I bought a "T.R. Hovey" Papaya seedling on June 23, 2011 from Wellspring Gardens on eBay. By the end of the year, it had flowered and three fruits were starting to develop. I waited for the oldest fruit to fully ripen on the tree before I picked it yesterday. It was larger than a softball; smaller than a football--a little over half the size of store-bought papaya. The rind was a deep lemon yellow and nearly all of the green specks had faded. I almost waited too long to pick it. It still had significant green spots last week, but by Monday the flower end was starting to go bad.
When I cut it open, I expected red flesh, but this fruit was golden yellow through and through. Store-bought papaya seems to be packed with seeds, but the seeds were more sparse in mine. All the seeds appear to be fully mature.
It was delicious. It was less stringy and much firmer than most papaya I have tasted before--easily as firm as a cantaloupe. It was sweet, but less sweet than tropic-grown papaya, again comparable to cantaloupe. I have no idea if this variety normally has less sugar than the red varieties I tasted before or whether this is a result of not growing it in the tropics. I live in Tennessee, zone 6b.
Wellspring shipped this in a 1-1/2 inch pot. I potted it up into a six inch container before transplanting it to a 24 inch diameter half-whisky-barrel liner. I brought it inside to my sunroom last October. By December it was blooming, but all but three flowers fell off (and they continue to drop off now). Unfortunately, my sunroom has only a small heater, so most of my tropicals go dormant during the coldest months. The only effect I can see is the distance between leaves became shorter. Now that the plant is warm again, this distance is lengthening again. I use Miracle-Gro potting mix exclusively, but do not recommend the moisture control stuff. Once the built-in fertilizer runs out, I tend to use organic fertilizers, but sometimes use osmocote to save time.
I recommend this dwarf variety and this vendor for greenhouse/sunroom growers.