I want to know is my papaya tree hermaphrodite ? Please help me

Here is an article that may help:

http://garden.org/nga/searchqa...

I didn't realize Papaya were such complicated trees.

Yep, they can be one or the other - male or female that is - or both. The self-pollinating varieties are becoming more common now and almost always if you buy one from a nursery it will be.

But it's hard to tell from the flower if it is a "perfect" flower. That one is either a female flower or a "perfect" flower meaning it may have both stamens and pistils. The only way to tell for sure other than to dissect one of the flowers and look at it under a microscope (your County Extension has one, no doubt) is to see if it makes a fruit all by itself. You can try helping it by taking a tiny artist's paintbrush and diddling the pollen around a bit.

Did you grow this from a seed, or buy it already started? If grown from a seed, even if the parent was a self-pollinating type, the offspring won't necessarily carry the trait.

Your papaya tree is definitely a hermaphrodite. Here's a photo of my hermaphrodite tree:

Smallish flowers grow in clusters on the stem where the leaf is attached.

Here's a female papaya tree:

Only one or two large flowers grow from the leaf axils.

Here's a male papaya tree:

The small tubular-like flowers grow in clusters on long panicles extending from the stem.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc...

for the replies . If it's hermaphrodite when will it give fruit? Tree is almost 9 months old

Your tree is blooming now, right? So any day now you will see fruits beginning to develop. If there are no bees, butterflies, or other insects visiting your blooms, you can help it along by hand-pollinating...take a soft brush or tip of a feather and brush lightly against each bloom to transfer pollen.

Happy gardening!

Yes sometimes I notice butterfly and honey bee like bee (not exactly honey bee) . So I will wait for fruit to develop. After few days I will reply with progress.

Please do let us know when you see fruit developing!

Kadie

As the tree is hermaphrodite it has bloomed male flower only .. when it will bloom female flowers ? About a month ago it bloomed some male flowers & now again it bloomed some male flower as shown in photo

I have noticed that flowers are falling off before blooming . What could be the reason ?

Pratik, although the hermaphrodite flowers are perfect in that they have both male and female reproductive systems within the flower, "under certain conditions its flower morphology is unstable and subject to “sex reversal.” ... "High temperature and water stress can lead to a shift toward maleness, in the form of a reduction in the number of carpels (normally five) comprising the fruit. " Read more here: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc...

When my tree started developing flowers, either the buds dropped off or the opened flowers dried up and fell off. It was nearly two months before fruit was finally borne. We had a drought and record-breaking high temperatures during the months before (May and June) so the flowers were unstable.

I am guessing that your temperatures had been quite high recently. So be patient, your tree should be coming around soon.

Ok thank you. Temperature are around 30-35 Celsius during sunlight. Tree is planted in big pot & for drainage 4-5 holes are made at bottom. Is water logging a problem?

Gee, I don't know. My trees are planted directly into the ground...have no experience growing papayas in containers. Perhaps someone could pipe in and answer your question about water-logging in containers...specifically as it pertains to papayas.

Papayas grow a long tap root, and for that reason, they don't like to grow long term in pots. They also really don't like "wet feet" so if you are watering, and there is water pooling in a saucer or around the base of the pot that also wouldn't be too great. I'm sure you're having to water that baby pretty often with warm weather like that.

A bigger, deeper pot might help things short term, but in truth, the plant's not going to be happy too much longer in a pot so you need to scout out a place you can plant it in-ground somewhere. Or I did see one fellow that got a 55gal. drum (not oil, though, a food-grade barrel) and made it into a very large, deep container for a papaya. Lots of drainage holes in the bottom, cut off the top, well-draining soil and a place where it won't get blown over are needed to do this.

Thanks for reply . Yeah I had planted in big barel (4feet height & wide also) . I have done drainage holes at side bottom but are less (around 5-6). Let the temperature get little down in coming months and I will see the result & share here.
I wanna ask that how to add compost to soil .. should I just apply on top of soil or dig a inch of soil & mix ? If I dig around to add it will roots be damaged ?

I noticed that some kind of red bees or flies (like honeybee) are on leaves of the tree during morning time . So do they harm leaves ? Sharing photo , it's zoomed so not that clear.

Someone please help about it

Sorry, it is hard to see what kind of insect is on the leaves in your pic. And I don't know of any bees eating leaves. If anything, it could be a predator insect picking off leaf-eating insects like worms, aphids, and such.

Is there any difference between manure & compost ? , Which one should I apply in soil ?

Manure can be pretty strong, and give off a large dose of nitrogen quite quickly so you have to be careful how you use it. Compost will give a much slower release of nutrients to the plant.

But with either you really don't know how much, and what nutrients the plant is getting and you don't know how long it's going to last so you have to wait until the plant shows signs of stress before you know for sure it's starving.

I'd advise you to use compost as an amendment but if you can get some real fertilizer with a guaranteed analysis, and better yet a pelleted time-release type use that for your plant. The leaves look a good color, and in ref to your previous question about the insects, it doesn't look like they're doing any harm.