Stunted growth :S ( photo / image / picture from oubee's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from oubee's Garden )
I can't answer your question but I do want to clear up what might become a minor misunderstanding. You are referring to Carica papaya (Papaya) which also has the common name of Paw Paw. Here in the states the Paw Paw tree is Asimina triloba (Pawpaw Tree)
Glad to help. Yeah, common names are usually the biggest problem when it comes to IDing plants since the same name can be used on many different plants.
Oubee, I really have no idea...but have you sprayed anything on this lately? the leaves look dried/ burned? but the little leaf looks yellow, is this a normal color? do these plants have any insects that bother them? perhaps something has injected a virus into it by sucking on the plant. We have that quite often occur here. Insects can move viruses from an infected plant to a healthy plant and make the healthy one sick. Usually then the plant dies or is not terribly productive. anymore. The plant wilts and then gets burned from the sunshine.... just another thought...have you sprayed anything from a can up in the air close to the plant? I have sprayed a mosquito spray/repellent and burned the plants where I used the spray....probably because it was an oil based spray.
Nope Caro, I keep away from all chemicals and sprays. The yellow is not normal either. My other 'healthier' plants have got those nasty white insects underneath their leaves but otherwise, their growth is not arrested. I merely get rid of the excess leaves and wave goodbye to the the insects but this particular plant has got few branches, so am avoiding de-branching it :S Or maybe it's some other super rare papaya specie with super stylish leaves Very Happy moderator's note: removed double posting see point 3.6 of usage rules
How long have you had the trees? If this is the first season, there may be a problem with the root ball...it might be girdling around itself, that will stunt growth and kill a plant. If it's been growing and fine for more than a year it still could be the root ball girdling or it could have been infected as Carolyn said.
Oubee, those nasty white flies are hard to control, but I would suggest spraying them with an insecticidal soap or a neem product to get rid of them or try to control them. they can spread disease from and infected plant to a healthy one. But as to what is really wrong I am only guessing. My Pawpaw is totally different from yours...no bugs, no pests, no diseases, that I know of to bother this kind!!!! very hardy.
My apologies for not having replied here earlier, Toni & Caro. I guess I am the culprit here. I had some really tasty pawpaws/papayas and thought it would be cool if I could grow them for myself. I have no more than 8-9 inches of soil to offer to the root and building a raised bed would only imply forgoing some of the already established plants- an idea (and selfish, with hindsight) I could not bring myself to do. Guess am stressing the plant out with limited soil to grow its roots on. I just downloaded my first gardening book last week and learnt that some roots grow deeper in the soil but some cannot grow that well horizontally- something obvious and yet, unknown to me. I thought limiting the depth of soil would automatically induce the plant to spread horizontally :| One of the plant is flowering and it's a female one too. So, at present, I did not touch the plant and the leaves are as curled up as ever. I do not want to disturb the roots or spray some chemical on it at this stage. I am just going up with daily watering and the fortnightly fertilising. Is there any way in this I could speed up the process of composting (I compost dry leaves and organic kitchen waste of our 4-member family) so as to obtain additional soil? Well, any tip to remedy the situation would be welcome.
I joined this group as I have your Pawpaw problem. I can't find any information about it and your photo is 1 of my 4 plants (the other 3 are fine). I'm at a loss as to what to do and worried it will spread to the others. How did yours end up? this was almost a year ago.
Hello. Glad I contributed to bringing another Stewer along I could not figure out what was wrong and got rid of the plant itself in the end.
