Developing fruit at the bottom, blooming female flower above, and even more buds higher up - what more could a gardener want?
Be still, my beating heart… the first Red Lady papaya tree is finally doing what it’s supposed to – bear fruit! 8)
Not only is the first fruit developing – a mystery to me, since there were no male papaya flowers in our garden to pollinate it when that flower first bloomed – but the next female flower has opened, with even more flowers budding higher up on the tree.
I know that papaya trees are normally prolific fruiters, but this is special to me – grown from seeds bought from a commercial seed supplier, and a Taiwanese type, too.
No, I’ve never eaten this type of papaya before, nor am I a huge fan of papaya – I eat ‘em, but I don’t crave ‘em the way I do chocolate or my morning coffee…
The challenge of growing something new and unique simply appealed to me. And, alright, I admit the fact that it’s supposed to be sweet was also a big selling point! 
Besides, it’s a tropical fruit, this is a tropical country, and it grows well here. So I’m happy to have them growing here.
For now, we’re keeping an eye on the developing fruit(s). I know that it takes them a few weeks to mature, so, the Red Lady papaya saga goes on…
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If there are no male papaya plants nearby, then the fruit on you tree will only grow to baseball size and then sadly fall off…sorry to ruin your hopes
but perhaps i’m wrong, maybe your papaya tree is hermaphroditic)
Hi Luke, so far the fruits have grown bigger than a baseball, so I’m hopeful that the fruits will mature fully. And, we now have a male plant nearby! Stay posted…
Great!
I’m also trying to grow a papaya tree in my backyard. it is about three 1/2 feet high, but it’s a male plant..
I’m also growing a papaya plant in my backyard in Florida. It’s about three 1/2 feet high
sorry, i accidentally posted it twice..
No worries, Luke.
Growing papaya trees is such a gamble because you don’t know what gender the plants will be until they flower. That’s why I took the advice to grow a few, and then cull what I didn’t need. I started off with 8 plants and now have 4. I assume 2 are hermaphrodites because they’ve grown fruits, 1 is a male, and I’m waiting for the last to start flowering.
What do you do in Singapore?
Hi Luke, to generalize things, I’d say we work very hard over here and, for me, I garden to de-stress. Our climate is probably similar to yours, but we’re closer to the equator, so we don’t really get defined seasons through the year. It’s great for gardening as we have flexibility in what we can grow, but disappointing that we can’t grow some of the lovely plants that need a cooler climate.