This is what the unknown dwarf papaya plant usually looks like. Both plants shown have given me ripe fruit recently. The one at the base of this plant weighed almost 4 lbs according to my kitchen scale.

This is one of my Red Lady plants. It is not as good for green papaya salad as the other variety. It seems to have more latex and the rounder shape is harder to shred for the salad. However, as for ripe fruit, I like this one a little better.

This is a view of my three Red Lady plants at the west end of my vegetable garden.

I have a papaya I grew from seed from one I bought, so I don't know which it is. It is a tall one though. I took a green papaya off of it, will that ripen off the plant? Or do I have to wait for them to show some color before picking.

Do you save seeds from the unknown dwarf to grow for the next year?

Your garden looks so lovely and neat. :o) I've got a butternut squash trying to take over the whole garden and shed.

Wow! Those look great.
I'm new to this forum as I'm really trying to learn more and more about Central Florida gardening.
Your garden looks amazing.

It looks like you start your seeds in cups and than bury the cups straight into the ground. Is that the case?

Here is a link that might be useful: Mikki

katkin ~ As for ripening, when I have to remove all of the fruits just before a freeze, I always hope that some will ripen. Unfortunately, they don't. They must have some color on them before picking. But all is not lost. Use the papaya as a vegetable. I like green papaya salad. Others will make candy. And, I hear that others will cut it up in French fry shape and fry them.

Yes, I do save the seeds from the unknown papaya. I have done so for years. (I have plenty!) As for the Red Lady, I buy those seeds.

OurFLBungalow ~ No, I don't start my seeds in the styrofoam cups, although I really should. I start my seeds in containers like milk jug bottoms and then pick out the best ones to transplant into the styrofoam cups. After the plants recover from being transplanted and get a little larger, I plant them in the garden. I cut off the upper rim and use it as a cutworm collar. It also serves as an ID tag since I will have the variety name written on the collar. For example, I have 3 varieties of broccoli planted and it helps me determine which varieties do the best.

What is the Mikki link about?

Christine

oops. Sorry about that. I'm still new to the forum and I thought I was supposed to link to something.. so the link is to our blog that we have for our house. :-)

No problem. I think your partager is lovely and relevant. The box is an antique way of making a live link if someone needs it in a post and doesn't know the href tag or equivalent.

Oh no, now I am sorry I rushed it. It was a big one too. I love ripe papaya, but don't think I am crazy for the unripe ones.

Christine, thanks for following up my post with yours! Great pics and those papayas look truly awesome! You really have done a great job and I can only hope my RL comes through with something over the next few months. Your trees are definitely bigger than mine so maybe mine just need to grow a bit more to produce fruits. Seems like mine keep dropping the small fruit. Still have not gotten the fertilizer mix as I was out of town but will do that soon. Thanks again for sharing!

Patrick ~ My papaya plants were about the size of extra large pencils last March. Very hard to imagine. Papaya plants are very heavy feeders and they will grow fast if frequently fertilized. Plus, be sure to water often and put down lots of mulch. I'm sure that your RL will hold fruit when it gets stronger and well fed. Hopefully, your plant is located in a full sun spot. Don't give up on it.

katkin ~ Hopefully, the next fruit on the plant will ripen soon. I was doubtful about eating green papaya also, but my Asian friend changed my mind and I'm so glad that she did. But, I have to say that the Red Lady fruits aren't very good for eating green because they seem to have more latex in the skin. The plants that I have with the long fruits are the very best for eating green according to my Asian friend from from Laos where they eat green papaya salad every day. I'm glad I have plenty to share. :)

Christine