Papaya carica 'Maradol' - Maradol Papaya

I'd love to be able to wander into the garden and pick a papaya! they are not cheap to buy in the UK.

Rbtkew:

A home-grown papaya is worth it's weight in gold. It's so much better than the store bought papayas. I have 5 different papaya varieties growing in my yard. This year I'll have to plant several more...as you probably already know they only bear well for about 5 years.

I love papaya's but as Rbtkew say's they are expensive

Palmate:

I can imagine. Papayas have a very short shelf life...and they have to imported from the tropics.

Oh this is making my mouth water......

Dottydaisy2:

It should, because this variety is sweet like candy. :>)

Yummy!!

Beautiful colour did you cut it down Andy.

I think it collapsed back in 2013. It was 10 years old. Papayas don't typically live long. Papaya is a short-lived herb, even though, most people think it's a tree. Because it can grow to 25' or taller.

That's a shame it collapsed how strange they don' live long, shocked its a herb not a tree. Wow that is tall.

Papayas get attacked by many bugs and since it really doesn't have any hard wood (even though it appears that way) it gets eaten to the point where the trunk sometimes collapses. Sometimes it just rots. It's a high maintenance plant. It's recommended to replant them every two to five years for best fruit production. The one above produced fruit very well for 10 years.

So sounds that the trunk is fleshy. You were lucky then with this one giving you crops for 10 years.

It's funny, the trunks look like wood. This is why people call them papaya trees. It's soft wood. The bugs still can eat them, though.

Yes it does looks hard . So papaya means soft wood that would be great for carving then. Shame the bugs eat through them.

No, papaya is the species. LOL! :>))

Carica papaya is the Genus and species.

It's herbaceous, that why it called an herb.

Here's a pic of a larger plant that I took back in 2008.

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/47121-carica-papaya-papaya-plants/all

Lol silly me ? Andy yes I understand now you 've explained.

Thanks I shall take a peek.

Plants can be very complicated. :>))

Can't they just ?