ERIC TOENSMEIER
From Artichoke to‘Zuiki’ Taro, aGardener’s Guide toOver 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles
PERENNIAL VEGETABLES
Part Two: Species Profiles · 117
Caricaceae: The Papaya Family
Synonyms
Paw pawLechozaMamao
Aspects
TreesEdible fruitEdible leaves and flowers Sun to part shadeMoist, well-drained soil
••••••••
Carica
spp. • Papaya
Papayas are well known as one of the finest fruits of the tropics. Their mild, sweet melon-like flesh sprinkled with lime juice is luscious and nourish-ing. Unripe papayas, of full size but still firm and green, are an excellent vegetable. Green fruits, once they are peeled and deseeded, can be used in many ways. The most famous is to grate or juli-enne the flesh and add a spicy chili and lime sauce to make green papaya salad, popular throughout Southeast Asia. Green papayas can also be boiled, baked, pickled, and used in numerous other ways. The crisp texture is reminiscent of chayote, and vaguely like cucumber or firm summer squash. The fruits of both species profiled here can be huge, of football size or larger.Papaya trees are short-lived but incredibly productive.
Carica papaya
can produce as much as 300 pounds of fruit in a year! Both species profiled here like full sun and rich soils. The main challenges to papaya production are several viruses, which can injure or kill plants. These viruses have made papaya production difficult in many areas of the tropics, including Hawaii. Conventional breeding efforts have failed to develop resistant varieties with high-quality fruit. In recent years a genetically engineered papaya resistant to mosaic virus has been devel-oped and widely introduced in Hawaii. While resistant to the virus, it turns out to be unusu-ally susceptible to the papaya black spot fungus, necessitating massive spraying of chemicals on commercial papaya fields. Papayas in gardens and mixed planting are less susceptible than those in monocultures, although the virus continues to be a problem for growers of all scales in all the papaya-growing regions of the United States. As with any plant virus, infected plants should be removed and destroyed.
Papaya at ECHO.
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