Carica papaya - Mexican Papaya

lovely Delonix

Irish:

Thanks for the comment!

Fantastic, I've never seen these growing before. Only ever bought them in dried pieces in a bag or in a tin!! A stunning sight!

Paulthegardener:

When most people see the way papaya fruit grows on the trunks of the plant it usually surprises them. There's nothing better than a home grown papaya.

This plant doesn't have a lot of papayas...it getting old...as they age they produce less fruit. I just planted several little plant a month ago.

There is a special joy attached to food we produce ourselves...somehow it always tastes better. You have so many papaya ...do the fruits have subtle differences or are they identical? (between the different varieties, I mean.)

Lori:

There's hundreds of varieities of papaya. They all have very different flavors and levels of sweetness. The sad truth about papaya is that if you don't live where they grow...you'll never really know how they truly taste. Commercially grown papayas are picked too green and they will NEVER ripen to the true sweet flavor...with that being said most people who live out of the areas where they grow usually dislike the fruit.

Yes, I see what you meen Delonix about how they grow. They look like a bunch of balloons tied together!!!

Paulthegardener:

When papaya plants are grown in the true tropics they can have hundreds of papayas on one plant...it's an amazing sight.

Check out GoY member Panther's papaya plant photos...
Panther lives in Fiji and her plants have hundreds of fruits.

I can't say that I've ever liked Papaya....thank you for explaining the subtleties of the fruit, D1. I have a serious addiction to mangoes however, and have to wonder if they would be different(better tasting (!!!) ) for picking from the plant as opposed to the store..? Will have to take a look at Panther's pics...

Lori:

If you ever had a home-grown papaya you absolutely would love it. It taste like sweet candy. (that's if you like candy. lol).

You probably don't want to get me started about mangoes. They are absolutely horrible 99% of the time. All commercial mangoes are cooked before they can be transported to any country. It's actually a hot bath to kill any bugs or larvae within the mango. This process really alters the fruit's flavor. A store bought mango can never even come close to compare to a home grown mango. The only mangoes not treated with this hot bath (in California) are the ones that are grown in the Coachella Valley of California...which are considered the best tasting mango (Keitt variety) in the World by many.

My Keitt mango tree is declining...I think it has been crowded out by other plants. It used to bear good tasting mangoes. I'm going to buy another one this year though. I have a neighbor that has a very productive mango tree...and every year I see many of the mangoes fall on the ground. I may have to go over to their house and see if I can take some. : > )

Mango trees love a lot of sun and very high temps...even reflected high heat.