Wind Storm Snapped The Tops Off my Papayas

[JeffDM]

Early Monday morning (3:00 AM) an unusual (for San Diego) wind storm picked up and tossed two 8' X 20' shade structures off my patio and down my back slope.  In the process the tops of several of my papaya plants were ripped off and I lost a lot of large fruit that hadn't started to ripen yet.
Two other shade structures survived because they were tied down to anchors in the ground and not just attached to concrete blocks.
Amazingly the shade structures survived and are still usable, but the papaya plants are in bad shape.
Is it possible the the plants with the sheared off tops will survive?
Any comments will be appreciated.

[MangoFang]

Well actually Jeff, I've been trained to cut the papaya's down anyway when they get too tall and they will sprout branches below that cut, so they should be OK.  Regarding the green papayas, besides using them in green papaya salads and other things made with green papaya (which I've never done by the way), the oldest ones, even if not colored up at all, can be put in the paper bag and possibly ripen.

I had a similar thing happen last year and the fruit that came down did manage to ripen using the bag trick and I was very surprised....

Gary

[JeffDM]

Well actually Jeff, I've been trained to cut the papaya's down anyway when they get too tall and they will sprout branches below that cut, so they should be OK.  Regarding the green papayas, besides using them in green papaya salads and other things made with green papaya (which I've never done by the way), the oldest ones, even if not colored up at all, can be put in the paper bag and possibly ripen.

I had a similar thing happen last year and the fruit that came down did manage to ripen using the bag trick and I was very surprised....

Gary

Thanks for the info.
Do you do anything to cover the hollow opening after you cut the top of the plant?

[mangaba]

When my papaya trees get too tall, I cut them about 2 meters height and cover the cut portion with a plastic bucket. I have noticed that several branches will sprout. I general trim extras and  keep a few. Otherwise I notice that the new fruits run small compared to original. Also you can plant the removed branches. Although these branches will not have a tap root, some will grow and yield flower and fruit.
                 Papaya sap works as a meat tenderizer and denaturates toxins of some insects
                                                                        mangaba

[pschill444@aol.com]

Hello Jeff , my 2 cents is all the above is just fine EXCEPT use of the green papaya to me and most of mine papaya picked green and pushed to ripen smells like a OLD DIRTY GYM sock hardly worth eating however they do make great sauerkraut easy to make less than ten min. no cooking req.  very healthy have recipes if wanted.    Patrick

[gnappi]

The papaya that I had chopped did not fruit on the new branches until the branches were very long. Despite thinning the fruit the branches all broke from the weight of the fruit. Did anyone who chopped the top have better luck with branch grown fruit?

[greenman62]

i top mine always. even new plants before they flower
just to keep them short.
yes, they produce several stalks, and you have to thin the fruit/flowers.
if i have 3 branches, i thin 2/3 of the flower buds off weekly, or every other week.
this brings it back to normal fruiting numbers, and the fact that the leaf area will be higher
means you can really support more fruit, except they might be smaller,
so, i keep it at removal of %66 of the flower buds (for 3 branches)
obviously the numbers will change with a different # of stalks.

i have also had a problem in high rains, with a loaded tree full of fruit falling over

and if i have 3 branches, i will top each one at different times
i take abut 3 inches off the top every few weeks in summer.
leaving the other 2 untouched... then rotate to the others a few weeks later.
this way, you always have new leaf growth and new flower buds
but the tree is kept to size.



this is grown from a cutting of a mature tree



3 stalks. (top actually froze last winter)


2 main branches

[MangoFang]

Jeff - I did not cover the cut opening on the remaining papaya trunk and worried about that
myself as far as rot getting in there.  But it didn't happen but I have much less rain and humidity
than you, so I'll defer that answer to others.

Also, I have a tree that had the crown killed and it sprouted like 5 branches of various sizes
and actually held up in our recent 50+ mph winds....see if I can find a picture, not that you can see each branch ....


Gary

[greenman62]

i have cut the tops off at least 25 papaya plants
another several have frozen off.
never have i worried about water, or covering it.
its never been an issue.
and we get lots of rain and high humidity here (New Orleans)

[starling2]

As Jeff & FGM have stated, topping papaya is mostly a good thing.  It's pretty much mandatory here in Aus, because over About 8 feet they become bat food.

Place the bottom half of a plastic soda bottle, or a tin, over the cut-- it will stop re-sprouting at the crown and force the tree to flower lower down.

[JeffDM]

Thanks for all the information.  Looks like papaya plants are a lot tougher than I thought. 

[Popsicle]

I'm new to growing papapya.  I'm learning so much here today!  My tree snapped off over night.  I'm thinking the weight was too much as there were like 20 fruit on the main stalk.  I gathered all fruit.  Hoping some would countinue to ripen.  They are oozing the white yuck so I looked that up first and now worry I may have these worms!  I am going to put them on the back porch and hope that some will continue to ripen and pray there are no worms!  We did see a wasp flying around them a few days ago.  I might lose my first harvest, but I'm learning!  I will work hard at keeping these trees going strong. 

[JCorte]

Popsicle, papayas will exude a white latex when picked underripe and is normal.  If the fruit get damaged when young you will see white latex on the damaged cuts as well.

Janet