John’s 50 Year Florida Papaya – Seeds

This yellow flesh papaya has been cultivated by our neighbor John Crohn for 50 years. John first grew this papaya at his horse ranch in West Palm then brought the seeds to Babson Park where it has grown the last few decades. John passively cultivates the plants by encouraging volunteers that pop up where he likes them. Several years ago I dismissed this fruit as an inferior papaya. Recently on a visit I cut into another fruit and was pleasantly surprised at the wonderful, melon-like flesh. The disparity in experience may be explained by two different traits of this papaya. First, this papaya is very prone to being over ripe when picked too late. Fruit must be picked on the early side and has relatively poor shelf life. I may have have tasted an over ripe fruit initially. Secondly, there is a lot of variation from plant to plant. We did a special tasting trip, carefully working our way through the grove to taste and re-taste each plant. We found a spectrum of quality. A few could be described as poor. Some taste acceptable but with lower sweetness and bland flavor. The best plants are absolutely wonderful, with a rich flavor, great sweetness and delicate texture. The flesh is very soft, which helps explain the poor shelf life. However, a refrigerated fruit can be cut in half and scooped out directly with a spoon for an exquisite eating experience. Fruit can be peeled and cut up, but does tend to disintegrate into a thick, sweet goop when stored in the fridge (still tasty and useful).
This diverse population may be better described as a landrace or strain rather than a stabilized variety. The seed offered here was saved from the very best tasting from John’s farm. What percentage of that seed produces fruit like the parents? We don’t know. John has not applied careful selection for flavor over the years. We will be working with this population and continuing to select for favorable traits. This seed could have received pollen from inferior trees, though papayas with hermaphodidic blooms do often self pollinate. John estimates that roughly 10 percent of seedlings come up male, which should be cut down.
There are pros and cons to cultivating this papaya. Some may opt to grow reliable F1 hybrids such as Red Lady or Tainung. What John’s papaya has going for it is fifty years of adaptation to Florida’s climate and soils. His passive cultivation method means that only plants with good genes for survival in this environment make it past the seedling stage and go on to be trees. The best trees are delicious, rivaling the flavor and sweetness of the best hybrids. Dud trees can be eaten as green papaya. We love the idea of developing Florida heirloom papayas that grow true to type. Wherever a tree is desired, gardeners can toss a rotten fruit and let the volunteers grow. If you want a 100 percent foolproof tree with consistent quality, seek out an F1 hybrid. If you have the space and time to work with a more diverse population that is developing into a great Florida heirloom, John’s papaya is worth cultivating. With time, perhaps we will offer a more stabilized version of this papaya that is known to give high percentages of true to type offspring.

Carica papaya

40 seeds