Author Topic: A dozen volunteer papayas!  (Read 546 times)

Juno

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A dozen volunteer papayas!
« on: July 18, 2022, 10:16:18 PM »
I don't know what to make of this papaya dilemma I have. I planted a hermaphrodite papaya that I purchased from a nursery about six months ago. It was two feet tall at the time and has tripled in height. It is just setting it's first fruits. About 20 feet down the yard, 12 volunteers have sprung up. I had no idea they were there, as they were originally  obscured by other plants and trees. I let them grow. Now two of them are 10 feet tall. There are others nearly the same height and some smaller ones as well. I have never had papayas before, so I thought if some were female I would be fortunate. I didn't even know about the self pollinating papayas, as I do now.

Today I revisited the nursery. The guy who grows the papaya from seed there insisted that "papayas don't grow that way". He thought maybe someone tossed an old papaya with seeds in the yard. Nope! It's just me and the hubby. The house behind us was vacant for the last year while it was renovated, so no one tossed seeds from that yard.

Do papayas need to be grafted? Is there any chance that these volunteers will produce decent fruit? There are no flowers yet. I feel as though I may regret not pulling them before even more roots set in. I would love to hear from anybody who has experience with this. Thanks!




eez0

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Re: A dozen volunteer papayas!
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2022, 07:43:08 AM »
definitively, papayas don't grow that way, like spreading with rhizomes as a bamboo or bermuda grass

Julie

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Re: A dozen volunteer papayas!
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2022, 11:28:14 AM »
Maybe the seeds were brought there by birds.  People have papayas growing in their property that they didn't plant.  I would thin out the weak ones and grow them out.  Then you can see if the fruit is different than what you bought.

Juno

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Re: A dozen volunteer papayas!
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2022, 03:29:03 PM »
I know it sounds crazy. Somebody played a big joke one me I if these weren’t from the momma tree, but I have never had papaya tree before and now I have a grove. I haven’t even purchased a papaya fruit this year. It’s all so strange and random. Guess I’ll wait and see what type of flowers come up.

vall

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Re: A dozen volunteer papayas!
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2022, 03:58:13 PM »
My only fruiting papaya in California was a volunteer.

I found a bunch of palm seeds in raccoon scat the other day so I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you got 12 papayas in one place.
- Val