Papayas like tropical weather and they don’t do well in a place like North Carolina even though we do have tropical like weather in the summer time. However, our tropical like weather doesn’t last long enough to sustain tropical plants like papayas. These papayas though, have been coming back to our garden for the last three years. We’re guessing that they are sprouting up from our compost pile. I like to buy papayas when I see some good ones at the super market that’s the only source of papaya we have around here. Certainly not expecting to get them from a tree! But these papaya trees, they just keep cropping up in our garden! The first time it happened, we thought they were okras so we didn’t mess with them and kept waiting for okras to crop up. Instead, their trunks got thicker and they got taller, but no fruit and certainly no okras either!
This is the first year that they’ve stayed in our garden long enough to bloom and actually bear fruit. Now I’m praying that the hot weather will last long enough for the fruit to get a decent size. Even though it may not ripen, I’m hoping I would get at least one green papaya for a salad or relish.
Papaya trees sprouted in the herb garden
Papaya flower with fruit bud forming inside
Papaya fruit bud after the petals from the flower had fallen off
Flowering papaya tree
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