Our Papaya tree just about fell over it's so full of fruit - Drinking papaya Smoothies tonight - Life is Good
🌴 Getting home from a long weekend away for some Birthday Parties and Crab Fishing I noticed a ripe Papaya on our biggest tree and went over to figure out how I was going to get 20' up to pick it. 🌴
As I got a little closer '"wow" it's leaning over about 10 degrees, and the only thing stopping it from falling over was a close line.
Papaya is a heavy fruit and the tree is full of them, plus it must have rained a bunch as the ground is very wet and soft
🌴 So picking the fruit comes second to stopping the tree from falling over. Fortunately, I had a prop pole sitting around from a banana tree we harvested a while back. 🌴
Between Johana & Me we managed to push the tree up to almost vertical again and brace with the stick.
Here is our handiwork, but I'll work on a better fix tomorrow. It would be a heartbreaker to have the tree fall with so much fruit on it.
We'll be eating Papaya for weeks now that they are getting ripe, But how to get them down safe? Papaya & Me :-)
The last one I picked was off the top of our step ladder leaning agaist the tree and on tippy toes LOL.
Then the arguing starts with Johana, she brings the ladder out and says I'll hold it for you, No way honey I'll use a stick and try to shake it loose and you catch it. You can't do that you'll damage the papaya she says.
I got a long piece of 2 1/2 inch pvc pipe and pushed it, but being so packed in against the others it was useless.
I noticed I could see the stem from the top side so I taped a sharp knife to the pole and called Johana to catch it. No way she says, what if te knife falls on me!, When I convince her it won't come loose she comes over with a wash bin and some cloth inside to break the fall.
Bingo! I pushed the knife in at just the right spot and down it fell right into Johana's catch basin pretty as you please :-)
Life is Good and now harvesting really tall Papaya is possible.
Until today it was all just theory, now its practical. I don't expect to get such a nice cut or a perfect catch from Johana every time, but today we are Happy :-)
I was suprised when Johana cut the ends and rubbed them on the cut side like I learned to do with cucumber as a child, she claims it draws the bad milk out. I was told it draws the bitterness from cucumber and she agrees with that too.
Usually the center is full of black seeds, but this Papaya had just 1, I found this very strange but Johana assures me that it happens quite often.
After cleaning, off to the kitchen to be put in the blender with some ice and milk for some delicious smoothy's
All together netting about 3 gallons of Smoothies from just 1 Papaya - Life is Good
Thanks for reading and supporting my blog
I did a Papaya blog a couple weeks ago explaining how we have got to this stage Here
I really cherish comments as well :-)
Have a great day!
That was a fun read. Catching the papaya. So cool that you got 3 gallons of smoothies from it. Glad you were able to save the tree. 🐓🐓
It has been a great tree for us, many a Papaya snack, fresh or frozen plus endless smoothies :-)
What a great harvest. Papaya is a great fruit and very beneficial to health... I posted on the seed few weeks back... @codypanama thanks for sharing
Kind of a bummer that this papaya had no seeds, have you heard of that happening?
Nope....no seed you say! Guess it's a kind of hybrid? Anyways check my blog posts and find good infos
We have been collecting Papaya from this tree for 1 1/2 years, until this 1 they all were full of seeds. so just a rare case.
Ok sure... Updated today... Thanks and keep steeming
Oh man, that looks delicious! And you grew them? Wonderful.
Are those banana trees in the background of the pic with the Papaya tree propped up? Is Panama are hard place to move to?
It looks awesome. Take care.
I have heard that you can damage the top of the tree while it is short and it will branch rather than growing so tall and as a bonus it will have two or more fruiting heads!
When I lived in a papaya growing locale I was too afraid to kill the ones we had to try it but maybe start a few from seed and experiment.
Yes I'll play around with a few configurations maybe. I have a small Moringa tree plantation and want to try with them, as they grow fast and tall too.
Old nodes where Papaya grew are starting sprouts now, If you zoom in on the second picture its visible. I have seen some just cut off at a few feet high and several branches grow out from the cut, but some just die. I'll probably let these grow till they fall over, break or get too high to reach. We have 2 more growing now and producing. 1 sprouted from the roots of this tree, got about 12 feet high then broke off at ground level.
My first Papaya blog had a link to another persons uses for the seeds that sounded interesting, but this papaya had 1 seed, go figure hehe.
Cody :) You & Johana have me falling in love with Panama!!!
Thank you for sharing such delicious articles with us my friend 💗
Reiki Hugs & Lots of Love!
It's a very easy place to fall in love with, I'm looking forward to doing some great road trips in the future and adding some Dtube video. All in good time :-)
Thanks for dropping by
Namaste
Sweeet!!!! I look forward to seeing your vlogs Cody :)
Have a wonderful day - Reiki hugs!!
Good for you propping up the tree and getting a big papaya! I've had them fall over too. One, just the top fell off. The rest tried to regrow but eventually died. I can't figure out papayas either, what makes some thrive and others not. Ive had some seedless ones too but they tasted just as good. I don't know what's up with that either. So many new things to figure out! It keeps every day interesting.
Good harvest.. the papaya looks delicious: )
Why there's no seeds?
I found that curious too, but my wife says it happens often? Everyone I've seen before this had hundreds of seeds. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to dry and crush some, there supposed to be spicey and healthy.
Next 1 maybe :-)
The papayas look great.
There's a lot of coconuts too?
Thanks, we have 2 coconut trees but they grow very slow and takes years before producing. I did a Coconut blog a couple weeks ago. The coconuts came from a friend across the street. He had 3 trees but 2 were hit by lightning in the last couple years and is down to 1 now.
Coconut trees seem to attrack lightning so never stand under 1 in a storm.
Cheers
Ah, sweet. I will check the coconut blog.
Coconuts and bananas everywhere, LOL
Thanks again.