Thanks Silvia. It is planted in the ground and I added some compost to the hole but not much more than that as the area contains some pretty good looking soil. I have fertilized with mainly a citrus fertilizer as that is what I have on hand as I grow meyer lemon and key lime trees. Yeah, maybe it is just a matter of the tree maturing a bit. I get excited seeing all of the flowers which started appearing just over a month ago. They gradually form what appear to be small fruits about 1-2 inches and then drop off. I have read up on papaya on this forum and elsewhere and could not find out much else about this supposed fruit drop issue. Or it may simply be not a fruit but the the ovary dropping as it never was pollinated, not really sure.

Patrick ~ I find that I get small fruit drop when my papaya plants first begin to fruit. Sounds normal to me as long as it starts holding fruit in the near future. But, I need to make a comment that the tree is very small for its age. I would feed it with liquid fertilizer (for foliar feeding) to get it growing.

Christine

Hello, those sure look like female flowers and they do need a male mate.
Link to female, male and hermaphrodite flowers pics:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/F_N-5.pdf

Christine, sounds like this is normal, at least I hope so and look forward to further fruiting. Every day more flowers open with the same result. Any particular product you recommend? I will look next time out for liquid fertilizer. I have attached another pic to show the size of the tree.

And yes subtrop, I think you are correct that they are female flowers. Maybe this tree will develop a male at some point?

Thanks again!

Patrick : I wouldn't lose any sleep, have bought a couple of slow growing Red Lady's over the years. Your tree, although a bit small, looks healthy. I just use a 6-6-6 general fertilizer on them every 2 months. My newest, planted in March 2012 is bursting with promising fruit,..you'll be fine I am sure.

Your RL does look a little thin for it's height (could just be the angle the picture was taken from). A lttle 6-6-6 or some Vigro citrus fertilizer is probably a good idea. It will set fruit when the plant is ready to hold fruit.

If it continues to drop fruit because they are not being pollinated, and you find yourself in Southern Brevard county, in the Palm Bay area, I have a male Red Maradol papaya in a pot I will give you.

DM

Patrick ~ I deliberately left the "liquid fertilizer" recommendation vague. I have 2 container set-ups for red worms so I get worm tea that I dilute with water. Often I add Maxicrop which is a kelp product. Sometimes I will add a small amount of Miracle Gro. For papaya plants I would use a reduced dose of bloom booster. I do my best to apply some of this to the leaves also. Because of the weight, I can't get the watering can to the top of the plant.

The flowers on the Red Lady are self-pollinating so a male plant is not needed. If you are needing a male, then you have something different. I noticed how red the leaf stems are. The first time I grew red lady plants that's how they looked but every year thereafter there is no red. I got all of my seeds from ECHO.

I have a friend who bought a red lady from Walmart also. Hers isn't producing very well either.

You have an advantage that I don't have - location. My plants get killed to the ground every winter. At least you can grow yours as a perennial.

Tomorrow I'll post some photos of the two varieties of papaya plants that I grow. (It's too dark right now to take pics.)

Christine

It's been almost a year since my Red Lady sprouted and it's just starting to flower.

Oops, I'm in San Diego - sorry.

JeffDM - Papaya plants are heavy feeders...keep it well fed. Hopefully we will see some fruit soon.

Christine

My papaya plants are healthy looking (about 6 foot tall) but judging from the flowers, they all seem to be female i.e. the flowers are close to the trunk. The flowers fall off and I can't see any fruit forming. I grew them from seeds from a lovely papaya I bought. Have used NPK, sulphate of potash, seasol and power feed. Will they ever fruit?

jerryb

I bought a papaya plant from a nursery in Colima,MX about 1 1/2 years ago and planted it in my garden in Central Mexico. It is now a 12 feet tall and is trying to bear fruit. It started blossoming about 6 months ago, but only one of the fruit has survived and is now 6 inches long and still growing. All the other new fruit growing above that one turn yellow and keep falling off. Is artificial fertilizer the only solution or is this a decease ?

Thank you

Hey everyone !

why papaya drop flowers ?

i want to plant it in zone 10 africa north west Algeria

we have december january february 8 c to 14 c in the night and 17 c to 20,c in the day from mars to the end of jun is 23c to 28 c both day and night

july to september is 28 to 30 c at night and between 33 to 40 c in the day

novembr oktober Are warm windy somtimes!

my question are

is it good climate to grow papaya?

Which papaya variety Can handel our climate?

when Can i start the seeds to germinate ? And when to transplant them ?

you Can email me at chadli_ridha@hotmail.fr