The papaya is not only a tasty fruit, it is also one of the exotic fruits that can be grown relatively easily. The seeds from commercially available fruits can be used for this purpose.
How can you plant and care for a papaya yourself?
To plant a papaya from seeds, remove the seeds from a ripe fruit, clean them and sow them in nutrient-poor substrate. Keep the substrate evenly moist, place the plant in a warm, bright place and overwinter it at temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius. Dioecious papayas require pollination by male plants.
Create the right conditions for growing papayas
In order to get the desired papaya variety when growing from seeds, you should pay attention to the origin of the respective fruit. In this country you can often get the smaller papayas from Hawaiian varieties, but sometimes you can also get the papaya varieties of Mexican origin that weigh up to 5 kilograms. Spoon the dark seeds out of the halved papayas onto a piece of kitchen paper. The transparent layer around the seeds is difficult to remove by simply washing them, but it can be rubbed off by gently rubbing the seeds between the kitchen paper. A nutrient-poor soil substrate such as peat (€6.00 on Amazon) or coconut fiber should be chosen as the growing substrate for the plants so that the young roots can develop well.
Growing and caring for a papaya
For sowing papaya seeds, you should usually choose a windowsill or a relatively consistently warm place in a winter garden or greenhouse. In order to save the young plants the procedure of pricking out, which is usually poorly tolerated by papayas, you can also place just one seed at a time in a small cultivation pot and cover it thinly with a little soil. During the germination phase of around two weeks, the substrate should be kept evenly moist but not too wet. The special thing about papayas is their rapid growth with an unbranched trunk, although botanically they are not a tree or shrub. With some varieties, the first fruits can be harvested after about a year.
Overwintering the papaya properly
Papayas grown in pots must be brought indoors before temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius in autumn. Otherwise, papaya flowers and fruits may fall off due to cold. Since papayas need sufficient light even in the colder months, a slightly cooler place in the winter garden or under a skylight is an optimal location.
Tips & Tricks
Depending on the seeds used for breeding, you can get monoecious or dioecious papaya plants. In the former, self-pollination is possible; in the latter, one male specimen is required for pollination for every 10 to 15 female plants. This can be distinguished from the female specimens by the slightly earlier and longer-stemmed flowers.
