I was in the yard taking some pics today, and thought I'd post a few here...

First, here's the "original" Black Mission in her second season just starting to really branch out.  She's sitting by a Dwarf Cavendish banana that should be close to flowering.  There are two of my dog's toys on the lawn in the background.  The one on the left is NOT part of the fig tree! :):



Here's the Brown Turkey bush in her second season.  She only put out a few Breba figs, but she's fixing to have her first good main crop:



Here's one of the BT's branches with a nice cluster of figs forming.  There are three visible (if you look close enough) on this one branch and possibly a fourth forming in the same bunch.  There are several branches forming these clusters, when in the past the fruit was much more scattered and sparse:



Here's the Strawberry Verte I just rooted in February already looking great:



Also, two of my Pitaya's (one purple and one white) are getting very close to reaching the trellis, so I just put up the trellis structure last week.  At the base are some more rooting Pitayas, two of the Black Missions I rooted in late December, and the Strawberry Verte from the previous pic:

Finally, the reason I was out there with my camera in the first place...My one-year-old TR Hovey Dwarf Papaya:




Notice anything?

How about now?



Yup!  She's finally starting to flower!  I was getting worried since all of her lower leaves started turning yellow and falling off.  I really started to get worried when a couple of the buds fell off.  But then, she started forming new leaves that were HUGE - more than 2x as big as the previous set of leaves and a couple of weeks later, we have flowering.

Here's one more pic:



I'm soooooo excited to get Papayas!!!!

I didn't know there was such a thing as a dwarf papaya! That's amazing. Everything looks great, keep it up whatever you're doing is working.

Very nice!  Congratulations!

Beautiful pictures!  I hope they continue to do well for you.

Great pictures. All the plants look nice and healthy. I think I lost my DC but I have DR that has made it. Maybe it will fruit this year.

Will the Papaya come true from seed? If so are you planing on distributing them or ????

Thanks, everyone! 

I actually have two TR Hovey Dwarf Papayas.  One is the yearling in the pics and the other I purchased about a month ago. Both were about 8" tall with trunks about half the diameter of a pencil when they were purchased, so they do grow fast. 

My understanding is that they should be replaced every three years, or so, because they stop producing fruit.  So, I have been trying to research on how to propogate them. 

It appears that they are not true from seed, and I do know that the TR Hovey is a hybrid, which probably makes it worse.  That being said, once I get some Papayas, I'll be happy to send some seeds to people here on F4F that would like to give it a try. 

Also, I can't find any real information on propogating Papayas from cuttings, so if anyone can point me in that direction, if it's even possible, it would be appreciated. 

In fact, the only "sure-fire" method I know they can be propogated is through tissue culture and I've actually looked at some home TC kits, just so I could keep the Papayas replaced every few years.  While I'm not that intimidated by the TC process, it does seem like a lot of time and work, so just about any other method would be preferred.

Figaro, it would be nice to have your zone and location like the one I have below,  so we could figure out what grows where.

Last year I bought two dwarf Red Lady Papaya plants from Walmart for $7 dollars each. They produced a couple of fruit in the fall. Imagine my surprise to find that they were completely seedless.

One died this winter because I refused to shelter it. The other one survived and will hopefully produce more fruit this year.

Thank you Figaro for letting me know about this type of papaya. I just bought 2 on ebay. If anyone is interested the auction number is 271180398972

very nice photos , thanks for sharing

Here's a few more pics I took this morning...

Let's start with some babies!

First, some of the new additions to fig family with a short story that demonstrates how great some of the forum members are.  In my very first post here on F4F, I had very casually mentioned that I was considering adding an LSU Hollier, since I wanted to have a sweet fig variety.  Well, within a couple of hours of that post, a very generous member told me he'd send me a LSU Hollier but he recommended that, if I wanted a great tasting sweet fig, I try what he called "Cajun Gold" and sent me some Cajun Gold cuttings along with the Hollier that I started rooting in late February/early March timeframe (Thanks, again!).

Here's one of each of those, along with another Strawberry Verte that was a little slower than the first, that were recently moved to small soil containers before going into one gallons:




Here are some baby bananas.  The one on the front-right (light container) is a Williams Hybrid I purchased a couple of months ago.  The one on the front-left and the two smaller ones behind are all Dwarf Cavendish pups that I separated from the larger tree pictured in the original post:



Since there was some interest in the TR Hovey Papaya, here's my other Hovey that was also purchased a couple of months ago.  It's already about doubled in size:



And, a couple more pics of the larger TR Hovey which now has a couple more blooms:

I wasn't really going to post any more pics on this thread, but I took this one this morning of the BT and I liked it too much not to post, but not enough to start another thread! :D

your plants look amazing.. every year I sprout papaya seeds and they grow to a foot  and die of cold...I bring indoors, but it dies anyway...

Figaro, please don't stop posting pictures, I am really enjoying them with my coffee. I may have to get out there and take some pictures myself.

Excited for the papayas to get here and trying to figure out where they will live in the house in winter. They'll probably only need to be in for a couple of months.

Seeing everything doing so well in your yard is inspiring!

beautiful pics! Thanks for posting! I was wondering what a new forming 'figlet' looks like. Now I know what to look for on my trees!

Some more pics from today...

Here's the Black Mission:



Here's another fig cluster on the Brown Turkey:



Strawberry Verte rooted in February but growing incredibly quick:



LSU Hollier rooted in March:



Dwarf Pomegranate flowering like crazy:



Another shot of the Dwarf Cavendish getting very close to flowering:



Finally, I have Papayas!!!!  It's just that, right now, they're about 1/2 the size of my little finger!



Have a figtastic weekend! :D

Wonderful pictures thanks for showing them.

I was out taking a few more pics today, so thought I'd post them...

Let's start out with some figs so the post doesn't look too off-topic!

In the center is the two-year old Black Mission that still hasn't fruited.  I'm a little disappointed since I figured with its size, I'd already have at least a few figs.  On either side, in the lighter containers, are the two LSU Holliers that were just rooted in March and are growing like crazy:




Next, is the Texas Everbearing Brown Turkey with it's 3rd crop of the year just starting to ripen:



Here, in the top-left, just barely in the picture, is an LSU Purple I purchased as a tissue culture a few months ago.  Then, from left-to-right, in the lighter container is a Cajun Gold rooted in March, followed by two Strawberry Vertes rooted in mid-February.  I've been picking immature figs off the Vertes for several weeks and they just keep putting more out, so I decided to just let a few go and see what happens:



My Dragon Fruits have all reached the top of the trellis, been trimmed, and are starting to branch out along the top:






Here's a Williams Hybrid banana purchased as a tissue culture on the left, followed by two Dwarf Cavendish that were started as pups from my bigger plant:



Being in South Florida, not much grows for veggies in the summer, so I really just got my garden re-planted out over the last couple of weeks.  But, I had started a bunch of pepper plants a few months ago that have been producing heavily.  Take a look at these Carmen peppers!:



Finally, the reason I was taking pics today...

My big Dwarf Cavendish banana was doing fantastic when, a few months ago, it was ripped entirely from its roots in a tropical storm we had here.  I thought for sure it was a "gonner", but some folks on the Bananas form talked me into trying to save it.  I re-planted the pseudo-stem and staked it off.  It ended up losing all of its leaves, except the center cigar leaf.  Then, one leaf after another began to appear.

Right before the Banana plant flowers, it shows first a "half-leaf", then a "flag leaf", then the flower should appear.

Well, it looks to me like I have a half leaf unrolling with a flag leaf right behind it!

Here's the plant from the "back", where you can't see much:



Here's the plant from the "front" where you can see the half and flag leafs:



And, here's a closer look at the half & flag leafs:



Since it takes about 6 months, or more, for the bananas to ripen, I'll still be buying them for a while, but I'm very happy I was able to save this plant!

Figaro,

Thanks for all the pictures and expose on your garden plants. I have a few Dwarf Cavendish here in Maryland that seem to be close to production, but will probably have to wait another ..year

Figaro, you have a lovely place and nice trees. Let me know how the Cajun gold turns out, I've been wanting to try growing it but haven't came across it yet.

Figaro if and when you get the Mission figs please post those pictures if you like.
Thanks.