Is this papaya tree salvageable, and worth doing so?

[NewGen]

Hi,

I planted this Solo 2 years ago. Up until late 2019, it was doing well. Lots of leaves and several fruits.
Then winter came, all leaves dropped, the immature fruits held on, but eventually dropped as well  in early 2020.
The tree didn't die, but there's a portion of it near the top that's damaged, see photos with arrows.
The new leaves that are growing out now are much smaller than those that were on the tree last year.
I think the damage on the trunk is preventing nutrients from being delivered to the top.
What do you guys recommend? Should I chop it off just below the damaged section?
Remove the entire tree? It's about 12 feet tall.

Thank you,

[Shiapouf]

Give it a few more months, see if it improves, if not, chop and drop

[spaugh]

Its rotting from the cold wet winter.  Mine rotted at the ground and tipped over.  Papaya is a waste of time in CA IMO. 

[Budtropicals]

It's real tall too. I don't know about you, but I cut mine down after a while. Papayas are not actual trees, so they decline rapidly in production over time anyways, at least in my experience. Getting new plants is real easy too, so I just grow em and eat fruit until I think it's time to cut it down, then I repeat the process. I think you should just cut that one down.

[NewGen]

Brad:
I see many houses in Orange county that have fruiting papayas. These are from my inlaws, in Fountain Valley. Excellent taste.







Budtropicals, and Shiapouf: I'll give it another month or so and decide. It's not occupying any prime real estate anyways. Here in Bakersfield, papayas don't live year round because the winter is too cold. I was surprised this one did. I have a few others growing in containers and in the ground so a replacement is ready.

[spaugh]

Mine made tons of fruit but they always ripened way late then would get beat up during winter and take far into summer to come back.  Maybe there's better ones but my solos sucked.

[RodneyS]

I'd just sprout another papaya.  They grow extremely fast, and the older trees lose their productivity.

[palmcity]

Its rotting from the cold wet winter.  Mine rotted at the ground and tipped over.  Papaya is a waste of time in CA IMO.

Rotting is frequent with wet ground in South Florida also.

"NewGen" is doing similar to I in planting papaya near a concrete foundation. A flat slab area of concrete will also work fine, the house, garage, tool shed, or anything that it can get it's roots under to help anchor it and the foundation should be dryer than most of the surrounding soil to also help decrease root rot when excess rain etc. happens. Another choice is to plant it next to a tree to let the roots intertwine for stability and decreased wetness with the elevation of the tree roots pushing up the soil. The wind really knocks them down especially with rain in my sandy soil without concrete or another tree to help anchor the papaya.

Regardless of the soil condition near the concrete or tree, I have found planting near them to be superior for a longer time of papaya growth before death.

[pineislander]

I grow a lot of papaya and some parts of the year this can be 100 pounds/week. This year I have 30 plants getting close to transplanting size. I always plant on mounds to keep the roots from drowning, but also plant the seedlings deeper in ground than they were in the pot. My ideal would be to plant from 10 inch diam pots a plant that is 12 inches tall, burying the plant halfway. As the plants grw they produce adventitioous roots along the trunk and within a short while are indistinguishable from ordinary planted papaya.

I haven't lost any of these planted deeply to either toppling or drowning, despite plenty of flooding and winds. I have had some blown so hard that they broke off with the fruit load. I actually dug out some 2 years old plants, rather like NewGen's pictures above, they just got too tall to harvest even with a ladder. If I get two years I consider that a good lifetime, it is time to replace them. The ones I dug which had been planted deeply had a huge root mass very deep and broad.

 I do find some volunteers which usually come up en masse with very many small plants, and I often select one or two and pull the rest, but they are usually so superficially rooted they eventually topple over or require propping up. These trees I usually just use for selling green papaya when people want to use it as a vegetable.