mini papayas

[tuca]

I have heard about miniature papaya farm with nice plants fool of fruits. The farm location is somewhere near Key West, FL.
In fact, I am a papaya lower and my HOA people ordered to cut my plants which were fool of fruits. So, I am thinking to get some new mini plants into my balcony. I appreciate if somebody can indicate a nursery's location with this kind of smaller growing plant which can stay in pots in my balcony. Ltoth

 

[flgardengirl]

I use a reliable seed source that has dwarf papaya seeds. You want to get one that has hermaphrodite flowers (both female and male parts) on the plant so they can self fertilize. I have the variety of Red Lady that seems to be a really good producer and stays around 6 ft tall in the ground and around 4 ft tall in a pot. Seeds are very easy to start. Papayas need to stay warm though and do not handle freezing temps well.
Here is the seed source I use. They seem to sell very fresh seeds and they are in sealed foil packages. Papaya seed doesn't have a long shelf life so fresh is good lol.
Aloha seed http://www.shop.alohaseed.com/main.sc

If you want a plant, Logees greenhouse does sell the T.R. Hovey variety that is a dwarf and can be grown in a pot. My mom got one of these and she liked it. She kept hers in a pot and it stayed small. It might get bigger in the ground. Here is the Logees link: http://www.logees.com/Papaya-TR-Hovey-Carica-papaya/productinfo/R1776-4/

 

[tuca]

Thank you for the advise of "figardengirl" . I have already ordered both seed and plant, than I will see later... However, other people says that this plant is not really dwarf and it will grow as a normal plant.

 

[flgardengirl]

I think it will depend if they are kept in a pot or in the ground. A lot of stuff will stay smaller if kept in a pot. When they get in the ground they will grow much bigger no matter what the variety. If you get one that is more of a dwarf variety like the T.R. Hovey or Red Lady they will stay pretty small in a pot. In the ground More like 6 ft and if you are in a really tropical enviornment then maybe 7ft. There are some varieties of papaya that get really large. I planted some Mexican papaya seeds from the grocery store once and they got about 12 feet when they were fully grown.
Here are some I planted from an unknown variety that I bought in a pot at a kmart lol. They were in clumps and some were smaller and some larger. I think some were male and some female. The smaller plant got way more fruit.

 

[bluenkimchi]

I know this is an older thread, but if you are still wanting more miniature papaya plant that can be kept in containers. I suggest the T R Hovey papaya plant, Like the above person said it will be 3'-5' in pots and 6'-8' in ground. There is an alternative site you can check out that has them also Florida Hill Nursery and Wellspring Nursery. The Logees website is much more expensive then the 2 I mention. Not sure how big of a plant Logees offer but I have order from FHN and got a plant about 1' tall for only 6.99 on there ebay store and the shipping was also 6.99. If Logee have plants of that same size from FHN then I would choose the later. But of as now both nursery mention are on vacation but you can check back on them in spring.

 

[flgardengirl]

I just noticed that wellspring is carrying the T R Hovey papaya. They can be found on ebay. I have ordered from them before and even though they sell very small starter plants they usually do really well for me. I got some banana shrubs (Michelia) a few years ago that were tiny sticks when I got them and now they are 4 foot bushes that are making loads of strong banana/vanilla scented flowers right now and smell heavenly!

 

[nok13]

maybe u all could help...
hubby has tried for 6 years to grow papayas here; 20 minutes away they have a a warmer winter and more humid climate; we are higher up, drier and get to almost freezing and once in a while freezing temps at night for our short winter (december to march) wiht maybe one sort of snow a year... everyyear he starts new papapa seeds and then in winter they die back. we've tried greenhouse style but its more a storage area then greenhouse so never does the trick... also, there is the male/female problem , someone else her managed to raise three trees. two died of cold. one survived but doesnt fruit as it has no partners..
the thing is, is that here, there are only a few varieties that are raised professionally or sold in tree nurseries; these kinds dont do well in this area (we are in jerusalem so look for zoning/alt/long on google- we are 730 meters above sea level) and the kind that the thais smuggle over also die off. because we are a small agricultural country, all nurseries carry the same varieties of anything from cukes to tomatoes to basil; they are all leftovers from professional farm young plants... so cold weather papayas are not available as no one looks for them.

he uses papaya as a staple ; the sale price in a store is prohibitive, and its a seasonal fruit.

anyone have any ideas or seeds that would fit our climate??: rain in winter, dry arid from march thru to december... we irrigate. rocky soil (i think alkaline if im not mistaken), geographers can search for judean hills soil (very good for vineyards, since biblical times actually. we have terraces here that are thousands of years old)...

our house faces north with a western sided garden with little or no sun and on the north side there is sun (and a huge fig tree). can a potted papaya fruit? we can make a wheeled container tub and move the tree if it survives...

 

[destinduck]

Yea they can produce being potted.The monks at their church/monastery here grow alot of fruiting papayas in pots.Because it gets cold here in the winter they have to take them inside. flgardengirl I too have a banana bush about 4ft tall. I love the smell. Mine is under a native magnolia .

 

[flgardengirl]

3 of the papayas I left out in the garden are still okay. Top leaves burnt off on the last cold snap. I have one red lady papaya in the greenhouse that I dug up just 'in case' lol, that is maybe 6 ft tall at the most and it has 3 little fruits on it still. When the pot starts getting dried out the fruits start shriveling slightly and then I water it and they poof back up lol. Hopefully I can plant it back out into the garden in a few weeks and they fruits will continue to mature.

p.s. doesn't anyone else think that papaya flowers smell just like Froot Loops cereal ?

 

[nok13]

i suspect its the other way around; fruit loops smell like flowers of some fruit...