Growing Pawpaw Trees In 7 Months

 Written by Peter Otieno.     

             
              

Pawpaw known to many as papaya, is a sweet tasty fruit that whose trees mature best in tropical warm climate areas.

Pawpaw has a green skin which changes to yellow upon ripening while its flesh becomes orange yellow or reddish depending on the variety.  

Papaya varieties include:

1. Solo Sunrise - It ripens to a yellow orange flesh with a sweet taste. It matures faster and bears fruits in seven months with a continuous production.

2. Red Lady Variety - It produces oval shaped fruits with sweet taste. Its a high yielding variety with a long productive lifespan.

3. Calina Papaya - It has large, oval fruits with sweet red flesh. Its a dwarf variety that matures faster and does well in warm areas.

These varieties are self pollinated therefore you won't need male papaya trees on your farm.

Seeding - Cut a ripened papaya fruit, pick out black seeds then dry them in full sun for five days. Prepare a small nursery on your garden(you can use a pot or water trough too and ensure you have small holes to dispense excess water).

Make small furrows and apply well decomposed farmyard or compost manure. Sprinkle dry seeds then cover with little soil.

Lastly, water your nursery bed and continue irrigating till day of transplanting.

After two to three weeks, pawpaw seedlings will begin to shoot up and in about two months they will be ready for transplanting to the main farm.

While seedlings are still in the nursery bed, prepare main farm by digging holes with spacing of 3m by 3m.

Transplanting - On the day of transplanting, apply compost manure on each planting hole and drench them with water.

On the nursery bed, water the seedlings until soaked to enhance easiness when uprooting seedlings.

Growing and Maintenance - Papaya trees grow at a faster rate and is evident in their fibrous roots that spread searching for moisture and nutrients. 

Weed your farm twice a month up to the fifth month when trees start to flower and form fruits.  

Irrigate trees when rainfall is inadequate, top dress with organic liquid fertilizers then mulch ( this retains water especially in dry land regions).

                 

Pests and diseases - Birds tend to feed on ripened fruits so harvest early.

Red Spider mites suck sap on pawpaw trees causing leaf drop and poor plant growth.

White flies cause curling and damage of leaves by sucking fluids on pawpaw tree.

Harvesting - Unlike other fruit trees such as mango or orange, papayas are harvested all year round once the trees mature.

At seven months, your papaya fruits will be ready for harvesting. Pluck fruits whose skins have began turning yellow leaving green ones. Harvest pawpaw fruits twice a week to create room for green ones to ripen.

What Pawpaw gives us

- Pawpaw contains antioxidants which help reduce risk of heart diseases.

- Pawpaw aids in digestion due to presence of fibre in it and boosts immunity of the body.

- Presence of vitamins and minerals in papaya like vitamin C, magnesium and iron, enhance skin health, promote immune function and protect body against illnesses.

- Pawpaw can be eaten with a mix of fruits like banana, apple, mango, avocado or blended into juice.

The market price of a pawpaw fruit ranges from 50 to 150 Kenya Shillings depending on its size.