Description
Papaya is a popular fruit famous for its high nutritive and medicinal properties.
Papaya plants can be male, female, or bisexual. Papaya is a perennial plant. Rarely, the seeds fail to germinate because seed viability is completely lost in about 50 days. The seed rate is 250 to 300 gm/hectare. It comes to fruit in a year.
A tree can produce 25 to 40 fruits weighing 30 to 60 kg in the first 20 months.Plant Specifications
| Common Name | Papaya |
| Maximum Reachable Height | Up to 30 feet |
| Flower Colour | Yellow, orange or cream |
| Bloom Time | All year round (Varies according to climate and other basic things) |
| Difficulty Level | Easy to grow |
Planting and care
Papaya care
It grows in tropical and subtropical climates. Select a sunny and sheltered place in your garden. You cant start them in pots as they prone to damage while transplanting. You can start sowing in the spring, monsoon, and autumn.
Dig a hole half a meter across and fill it with a mixture of compost and soil. The pits are filled with topsoil along with 20 kg of farmyard manure, 1 kg neem cake and 1 kg bone meal. Sprinkle few seeds and cover lightly with potting mixture. A spacing of 1.8 x 1.8 m is ideal.
| Sunlight | Full sun |
| Watering | Low |
| Soil | Other than sandy and sticky or heavy clay soils, well-drained |
| Temperature | 25 to 35 degrees C |
| Fertilizer | NPK in the ratio of 10-6-10 |
| Harvest Season | All year round |
Papaya uses
Medicinal Use:
- High nutritive and medicinal properties
Culinary Use:
- Raw fruit can be used in cooking and ripen fruit is in the use of juices and salad