the large papaya you have is. I do remember in Liberia, W. Africa, the papayas were incredibly large, some as big as watermelons. These particular Papayas were grown on a chicken farm...and yes, the guy heaped tons of Chicken doo around the trees, most likely the reason for the size.
I think for the reason Jenny mentioned, that Papayas are probably fast out pacing the info posted on them!
Jenny - Do your monster papayas have the same texture and flavor as the small, pear-shaped ones do?
kb
P.S. If the answer is yes, guess who would love to have some seeds?
I remember a lecturer at Montreal's Botanical Garden telling us about tomato seeds. Before you start throwing holy water at your screens because this polarbear is off-topic, let me assure you that this seems relevant. Read on, please.
He told us that if we wanted to keep your tomato seeds to replant them the next year, we should slice open a very ripe tomato and squeeze out the seeds and that semi-gelatinous stuff that surrounds them into a shallow, wide dish. You left those on the kitchen counter until they got moldy. Apparently, that causes 2 things to happen:
1) The mold destroys the germination inhibitor contained in the goop (as KatieBear said), and
2) Your wife will go ballistic at you and threaten divorce if you don't get your disgusting stuff off the kitchen counter ASAP.
The moldy crust could then be thrown away and the seeds could be washed and dried for use the following year. Wrapping them in a paper envelope was also crucial. I wonder (as did KatieBear) if that is not one way to get the papaya to germinate in less than 6 months. Squeeze the black globules, collect the goop and the tiny seeds, let them get moldy and when the goop is neutralized, sow them directly into the ground.
I have a papaya sitting on my counter. I'll try and keep you all appraised of my progress. The discussion goes on and on. This thread is generating quite a bit of response.
Sylvain.
Whoops! Cross posted - sorry!
I've always dried the seeds with the gelatinous part on them...I'll have to try planting some I have saved from a couple years ago.
It seems we are destined to re-write the Paw Paw directory per our experience!
Aloha, this working sure cuts into my DG time trying to keep up with you all!
My monster has the typical very sweet orange flesh, I will try to take a picture when I get home althought I don't believe we have a ripe one at present...
Of course you may have seeds - have you any idea how many are in the monster? I can't even put the seed into the compost pile because all of them germinate even after a hot pile! Anyone else who might want seeds of the beast let me know!
Randy, thank you so much for coming to the rescue! : ) I'm sending you Dmail.
R
Here is the monster - Randy's description of the papaya in Liberia sound just like mine - sans the chicken poo! It is the only monster I have, all the rest are just the regular ones maybe 8oz to 1lb each. All the locals I have shown and who have tasted Big Yellow say that it's definately a Hawaiian type, but none have seen the size before so it remains unnamed...
I haven't got a ripe one at present, these are about half grown. As the plant is way above the roof line I can't really put anything next to them for comparison size wise...
BHM, now I understand why you refer to it as "The Monster". How high off the ground are those fruit? I would say about 15 feet. I would love to plant that here because I have a penchant for large plants but I just don't have the space. Thank you for offering, though.
Aloha,
Sylvain, A.K.A. Pu'ole