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| I have a Papaya tree planted in the ground in Houston. It has a half dozen large papayas on it. One has been hanging since summer. All are still totally green. When will they ripen? All I have seen on the net says that you cannot ripen them off the tree. I have coveered the tree so far but as the temperature drops I don't know what to do. |
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| I live in Texas but I am from the Caribbean. Papaya's have always grown on our property. We pull them green before the birds get them. You just barely slice the skin from top to bottom 3 times, put them in the dark (like a cabinet)on paper towels (they will bleed stuff). They will be ripe in 3 or 4 days. I did this in April in the caribbean. Back in Texas I bought one at the store and tried it and I don't know what they do with the ones in stores but it would not ripen. In the pic the Papaya is the one barely visable on the right. It was turning yellow. I will post another pic in a min which will be this the one I picked. 3 days after picking I ate it. |
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| The papaya the day it was picked. |
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| First pic that did not load. |
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| Alyx, that's interesting -- that you can slice the papaya you grew and it would ripen in a few days. I wonder if the one from the stores here is a different variety and that's why it wouldn't work. I love papaya. The ones I buy at the store take a couple of weeks or more to ripen while sitting on the drain board at home. The skin gets really mottled before they are sweet inside. In the winter it seems they never get as sweet as they do in the summer. ACW, sorry I don't know if yours would ripen if picked now. I'm wondering if they need to show a slight bit of color to ripen well after picking? I hope you get an answer to your question. |
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| Hi ACW, Where in Houston are you located? I am in cypress and I had over 100 ripe papayas this year. They ripened fully on the tree - there are a ton of them still on the tree. You can pick them if there is slight yellowing on them, but i they are totally gren they won't ripen. Can you post pic of your tree? |
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| You don't "slice" it. We take a knife and slice just the skin, do not slice into the fruit portion if that makes any sense. And it's very possible they are different but I also think they do something to store fruit. |
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| I knew what was meant about just slicing the skin. I didn't repeat it clearly. Yes, I also wonder why it wouldn't work on store bought fruit. Phoenix said that Dr. Moy, formerly of San Antonio Botanical Garden, developed a papaya variety for cooler winter climates like San Antonio where the fruit will ripen before cold weather. I'm hoping they will offer some plants at the next SABG sale. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Post about eating green papayas, etc. ...
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| I am in Sugar Land. Here is a photo of the tree. The oldest fruit is starting to show a few spots. Hope that's a good sign. |
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| Ack! I knew there was a papaya/houston thread. I just posted somewhere else. HEre is my papaya, supposedly a T R Hovey which I got believing it was a dwarf. eight ft is not dwarf to me! As you can see in pic taken today, it is full of unripened fruit. Too tall for me to get and force-ripen. Will just let them be. Does anybody know why it produced fruit so late? It was planted in march 2012. I only got to eat one papaya from this tree, the size of a large mango, and it was delish. The rest were either aborted or still in the tree. |
Here is a link that might be useful: papaya
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| Here are some pics of my papaya tree
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| mangobaby, where in houston are you? Im in Ft Bend county. your tree is beautiful and lush but I don't want a giant like that, not at all, don't have the space. were your pics taken recently? do you know which cultivar you grow? |
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