It’s Papaya time in South Florida. I usually have two crops, the Summer crop inevitably is eaten by the dreadful Papaya Hornworms and I eat the winter crop. This is an unknown variety grown from seed from a fruit a neighbor gave me. I planted the seed in 2016, the tree is probably 18 feet tall now and I had to use a pole saw to pick the fruit. The first fruit I picked with a leaf rake, poking holes in the side. That one rotted before it ripened – another neighbor took it to plant seeds for tree. Interestingly, Papayas have three sexes, male, female and hermaphodite. You hope for a hermaphrodite tree as the others are not self pollinating. Named cultivars self pollinate, growing them from seed is a gamble. Another neighbor planted a male tree soon after I planted mine, so I am not sure what it is.
My first tomatoes are ripening, this is a San Marzano, I am looking forward to tasting it. Yellow Pears have been good.
The Leonitis are in bud, these are still a bit new to me and I enjoy them for winter color.
Pups on the Flapjack Kalanchoe. I cut these off and put them in pots to root.
Leaves of the Flapjack Kalanchoe:
A Blue Glitter Thistle seedling. I hope this will grow in my sandy garden. The native thistles like moist meadows.
That’s my Six this Saturday. For more posts from other gardens visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
Happy Gardening.
The Shrub Queen 
That is some interesting papaya facts. Do you eat the seeds? Your Flapjacks don’t rot in the humidity?
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Papayas are interesting! I eat the seeds sometimes and need to make the salad dressing. It is onions and seed with apple cider vinagrette. The Flapjacks are all in pots and I have had them for probably 10 years.
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Mango is one of the few fruits that I may never try to grow. Very few colleagues grow them in greenhouses, but they can not get so big under a roof. I do not think that they are very pretty. Worst of all, I am none too keen on the flavor of the fruit. I feel sort of guilty about that.
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Did you mean Papaya? I find many people don’t really like it.
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Mango?! What was I thinking?! That is a completely different animal.
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I remember having papaya for breakfast (with a little lime juice sprizted over it) when we were in Bali. It was delicious. We don’t have them over here and I’ve rarely seen them imported either.
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Hmm, I think they are likely to spoil and very perishable. I picked that one as it was just turning yellow – it was about to rot three days later! I was going to try dehydrating some. Though I may eat them all!
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Like lodgehouse above, I like mine with lime, too. I expect we will be seeing them in the supermarket soon, yay.
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I have mine with vanilla yogurt and granola, I think that is Maui style. The Mexican papayas are in the stores here now.
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Florida and North of France are quite opposite on the climate side, but I’m trying to grow a papaya tree a here. It’s currently 1.60 m tall and is a year and a half. I don’t despair of seeing flowers and maybe fruit one day ! (But San Marzano toms and Leonotis leonorus are growing well in summer )
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interesting, I am guessing in a greenhouse? I like the Papayas as they are very easy to grow. I have another tree in the ground for back up as they are not long lived.
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And a beautiful tree ! I grow a papaya ‘Solo’ from Martinique island. Yes in the greenhouse and potted of course. I’ve also started to sow dwarf papayas from Philippines and mountain papayas (vasconcellea pubescens)
We’ll see !
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yes, there is nothing quite as tropical. I will look up Solo – I had Red Queen Hawaiian Papaya but it didn’t make it through the summer. I like the Hawaiian Papayas better for eating.
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Wow those papayas look luscious. I wonder how you could find out what sex it is.
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The male flowers you can tell – they hang down! ha, so I know it is not male. I just baked a papaya mango pie with the rest of it.
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18 feet in four years is some serious growing! I really like papaya, much more so than the paw paw which is more common here and has an odd smell. Yours looks delicious.
The flapjack succulent is a winner too, nice to have all those pups.
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Jane beat me to it – 18 feet in four years! Is a papaya hornworm similar to the tomato hornworm? Which is a common scourge up here, although most people also love the moth it eventually becomes…
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Yes.. though it’s really 5 years they are one of the quickest trees to bear fruit but don’t live long..same moth family and a cool moth.
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That’s a really nice collection this week. Papayas from your own garden must be such a treat! 😃
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Thanks Cathy.. Papaya is absurdly easy to grow here.. it’s wonderful for breakfast and breads.
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Papaya is amazing! Two crops a year! I imagine you can grow mango too! We can grow some citrus here in GA. Wish we could grow an avocado!
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Hi Jayne, I am from Atlanta and never grew anything like this there. I have mangos, avocados, limes, pineapple and jaboticaba. Are you growing Satsumas?
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Hello, I do have a satsuma in the yard. My neighbor across the street has lemons, satsumas and other orange trees, and a number of grapefruit, both pink and white.
On the coast, it is warmer than other parts of Georgia. Atlanta sees snow now!
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Awesome! I am surprised by how far north some of the citrus will grow. I have an old fashioned Rangpur Lime my neighbor grew from seed. Too many diseases here for me to fool with anything else. Citrus wise. I escaped Atlanta just in time. Hate frozen precip of any kind. Amy
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