blazito
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Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:08 pm

Papaya preflowers won't bloom

I have a dwarf TR Hovey carica (self pollinating) plant about 9-10 months old. About 2 weeks ago I noticed some buds/pre flowers. However, these buds are not flowering. They turn brown and shrivel up one by one. I feed with organic fertilizer once a month (dr. earth bud and bloom). I have been watering every other day because it has been pretty hot out here in SoCal. Any help is highly appreciated.

Healthy pre flower
papaw1.jpg
Week later
papaw2.jpg

Demosouthpaw
Cool Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:57 am
Location: Central Florida

blazito wrote:I have a dwarf TR Hovey carica (self pollinating) plant about 9-10 months old. About 2 weeks ago I noticed some buds/pre flowers. However, these buds are not flowering. They turn brown and shrivel up one by one. I feed with organic fertilizer once a month (dr. earth bud and bloom). I have been watering every other day because it has been pretty hot out here in SoCal. Any help is highly appreciated.

Healthy pre flower
papaw1.jpg
Week later
papaw2.jpg

Good afternoon OP,

While I am not entirely sure about the dwarf cultivar of papaya I can tell you the normal counter part is either male or female and requires the other in order to pollinate and then hopefully fertilize the flower. Being that yours is a "self-pollinator" these varieties are highly inbred and often breed true to type. Were did you get your seeds from?

A plant will flower when certain conditions are met, example; Right Enviro conditions, proper nutrients avil, and maturity. Given that your plant is 9-10 months old I think the chances that the plant hit maturity can be ruled out. However there is a transition stage, and your plant might be in that stage.

Another factor to look at is your environment, does it rain too much? Is it too humid? Is it too dry? Adequate sunlight...ect...ect

And lastly proper nutrients, if your plants does not have the essential nutrients available for uptake then your plant will not be able to complete a life cycle. Nutrients can become tied in soil that has an off PH to acidic or too basic will tie up essential nutrient uptake and make it nearly impossible for your plant to use these.

One more thing to add, do you have an IPM in place?




I know the info in broad but unless I have more info to go on its kind of hard to narrow it down,

Hope this helps




-Jonathan

blazito
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Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:08 pm

Hello and thanks for the reply.

The seeds were acquired from a reputable seller via ebay. I have been purchasing different fruit/veggies seeds from this person for quiet some time and have not had any problems before.

As for the environment, I live in SoCal and it has been hot and humid for a while now (mid 80's - high 90's with humidity anywhere from 60% to 90). Due to the heat I have had to water the papaya every other day, and recently started to water daily as it has been drooping as soon as the sun hits it early in the morning. I feed it once a month with dr. earth fertilizer. It's a dry organic fertilizer with probiotic(5-7-3). The soil the tree is growing in was mixed by me. I used Earth Juice amazon bloom soil, and to it I added worm castings, kelp, alfalfa meals, azomite and some of the dr. earth's fertilizer.

What is IPM?

Thanks.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

take a flower and cut it to get a cross section and compare it to the flowers in this link

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/F_N-5.pdf

There are papaya cultivars like Waimanalo Low Bearing which is about 90% hermaphrodite, but about 10% of the seeds can still produce male and female plants. I don't know of a variety that can guarantee 100% hermaphrodite.

Even hermaphrodites usually will put out male flowers first. It depends on how many other trees are around and the temperature. Usually a hermaphrodite will put out hermaphrodite flowers by 10 months old.

Demosouthpaw
Cool Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:57 am
Location: Central Florida

blazito wrote:Hello and thanks for the reply.

The seeds were acquired from a reputable seller via ebay. I have been purchasing different fruit/veggies seeds from this person for quiet some time and have not had any problems before.

As for the environment, I live in SoCal and it has been hot and humid for a while now (mid 80's - high 90's with humidity anywhere from 60% to 90). Due to the heat I have had to water the papaya every other day, and recently started to water daily as it has been drooping as soon as the sun hits it early in the morning. I feed it once a month with dr. earth fertilizer. It's a dry organic fertilizer with probiotic(5-7-3). The soil the tree is growing in was mixed by me. I used Earth Juice amazon bloom soil, and to it I added worm castings, kelp, alfalfa meals, azomite and some of the dr. earth's fertilizer.

What is IPM?

Thanks.

IPM stands for integrated pest management , one pest that comes to mind is a thrip. They feed on young buds. But lilike was said already even going all the way to an F8 generation will not guarantee 100% genotype. You might be one of those who got that 4% change to get a variation =0

blazito
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Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:08 pm

Hey all, thanks for all the replies. The tree finally got it's first flower :D
Image

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It looks like you have a girl.

Delvi83
Full Member
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:15 am
Location: Italy

So papaya have only male flowers, others only female......sometimes you can get an hermafrodite papaya that has both male and female flower......



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