Volunteer...Papaya?
 

I noticed a few weeks ago that I am not the only tropical fruit grower ever to live here (though I don't know the story behind it). There is a pot with a label on it that is for a Grand Nain banana in my shed just up the hill from my house.

Last year, I noticed that I had a tall weed growing on the side of the front porch (roughly East facing) and the weed was forming a small green fruit. It was growing a couple feet above the height of the porch so that most likely put it at about 4 or 5 feet tall.

We have goats. Our goats jump fences. The top half of the weed became goat food (or rather the leaves did and the trunk was broken off). I didn't think about it for a year or so. I never got to see the final fruit.

I was trying to find information on pawpaw trees when I stumbled on an article that had a picture of my weed. My weed looks just like a papaya. It is *still* growing off the side of my porch near the chimney. It has sent branches to either side of the trunk and is no longer just a straight/tall plant (probably due to last year's break). It has about 3 or 4 small fruits forming.

I'd like to see these fruit live into maturity. I'm not sure I will. Did I mention that we live in Western North Carolina? Is this really a papaya? It doesn't have the oval pawpaw leaf at all. I have no idea how the papaya, if it really is a papaya, got here and I did nothing to protect it last year.

I have misplaced my camera. I will need to find it in order to post pictures. However, the leaves look exactly like the leaves you see in this article:

Importance of the post-production system for Paw Paw in developing countries

The fruits are small, green, and lightly veined. They look like immature melons.

(Edit: That article says PawPaw but uses the scientific name for papaya.)

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

If the leaves are identical to those in the article, I'd say you've got a Papaya.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

Thank you. :) I'm glad to hear that. I just have to figure out what to do for it, if it does need anything. We get frosts here around October or so and last year we had a long period of unusually cold weather for most of that month.

I'm used to volunteer blackberries and strawberries, but I didn't expect a papaya to volunteer. Not here in the Great Smoky Mountains anyway. We aren't known for our papaya. I suspect some one must have planted it or disposed of seeds right there. It seemed to come up from nothing the spring/summer before last.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

It looks like maybe not a papaya, now that I've found a larger fruit on it. (I had wondered about the fruit size. If it is papaya, I doubt our weather would let us get a fruit before the freezes set in.) The leaves are very papaya like and are identical in shape to the ones in that article I posted.

Anyway, the thing that makes me doubt the the papaya qualities of my volunteer despite the leaf shape (along with the really weird location) is a fruit that looks just like this. Fig maybe?

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

fig sounds more likely than papaya but I haven't heard of unprotected figs surviving zone 6

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

The elevation and resulting climate is so variable around here, I seriously don't know what "zone" I am considered to live in. My zip code pulls up 5-7. I've seen some maps that put me at zone 5b and others zone 7. 6 or 6b really is closer to the temperatures we had in the last couple of winters, so I'm simply guessing. Last winter was supposedly the coldest on record, but the cold spells were interspersed with more mild days than I remember from the year before.

In terms of protection, whatever this tree is has the fireplace back within a few feet and is close to the over hang of the house. It also has two ever green shrubs in front of it. I really need to dig the camera out from wherever it's got to. Probably if I could produce a picture of the real thing, some one here could say, "Oh that's a --."

Whatever it is, I've never had one before.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

That is definitivly fig!
And wild spicies can grows almost everywere. Fruit are smaller and almost hard as stone. And figs and papayas are from same Carica familly.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

Ok. I haven't slipped into the twilight planting zone, then. I feel better. I had absolutely no way to explain or understand a stray papaya in my area. I'm probably going to plant some in pots after this though. From the reading I did, they sound like a fun (mainly indoor) plant to have.

Edible or not, the fig is welcome to stay. Where it is, it's out of the way a bit and our goats are giving us the illusion of being under control, so I don't have to worry about them eating it.

Now I'm wondering if it would be worth using as root stock...But I want to see these fruit ripen first, just in case.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

Ou, figs are easy for grafting so U can grow eadible spicies if U want without many problems. I just dont know can that be done with indoor plants.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

a) Figs are not mainly propagated by grafting, but rather cutting and planting mature shoots...
b) it's a fig tree alright...
c) if it survives the winters in your area, it is one of the temperate figs, that means you will have problems in 2 or 3 years, as the fig tree likes to get massive very soon and unexpectadly and its roots might damage whatever construction there is in its vicinity (temperate figs go up to 5 to 10 meters in height and 7 in width! in my zone), so lots of space...
d) try it, if it's inedible, really, get rid of it. It's like weed once well stablished. ;)

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

1. Figs and Papayas are not related. Figs are in Moraceae and Papayas in Caricaceae. You may be getting confused with the Scientific name cause papaya is Carica papaya and the Edible fig is Ficus carica. Having a specific epithet that matches a Genus does not make them related.

I am very surprised that a Papaya would survive in your zone. If it is a tree that is doing well, it will branch out if the crown is broken. Take a look at this picture of a Papaya trunk and see if the leaf scars look similar. Papaya trunks are usually always a real light brown almost whitish color.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

I would have been surprised if it were a papaya. I've still yet got one to live even here in zone 9. I probably can if I can get one started ~ March and never disturb its roots. Recently I tried to grow from seed an about 8 germinated but the heat killed them all before they got established.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

Speaking of Papaya....................................where is a good place to get them at?

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

I get mine at the grocery store :D

Randalls - Smaller variety (probably hawaii) very high price
HEB/Fiesta - Larger and cheaper

Didn't pay attention to size/price at Viet Hoa or Walmart but I know they did have papaya
Its been years since I've been in Kroger so can not tell

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

While I thought I had one I was reading on them. Apparently the seeds grow like mad. You just have to plant them in a largish pot to start with, because the seedlings don't like to be repotted. (What I do have, for everyone above, is a fig tree with leaves similar to a papaya. I verified that there is a type that has an almost identical leaf shape. I know I have a fig because it is bearing figs. I was really shocked when I mistakenly thought it was a papaya.)

So, probably the best place is the grocery store fruit aisle. (Or if you are lucky enough, the farmer's market.) As long as it isn't a hybrid variety, you should be fine. With a Hawaiian variety you stand a chance of getting a hermaphrodite sprout that can self pollinate.

I might try it for a house plant. I'd have to keep it trimmed though.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

I did try some seedlings this year but all 8 that germinated couldn't stand the heat. It may be a better test for me to plant ~ March or April. Problem is I usually kill the adults around winter.

Re: Volunteer...Papaya?
 

Maybe grow in the house? I've only ever been to the airport in Houston, but I remember the heat in Dallas. It was brutal.

Thinking about it (editing to add, because I'm used to a board where you can't double post), I thought this was a really good photo journal of an indoor papaya.

Growing a Papaya Tree from Seed