Organic papaya tree growth

Papaya, or Carica papaya, is a tree that grows very easily. The first ones we had started more or less by accident, with some seeds thrown on the ground. We replanted those on the grass verge outside our house, but the first batch were either knocked over or pulled up by a stupid contractor, respectively.

So we eventually planted out another six, of which four have survived till now (though one is at an angle after someone knocked into it). Here are some pictures of the various stages of growth or two of them. The first was in October 2008 (note the red line on the pole behind the left-hand tree, this will give you an idea of the subsequent growth)


The next is about a month after that


Then fast forward five months to April 2009. You can see it didn't grow very much in height, but is more leafy: this period was generally wet, and we also fed it vermicompost and organic compost. The large fruit you see on the right was pinched by someone before we got a chance to harvest it.


Then, four months later in August, they have grown taller but the fruits are slow in coming. I suspect it's because it hasn't been so wet over the last few months. The fruits are also curved, perhaps for the same reason.


Some random things about papaya:
* "It is the first fruit tree to have its genome deciphered." (Wikipedia/Science News)
* Some people say that the juice of boiled papaya leaf helps dengue, but I wouldn't count on it.
* Also - the papaya fruit is actually a mild laxative.