The Magnificent Five and Two Halves

The rains onto saturated soil continued into early autumn, dropping another of my Sunrise papayas. It got the same makeover as its mate. New growth is already bursting forth from that first tipsy survivor.

The bigger news is that we're now eating our own papayas. Considering that the Magnificent Seven went in the ground on March 1 after starting from seed last year, this qualifies as instant gratification on the fruit-tree time scale.

The Sunrise produce very small fruits, ironic enough given the size and vigor of the plant. The Queen of the Indoors loves them, and indeed they are fine-tasting. It will be interesting to see how the topped-off plants fruit next year and how their productivity is affected.

I was more curious about the broadleaf papayas.  As you can see here, the fruit is much larger than the hand-size Sunrise's.

After the hefty fruit ripened to yellow with just a hint of green remaining, the flesh was a beautiful deep orange. But after all the hype, the taste was disappointing. There seemed to be an edge to the flavor not present in the smooth-tasting Sunrises. I found them good enough to eat, but the Queen said to call back when there were more Sunrise's. We'll see how the fruit of these two varieties evolves as the plants age, and whether dry-season product tastes different.

Meanwhile the two Costa Ricans are loaded with large fruits. I can hardly wait to see what it's like.