Volunteer papaya has a fruit on it!

[imafan26]

It looks like a female flower. If you open up the blossom and look at the immature fruit and it is slender it is a hermaphrodite. The female fruit is larger and has lobes.

I don't know why the fruit would be darker unless it is a varietal thing.

The small leaves on the trunk are common. Most of the time they stay small and most people would pick them off. Some of them may grow and make arms on the papaya, but you do not want too many arms to grow since it reduces fruit size.

When the papaya gets too tall to reach the fruit. Cut the trunk put a can over the top and allow one or two arms to grow. You will have smaller, but pickable fruit for a little while longer.

Papaya can get up to 30 ft tall and live about 8 years unless it gets PRSV. If the seed came from Dole plantation or Helemano then it is likely to be resistant as over 90% of the papaya grown commercially is resistant to papaya ringspot virus. It is either a rainbow or progeny of rainbow. In other words it will have the GMO gene for PRSV resistance.

[Rose bloom]

I think it is the Hawaiian papaya.

[Rose bloom]

One of the fruits has a small streak of yellow now I'll post a picture later.

[ReptileAddiction]

If you buy a papaya tree from a nursery they will all be hermaphrodite flowers correct? The ones I sell come in from wholesale with 3 trees growing tied together. Do you recommend cutting some down? How long would it be for a tree that is about a foot and a half tall in a 2 gallon container to bear fruit?

I would like to point out that papayas do not get 30' in California. They stay much smaller here.

[ReptileAddiction]

I would also like to point out that if you grew a papaya from seed then chances are it is GMO because most of the Hawaiian crop is genetically modified. In fact, it must be tested every time to certify it non GMO.

[Rose bloom]

I'm guessing mine is a hermaphrodite, because no one in my neighborhood has a papaya tree. However, the fruit had no seeds.

[imafan26]

I know this answer is late but in case you are still wondering. The inside of a papaya tree is hollow. That is why it is not smart to put a ladder up against the tree to pick the fruit, although lots of people do that. Papaya is really an herb, it is not woody. It will usually live about 8 years and can get up to thirty feet, way past good picking height. You can lop off the top and put a coffee can over the top and let a couple of the side branches grow. Don't let more than two grow or the fruit will be too small. Then, the fruit will be pickable again but will be smaller in size.

As to the color of the green fruit, some a light green, some are darker, it just depends on the tree.

The photo looks like a hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite flowers are cylindrical. Female flowers are conical. Or in other words female flowers are fatter. It is easier to tell by the shape of the fruit. Large round fruit are usually female and pear shaped fruit are smaller and usually hermaphrodites. If you have a pure female, and no male or hermaphrodite tree nearby, the fruit will fall off due to lack of pollination.

[Rose bloom]

Female or hermaphrodite?

[Rose bloom]

Imafan...........

[sueannefl]

I love my red lady papaya trees they have rewarded me with may fruits to share with friends and family. My new papaya only 8 months is loaded with fruits that are getting ripe.

[imafan26]

Sorry for the late reply Rose, it looks like a female flower. You can tell by the presence of the baby fruit.
90% of the commercial papaya crop is GMO. There are non-GMO papaya around. GMO papaya are required to be sold in separate bins from non-GMO papaya. They do not label them GMO, they label them by variety. You have to know the GMO varieties. It is amazing how so many people are afraid of GMO, but are really uninformed about it.

So, often I hear that people don't like GMO, they only eat Rainbow. Rainbow is the second GMO papaya that was developed by crossing the first GMO SunUp to Kapoho to get a yellow fleshed fruit. Some people don't like strawberry papaya. If a box of GMO papaya are sitting beside non-GMO it is hard to tell the difference unles the non-GMO papaya has spots.

[Rose bloom]

Ok, thanks. It drives me nuts to see like 3 baby fruits on the tree, and they all fall off in the the next month or two. I kind of figured....

[imafan26]

The other clue was that your papaya had no seed. Femals fruit that are under pollinated do that. Hermaphrodites self pollinate so they usually have a lot of seeds. That is why it is recommended to plant 3 papaya of the hermaphrodite variety and 5 of the gmo Rainbow. The ratio of hermaphrodites is 1:3 , in other words there is one chance in 3 of getting a hermaphrodite. However, with Waimanalo X77 I get 90% hermaphrodite so I just plant one tree. Besides my neighbor is likely to have a tree anyway so if I have a female, it can still be pollinated by the neighbor's tree. If it is a male, it is history.

[Rose bloom]

The original volunteer died. It grew next to a wall and the garbage cans, but when it grew taller, the wind really took a toll on it and the top started dying. There is another one and I believe it is a hermaphrodite, because there are about 15-20 fruits on a 6 foot tall tree! I harvested about 3 green ones and made green papaya soup a few days ago; it was delicious! I'm going to let the rest ripen. One already has streaks of orange at the tip.

[applestar]

Oooh so envious !