Papaya?

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I love papayas. Sadly, whenever I successfully plant one, the trees don't bear fruits! For instance, we have two papaya trees in the backyard now. Both of them are very big and old, but none of them is bearing any fruit. We water it every day, and give it the best care we can but to no avail. Are we doing anything wrong? Is there anything I am missing?
 
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I love papayas. Sadly, whenever I successfully plant one, the trees don't bear fruits! For instance, we have two papaya trees in the backyard now. Both of them are very big and old, but none of them is bearing any fruit. We water it every day, and give it the best care we can but to no avail. Are we doing anything wrong? Is there anything I am missing?
You probably have either two male trees or two female trees. You need both sexes for pollination on papayas unless your two big trees were commercially grown and they are hermaphrodites of which if they never produce fruit they aren/t. If your trees are female they will produce small unedible fruit and if your trees are male they won't produce anything but pollen
 
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Can you grow a single tree and get fruit or do they have to be grown in pairs? I live in a cold area so I don't think they would grow well for me anyway. They like warm regions right?
 
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Can you grow a single tree and get fruit or do they have to be grown in pairs? I live in a cold area so I don't think they would grow well for me anyway. They like warm regions right?
They are tropical trees. Papayas need a male and female tree but commercial growers have perfected a self-pollinating tree. If grown from seed you will need both sexes
 
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Our papayas have been grown from trees. I am actually surprised that there are male and female papayas. How will I know my papaya's sex? Is there a way to know, or is it all by chance? Also, is there a way to change the sex? It sounds silly, but I am serious with the sex change question. LOL.
 
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Our papayas have been grown from trees. I am actually surprised that there are male and female papayas. How will I know my papaya's sex? Is there a way to know, or is it all by chance? Also, is there a way to change the sex? It sounds silly, but I am serious with the sex change question. LOL.
First, how old are the trees? Trees grown from seed need from between 6 - 10 years to become sexually mature. This is why commercial growers either grow trees by grafting onto other rootstock, by cuttings or by air layering. This save a lot of time. There is no way to know just by looking what sex your tree is or if it is self pollinating. If it blooms it is either a female tree or a self pollinating tree and if it doesn't it is a male tree. And no, you cannot give a tree a sex change operation.
 
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First, how old are the trees? Trees grown from seed need from between 6 - 10 years to become sexually mature. This is why commercial growers either grow trees by grafting onto other rootstock, by cuttings or by air layering. This save a lot of time. There is no way to know just by looking what sex your tree is or if it is self pollinating. If it blooms it is either a female tree or a self pollinating tree and if it doesn't it is a male tree. And no, you cannot give a tree a sex change operation.

Oh that long, huh? It was grown from seed. I think that the trees came from the seeds I threw away willy-nilly on the off chance that they will grow. I think they have been there for about a year and a half, so not that old. They are big though. However, one has flowers, but the other doesn't. ** I really laughed when I read the answer about the sex change thing. It just seems so silly because one of my aunts was telling my dad how he could cut something from the papaya to make it bear fruits. Lies!
 

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