The Magnificent, Or Perhaps Puny Seven

Ever since I let a dozen or so papaya plants flood out in the summer of 2013, I've been wanting to do the papaya thing right. A few random ones are still around, growing in too much shade, but last year I accumulated some better selections. I managed to start two broadleaf papayas from Berto Silva's seeds. At the Suncoast Tropical Fruit and Vegetable Club's fall sale down in Nokomis, I bought a half-dozen small Sunrise papaya starts, together with a pair said to be from seeds brought back from Costa Rica. On the back porch, in some tasty potting mix, they grew well through the fall and even in the warm winter.

As for their planting site, it started as a big hole in the ground, in the middle of some extra garden space in the northeast quadrant. I dug it last fall, with some finishing help from my able horticultural colleague, MRFC Secretary Josh Starry. I should have take some photos, but didn't, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was close to six feet deep and twice that across.

Some of the excavated soil went to a semicircular mound half-enclosing the pit. The bulk of it went somewhere else, but that's a topic for another day.

We cleared out an area of overgrown junk banana plants in the southwest grove, producing two of these truckloads of bananastuff. Josh used the machete--- which somehow seems to be quite a bit sharper when he wields it than when I do--- to chop the stalks into sections. They went into the pit, along with a couple of piles of pulled weeds and sod that had been composting for a while.

A layer of tree-pruner mulch went on the mound, and extra-heavy layers on both sides of it and atop the pile of bananastuff. As the rainy El Niño winter progressed, the mulch wove itself into a mat and started its breakdown process. Meanwhile the papaya plants graduated from the porch to the outdoors, first to a part-shaded area, then to a sunnier spot to toughen up for their big day.

March is a good planting month, and I wasted no time. On the 1st I planted the broadleafs, Costa Ricans, and three of the Sunrise's at five-foot spacing on the mound. Here you can see one of the broadleafs and one of the Sunrise's after planting. The rest of the Sunrise's will likely go to our May tree sale if they aren't needed as replacements.

As you can see in the next photo, the bananas haven't given up. They keep sending stalks up from the pit. Periodically I saw them off to compost in place, after a moment of appreciation for their service of nutrient recycling.

The seven papayas looked stout and vigorous in their containers, but alarmingly puny after planting in the great outdoors. A meditation to Ma'am Gaia couldn't hurt. Positive requests seem to have better prospects--- and less chance of backfiring--- so I asked that the evil ring-tailed demons of the forest find excellent foraging there all through the spring, and feel no need to rampage through my property pawing young trees and papaya plants. I also double-staked each of the new plantings. Ma'am Gaia sometimes grants our wishes and sometimes not, but she's got no time for those who do not make the effort.