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Red Lady Papaya
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Posted by johnjsr 9 (My Page) on Thu, Nov 5, 09 at 22:07
I was at Lowes today and I spotted these. They only had three so I snagged one. I've heard a lot about this variety on the GW. It's about three feet tall in a three gallon pot. I have some questions. Will it ever fruit in a bigger pot or should I just keep it in a smaller pot until spring and then put it in the ground? I have a greenhouse, so I can keep it at 50+ on the coldest nights. Is that warm enough to keep it growing? I've never tried a papaya before, so I would really appreciate some advice. Thanks
John |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Red Lady Papaya
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I BOUGHT one [3'tall] from Lowes 3 years ago..I planted in the ground "I live in auburndale just about 40 mins out side of Tampa on the way to Orlando>
It froze and turned to mush all the way to ground level. I was bummed but come spring a few leaves apeared and within 3 months it was pushing 5 feet tall. It produced 3 blooms and one papaya about the size of a pickling cucumber. I thought that was so kewl. Last winter it got hit by a cold night where the temps went to about 28degrees and again it froze to ground level. I am saying there was NOTHING left. Again in spring there came the leaves. It shot to about 7 or 8' tall. I couldnt even count the blooms [maybe 100] but as of yesterday there are a minimum of 45 papaya, all at least 8"-10" long and ..well they are the size and shape of a very large eggplant. It is still in full bloom so I am expecting a second round of fruit. Most of them are still green ripening one at a time. The first one ripened too fast for me to notice it,
[ totally yellow]and the weight of it caused it to drop to the ground in mush. The second was almost all yellow so we picked it but it was full of ants. The third one was about 50/50 yellow when we picked and It dissapeared with in a day...right into our stomachs OH man was it good. I am a novice to Florida fruits as I lived in Washington State for 60 years. Oh and I love my dwarf pomegranit [also from Lowes now 3 years old] is in its second year of producing fruit..yummy |
RE: Red Lady Papaya
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| John --- If the papaya plant looks potbound then put it in a larger container but not too big. As for temp in the greenhouse, I keep my heater set for 50* on the cold nights, so your answer is yes to keeping it alive. As for "keep growing", it won't until spring. Then plant it in fertile ground. I have some of my unknown dwarf papaya seeds sprouting now. If you want a few, let me know. Christine |
RE: Red Lady Papaya
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| Thank you Smittee and Christine for sharing your experience. I thought that papayas only fruited once and then died, like bananas. Duh! I pulled this one out of the pot and it is certainly not rootbound. I did notice that it has what I think are tiny flower buds in the leaf axials. Should I remove these? Should I stop fertilizing when it turns cooler? I read an article from UF on growing Papaya at home, but it didn't say much about growing them a zone too far north. ;>) thanks again john |
RE: Red Lady Papaya
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John : Please do not pluck any flowers off your Red Lady papaya. That is a dwarf papaya that is self pollinating,..it will provide fruit without any cross pollinating. Just let it do it's thing.
I just bought two Red Lady's myself, to accompany my one generic 4 trunked plant I bought in Homestead 7 months ago. The first Red Lady I bought in Home Depot, - a 3 ' specimen that I paid $14.99 for. Two days later I was a bit wiser and drove the extra 5 miles to Lowes and bought a slightly larger Red Lady for $9.95.
Will certainly drive the extra miles from now on, as it seems that Lowes is " de place" for good nursery buys.
Your Red lady will grow ( hopefully ) to a max height of 8 - 9 feet. The fruit will be smaller that what my generic will produce, but am optimistic just the same. Good luck ! |
RE: Red Lady Papaya
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| Jojus -- We are located in a colder area than you are. John --- If the plant were to set fruit they will not mature. If it sets fruit I would snap it off. The plant will start to go nearly dormant as we get into the colder weather. The fruits on my Red Ladys are quite large so smaller fruits is not always the case. They should be ripening any time now. I have pics from last year with ripening fruit in mid-Nov. Check out my post from last Nov to see the pics. Christine |
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