The Tropical Fruit Forum

Is your  papaya in the picture called tainung 1?  Is it sweet ?
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Tainung was a hybrid developed in Taiwan. It is not Tainung, this is a heirloom papaya in northern Thailand passed down by generations, flesh is orange and very sweet. Some threes are even 20 years old. I need 3 days to eat one they are so big.
I believe is Khaek Dum somehow crossed with others, normally Khaek Dum is long and thiner.

For 9b zone from my trials (I am in zone 7b-8a), Thai papaya is the strongest (the strongest is Babaco, but it's not real papaya). I say this because I collected some seeds from northern Thailand where temperatures in the winter drop to 6-10C (40-50F). It will not die when is cold. BUT it needs to be dry. No wet feet. (actually there in 3 months it rains twice). They grow very fast, and make flowers around 1m (3 ft) tall. Hawaii papayas are very sensitive to cold, they root rot fast.
I have another method, I grow them outside in land during the summer then I cut the top off, root it and pot it. New flowers start close to the ground like 30cm (1ft), the root system is very shallow, and no more tap root, it's a method they use in Thailand.
Sure you can use mountain papaya as a rootstock for normal papaya ( I am going to make this soon and on other Vasconcellea speacies, I already successfully grafted papaya on babaco).
This is the papaya in Thailand, they weight 2-3kg, no virus present (should you want some seeds let me know, I carefully collected them and removed the sarcotesta individually, germination is 90%) :


and here is in my greenhouse, this is only 5 months old from seed:

I have more seeds left from Carica pubescens syn. Vasconcellea pubescens for sale. Germination instructions included.
Price is 3 Euro for 25 seeds. Postage 2 Euro, simple bubble letter. Payment by PayPal. Delivery time: Europe 2-5 days. USA/CAN: 7-15 days. Worldwide : 7-30 days.

Thai seeds germinated after 10 days, 100% germination. Bought the fruit in Thailand from a street seller. So it must be the irradiation.

Has anyone tried to grow krachai dum or Thai black ginger Kaempferia parviflora
Or anyone used it? It's said to significantly increase hand grip strength and enhance sexual stimuli.

Does any one have more seeds left V. palandensis ? I want to grow it as well, Baker Creek doesn't have the seeds anymore, and neither J Simcox.

Now about "Mita" Vasconcellea candicans I found more information in Spanish. It seems like is Critically Endangered, with only few spots in Peru and one location in Ecuador left. The plant is dioecious. What is very interesting is that it grows leaves in the humid season and when the dry season comes it drops all of them then it starts to flower. Finally it sets fruit with very little leaves left when the soil is very dry. It grows on very poor soils and it might be very hardy. maybe 20F. It is not cultivated.
For those who bought the seeds I have bad news: the seeds don't germinate (around 0.5%). They have a very low germination rate, not that they are bad or nonviable, but because the have some germination inhibitors making the plant very difficult to propagate.
The good news is that is possible to germinate it "in vitro" though embryo rescue with good results.
I have only 10 seeds to make this attempt. If anyone else is trying this let me know we can share some research.

Yes they all look for water. Soil is important indeed. But don't forget papaya plants are dependent on mycorrhizas for their nutrition. A very colonized plant will have a lot of roots. Also a cutting will develop a smaller root system.

I will be in Thailand in a couple of months. I can eat the mangoes and send you the seeds. There are many varieties like Nam doc or anon choc who are polyembrionic.
Also มะม่วงกะล่อน Kalon Mango which has small fruits and it's eaten unripe is a very strong tree both to temperature and pests.
The only thing is there a problem importing them? The seeds lose viability after 5 days.

[/quote] I wonder if Joseph Simcox was the one that got them to Baker Creek.
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Most probably. One really need to hunt them, they have a narrow grow space that even the locals don't know where to pick them.
I tried to contact him, but his website is down. I saw his pictures with the vascocelleas it seems like he took them last year in the winter.

i just went online to baker creek and could not find the papaya seeds, ? so where/how are you guys finding them??        Patrick

here is Mita http://www.rareseeds.com/mita-vasconcellea-candicans/
they don't have V. palandensis anymore, this is so rare only in south Ecuador

In Brazil they grow mostly two groups: 'Solo' and 'Formosa'. So I believe it's a "Formosa" (hybrid 'Tainung 01').
Leaves look ok, tehy look like that because the pot it's not deep.

I have plenty of them. Ready to grow, with "eyes", 100% sprouting in 7-10 days.
I posted a sell before but nobody was interested.
They grow pretty fast like 5-6 months, then they are ready for harvest. Now they do take like 4-5 months of dry season to make buds.
So here are the rizhomes.
I can post them to US with no problem, it takes 2 weeks. Just check if you can import them.