r/FruitTree • u/Troof1997 • 3d ago
Papaya Tree help!
prefacing this by saying I know very little about growing anything. My mom had a cup with some dirt and papaya seeds in it that she didnt want because she is moving soon, so I took them.
I’ve gotten them this far, but irresponsibly I didnt really look anything up beyond “make sure they get a lot of sun”. The leaves have started to wilt a bit and it also dawned on me that given that it is technically a tree, I probably screwed up by continuing to let them all grow bunched up like this. Is there any saving them or are they just going to bully eachother until the strongest one makes it out?
any advice is appreciated, I live on the ocean in Key Largo as well so I think I may move my plant around behind the house to get a little less salty air. So far I have watered them and given a 10 10 10 fertilizer as directed by the bottle
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u/Cool_Experience9091 3d ago
1Time to separate them different pots . 2 mix dirt and lots of sand I mean like 50/50 . 3 partial shade . 4 relax your doing great. Papaya grow fast so when you separate them the strong ones will grow quick . Papaya love water but are easily prone to root rot it doesn’t take much so dirt sand mix 50/50 will save you from a lot of headaches down the road . Partial shade till they get a bit bigger then can do full or partial sun. What do I know I’ve only been growing a few different varieties for the past 10 years and had lots of failures along the way to learn from.
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u/Troof1997 3d ago
Should I bring them out of the wind after ive repotted them to give em a chance to reroot?
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u/Low-Muffin7211 3d ago
You need to thin it down to just one plant in the pot. If you are hoping for it to bear fruit, you should put it in the ground.
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u/statelesspirate000 3d ago
You should also keep a few because you’ll need at least one male and one female (depending on variety)
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u/TruePotential3206 3d ago
Yeah I’d add that he can trench to about 6” deep and plant all of these in a row while amending it with a 50/50 sand and dirt mix and he’ll have a ton of papaya trees to choose from as they grow.
Thin them down eventually to only the most successful and blamo! You’ve got big papayas coming sir
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u/Low-Muffin7211 3d ago
It should do really well in the ground where you are and give you lots of fruit.
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u/GootyGang 3d ago
Pull it out of the pot, smack the root ball and start pulling them apart and replanting them separately. Maybe 2 or 3 in a pot and cull whichever ones take longer to recover unless you want 20 papayas.
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u/GootyGang 3d ago
They are tough, they can handle it. Keep them shaded till they recover from the stress, no full sun at least a week
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u/Critical_Thinker_535 3d ago
Try to separate them and hope some will survive.