starting Papaya seeds

does anyone out there know if papaya seeds out of the fruit need to be dryed and hard before planting or can you plant them right out of the fruit?

Hi Dayflower,

Yes, they need to dry before planting. I left mine for about a week out on a paper towel before I planted them. I now have 30 little trees for next spring to plant. If you want any more seeds send me a d-mail with your address and I will send you some. I have so many of them.

How long do the trees last, Gardenia? I hear people talking about starting them every year and I wonder what they do with all those trees. :-) Are they short-lived, or just very tender?

Hi KaperC,

I honestly do not know. This is my first time growing them but I am sure any temp below 40 degrees will damage them when this small. Mine are about 7-8'' now. I am just going to place them in the garage or cover them up since weather here is not going to stay that cold for long.

There is a beautiful plantation here near Gonzales called the Houmas House Plantation that has a couple of Papaya trees that have withstood the winters here I noticed that they just cut the tops out of them that were frozen and the tree sprouted out from the side and grew from there and made fruit on the new part for that year. We do have some freezes down to 24 but not too many and for not for too many hours at a time. We usually have to cover with pinestraw and make tents with lights in them for our cold night on our tender plants.

Do you think it would make a nice houseplant, sort of like an Avocado does?
Sheri

this one that I have grew from a seed last year and I kept it in the green house untill this past March 08, and panted it in the ground and it was about 3' tall, it grew really fast with a lot of Miracle grow and water to about 10' tall and put on around 8 or so papaya. They are ripeing slowly one by one now. We leave them on the tree until they turn yellow and begin to be soft to the touch and are really good. I don't know how well they'd do as a container plant but give them a try. I've got some seeds planted now but they haven't come up yet, we'll see, I think they take 10 to 14 days.

Interesting on papaya! I've never tried one, but a friend who visited the Darla Moore gardens brought back pictures of Papaya---in full fruit---from the Darla Moore Gardens. Jenks Farmer has been designing/developing this thing from the git-go, and he's always been kind of a Guru on what works and what doesn't... They grow them as annuals up there in Darla Moore country, but if he can make them work up there---and produce fruit, I'm thinking, why not give them a shot at low-country conditions (milder climate). And that's how it starts...

here are a couple of pic's that I took this AM. The tree is tied because the hurricane blew it over but didn't uproot it so we just pulled it back up and staked it and it has been OK.

another close up of fruit, let it stay on the tree until it is soft to touch and yellow

Great view, dayflower!

Congrats dayflower on your success with the papayas!!! Currently I've a couple trees that are roughly 5-7 feet tall, I'm overwinter them indoor, will move them back out side in early spring. These were seedlings that were started last year.

Lily, I'm surprised yours didn't bear fruit this year. Did you have it where it was in full sun. They like sun, and a lot of water and fert. Mine grew reeeeal fast.

The growing condition made the difference. I gathered. Mine are in containers, lot of sun, but they begun to flower just last week or so, not enough time to be pollinated by butterflies and bees? Then I've to move them in to dodge the light frost in the area. Though, we haven't gotten frost, but I didn't want to risk them outside since they've made it thus far.

Lilly~~ our zones are similar, so thats how I would have to grow a papaya. 'outside in the summer an inside in the winter
Sheri

Hi Sheri,
Have you got some going yet?

No, not yet. I have saved a few seeds in the past, but had o idea how to plant , when, etc, so went no further with them.
Sheri

dayflower,
Did you have just the one tree that is fruiting? I'm curious if it is self fertile. I have about 10 or 15 growing from seed, so it wouldn't matter, but I'm still curious. I'll plant some outside in the spring. Our climates should be similiar. That would be great if I could actually get fruit next year.
Your tree looks great. Yeah, those hurricane winds can be pretty viscious, I found out also.
Pam

Are there many small seeds inside the large pod, or is that the single seed?

You cut open a big papaya and it has a bunch of slimy black seeds in there. Just scoop them out kind of like cantaloupe and clean them somewhat, then dry them.

Here's a picture of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaya

I only had the one tree. I hope to have another next year if my seeds come up that I have planted. If not I'll be looking for another tree. I plan to leave the tree that I have in the ground but intend to protect it with pine straw and a tent with a light for the cold nights, we do get down to 24 sometimes so we'll see if it will survive or not....this whole thing has been a horticulture experiment. Been a lot of fun. A lot of people have really been surprised to see it growing here in this part of the country.

Oh boy~~ Do I ever feel silly!!
I've been thinking "Mango"! LOL
It's been a Blonde day, I guess.
Sheri

LOL, Sheri, sounds as if you and I need to move to the tropic. We're soooo into tropical gardening.

yes,...I loved Costa Rica...if younger, I'd move there in a minute

Hey dayflower, now that we're older, maybe we can do a time-share and invite Sheri to join us? LOL.