New 4 x 8' growbed

[bsfman]

That looks amazing!

Thank you Alex!

[bsfman]

The new bed is looking nice....

Nice looking papaya tree BSF. I find papaya seeds sprout 'real easy' in media beds...and boy do they grow fast...

Thanks David!

I have tried sprouting Papaya and transplanting them in the past, but no longer do so. Now I just direct seed right into the soil. I think the plants are more vigorous that way.

Papayas are kind of a freaky plant. There are males, females (which require a nearby male for pollination) and hermaphrodites which are self pollinating. The hermaphrodites tend to put out oblong shaped fruits (like the fruit in the photo) and the females put out a more round fruit. You want to plant hermaphroditic seeds so as to get more hermaphroditic plants (as opposed to more male and female plants).

The plants will fruit their best crop in the first year. They may fruit in subsequent years, but the fruit tends to be smaller and fewer. I normally chop them down with a machete after the first crop and replant from seed for the next year. (The plant in the picture is just one year old.) The trunks are hollow and I've always thought they would make great barrels for building a Didgiridoo (assuming you have an overwhelming desire to own a Didgiridoo)
http://didjiman.com/didjeridu/didge-make.htm

I like to pick the papayas right when I see the orange color covering about one third to half of the fruit. If you try to let them tree ripen, there is some sort of insect that lays eggs in them which causes rotten spots. Also the rats and raccoons like to climb the trees and munch on tree ripened fruit. The flavor of the half-ripe fruit is better tasting to me when ripened indoors in cooler temps anyways and the flesh of the fruit stays firmer.

If you save seeds from a fruit to plant, DO NOT allow them to dry out or they won't germinate nearly as well. I save them in a ziplock sandwich bag along with a little pulp from the core until I'm ready to plant in order to keep them moist. I never buy Papaya seeds either. Just pick up a nice oblong shaped plant from the local grocery store and use those seeds! (You get to eat the fruit and free seeds that way too!) I mulch them fairly heavily with BSF residue and cypress mulch and water them with water containing abundant tilapia turds rinsed from my mechanical filter media. Keep the mulch a foot or so away from the trunk or else the trunks tend to rot out at ground level - especially when heavily laden with a fruit crop!

[davidstcldfl]

Wow, that is big, for a one year old tree...

We have one at the farm that came up on it's own (my buddy spilled a few seeds) It seems to have the oblong fruit. We've been planting seeds from it.

My buddy normally lets the seeds dry for a few weeks, before plannting. Wenormally just dump them in a media bed and a lot sprout. Never really did a germination count.
Will have to mention what you do to my buddy, with keeping the seeds moist and give that a try..

[bsfman]

Just got back from a five day trip to Atlanta and first thing I did on returning home was to check my ap system. I was freaking AMAZED at the explosive growth that happened in my absence! I'll take more pics in the daylight tomorrow, but just had to share these. The new GB is looking good too. Pics of that one tomorrow too.

This is my cukes and corn (and two tomatos)...



And this is the cukes and corn on the left hand GB and tomatos and radishes on the right hand. I swear, i can almost HEAR the plants growing!

[davidstcldfl]

I swear, i can almost HEAR the plants growing!

[FreyaFL]

Wow! And that was almost 2 weeks ago. Need more pictures!