Growing Papaya From Seeds w/ Pictures

This is part of a series on growing vegetable crops from seeds. There's already a couple of posts in this series. Here are the links to those posts:

Growing Eggplant From Seeds w/ Pictures
Growing Okra From Seeds w/ Pictures

Papaya is treated both a fruit, when ripe and vegetable when not. This tropical fruit is filed with nutrients such as vitamins K, A, and C, as well as potassium, protein, niacin, magnesium, and natural fiber. Recent studies about it's carotene contents are saying it helps prevent certain types of cancers.

Papaya is very easy to grow in the Philippines and can bear fruit for as long as a couple of years. It also does not require much care and fertilization, there is no requirement for pest control and occasional watering may only be required during the ealy growth of papaya and the hottest part of summer.

attention.

What You Need

• Pots (Preferably big ones)
• Papaya Seeds (Available in the groceries)
• Potting Mix (We use one part garden soil, one part rice hulk (burned), one part rice hulk whole, one part vermicast or compost)

First Step - Plant the Seeds

Fill the pot with the potting soil mix
Make one 1 cm deep hole

Place three to four seeds per hole

Cover the holes with potting soil mix

Wait seven to fourteen days for the seeds to germinate

Water the pot once a day

There is a good chance that all seeds will germinate. Thin the seedlings after fourteen days from when the seeds germinate and only leave the healthiest looking seedling.

Second Step - Watch Out for Insects and Weeds While The Seedling is Young

The plant will look like the one in this picture twenty one to twenty eight day from when the seeds germinate. This may be the only time during the life of the papaya when it requires some form of care. It is quite basic; remove the weeds growing around the plant taking nutrients from the potting mix, and be wary of insects feeding on the young leaves of the papaya.

At this age of the papaya, daily watering is required, in extreme cases of insects minimal pesticides spray might be required. In most cases this can be dealt with by simply trapping insects though there is no proven harm of using minimal pesticide at the early growth of papaya.

Third Step - Transplant the Seedling

When the papaya is as tall as what is shown in the picture, it is ready for transplanting.

Unlike the two earlier crops covered in this series that take about four months to bear fruit, papaya takes between ten to fourteen months to bear fruits. This picture here was taken exactly a month from the ones shown before this. At the average, it takes a couple of months from germination until the seedling is ready for transplanting. The picture below shows a papaya after a month from transplanting. At this point it has been three month from planting.

Fourth Step - Budding Papaya

Between five to seven months from planting the papaya, the first flowers and buds will come out. In most cases however, these do not develop into fruits.

Some thin the leaves specially the ones turning yellow so that the tree will allocate the nutrients to fruiting.

There are others who punch a hole at the base of the tree saying that it helps in fruiting. There is no scientific explanation to this, and this is something we are not doing, and our papayas produce fruit just the same.

It will just be three to five months from this and the papayas will look like the picture below. Bearing lots of fruits for your "tinola", a Filipino chicken based soup.

This is in our backyard, here is proof...

Credits:
Papaya Health Benefits Photo: Source