The versatile Papaya has many uses. The ripe fruit is eaten raw, without skin or seeds, the unripe green fruit can be cooked in curries and stews. A small piece of raw Papaya, cooked along with meat, makes the meat tender and it has high nutritive and medicinal values. No wonder it is one of the most widely grown fruits in Salt Lake.

The Papaya or Papita (Carica papaya) belongs to the Caricaceae family. It is a big herbaceous perennial with a single hollow trunk of about 20-ft with spirally arranged leaves. Its melon-like fruit is clustered on stalks around the tree trunk at the base of the lowest leaves. The lower trunk is conspicuously scarred where leaves and fruits are borne. The leaves are large and about 15 to 25 inches in diameter with several lobes. The tree is usually unbranched, unless lobbed.

This tropical plant is a native of Mexico and came to India in the 16th century. It is now popular all over India and it is commercially one of the most important fruits of the century. 

The Papaya gained popularity in the 20th century, mainly because it produces fruits throughout the year and bears fruit in about a year since planting. It is easy to cultivate and provides a high yield of fruits per hectare. Moreover it requires less area per tree.

Though a tropical fruit, the Papaya also grows well in the mild subtropical regions of the country up to 1,000m above mean sea level. It is grown almost everywhere in Bengal and is an important crop in other states too. 

The Papaya plants have a characteristic feature in the sense that they can come in male, female, hermaphrodite or other complex forms. The sex of the flowers on the same tree may change during its lifetime as per season, age and injury. 

Plants with female flowers require fertilisation from a male plant. So in commercial cultivation, at least one male plant to ten females should be retained for pollination. The male plant has long funnel-shaped flowers on branched flower stalks while the female flowers are close to the trunk. They are large and have fleshy petals. Hermaphrodite plants, with bisexual flowers, self-fertilise. In cooler climate hermaphrodite plants may revert to males.

Cultivation- Papayas can grow in a wide variety of soils, provided these are well-drained and aerated. A rich well-drained sandy loam soil is ideal for its cultivation. A slightly acidic soil suits Papayas best and good drainage is essential as the plant is subject to root rot. 

Temperature is one of the most important climatic factors that govern the success of Papaya cultivation. Well-flavoured fruits are only produced in warm climate and the plant is very sensitive to strong winds and water stagnation. Since the Papaya does not withstand water-logging, a well-drained upland position should be selected for its cultivation. 

Pits of sizes 45cm×45cm×45cm are to be dug and filled with top-soil by mixing 20kg of well-rotten cowdung or farmyard manure, 90g of urea, 75g of super phosphate and 75g of murate of potash. Usually February-March is a good time for planting but if rainfall is high, the planting should be done during October-November. Seedlings should be preferably planted in the evenings. Those from nursery beds are to be lifted with balls of earth and planted in the field. Three seedlings should be planted in each pit, followed by light irrigation. Take care to protect them from insect, pests and heavy rainfall in the early stage. Diseased and weaker plants should be uprooted to ensure one plant per pit. 

As soon as the plants flower, extra male plants should be uprooted. Earthing up should be done around the plant on or before the on set monsoon to avoid water-logging.

Propagation- Papayas are normally propagated from seeds. The gelatinous cover of the seeds are removed by rubbing with wood ash and air-dried before storing it in an airtight container. The seeds should be sowed between February and April on a seed bed prepared with well-drained growing medium and watered frequently, preferably with fungicide to prevent dumping-off disease. 

Green Seminar

A seminar on “kitchen gardens in urban spaces” will be held at 9.30am on January 10 at Dishari Bhavan near City Centre. Organised by Bidhannagar Horticultural Society, the event is open to all who register for a fee. Besides keynote addresses by experts, participants will be sharing their experiences on growing vegetables and fruits in their garden.

The seedlings should be transplanted when they are 20cm tall. Tissue culture or micro-propagation are recent techniques for propagating Papayas.

Some well-known Papaya varieties include Honey Dew, Coorg Honey Dew and Ranchi. There are also new varieties that have been developed by different organisations and agriculture universities.

Papayas are site-specific plants, ie. they adapt to their local environment. So it is always better to propagate plants from seeds of fruits grown in the same locality.

Weed control- Weeds should be pulled out of Papaya fields by hoeing, lest they absorb the applied nutrients or cause water-logging and make them vulnerable to root-rot. Deep hoeing may be done in the first stages to remove overgrowth of weeds. Thereafter subsequent hoeing should be done carefully as Papaya plants are shallow-rooted. If necessary, trenches should be made between two rows of plants during the monsoon so that rainwater does not stagnate in the field.

Fertilisation- Papayas need heavy dose of fertilisers. A matured plant will need 20kg of farmyard or well-rotten cowdung manure, 300g of urea, 450g superphosphate and 300g of murate of potash in two split doses, the first during May-June and next during October - November. They should be applied individually for each plant for better yield.

Harvesting- A Papaya plant comes to fruiting within 12 to 14 months after planting but the fruits should be left on the tree until they mature. In fact they should be “thinned” when 3cm long. This means plucking out some fruits to ensure healthy development of others. Do not let the fruits touch one another when mature. 

On ripening, fruits of certain varieties turn yellow while some of remain green. When the latex becomes watery, the fruits are suitable for harvesting.

Uses- Besides culinary uses, papain, prepared from dried latex of immature Papayas, is used for various purposes in the pharmaceutical industry, silk industry, leather industry, breweries and also for making cheese, cosmetics, toothpaste and chewing gum.

•To be continued

Send your gardening queries to saltlake@abpmail.com