problem with papaya tree

[M Farooq]

Okay, but I am slightly confused. Izhar sb implies that a male papaya, by random chance, becomes hermaphrodite (which seems difficult). Umer sb says that such plants are different, which means papaya plant can come in 3 forms: male, female and hermaphrodite. Internet search also gives an impression that the last one is a separate plant in itself.

[aykhan]

I have papaya F1 hybrids from Hawaii and those seeds give either female or hermaphrodite (male/female) plants. So technically if you have just one hermaphrodite then you dont need any other papaya for it to bear fruit. On the contrary some hybrids are male only or female only which means you'll need a male for the females to fruit.

[Izhar]

The plants i am referring to were from the seeds of the commercially available fruits.. so it might be the case that what i thought were female plants were actually hermaphrodite..!! that is why they were able to fruit without male plants nearby....

Male papaya with fruits look like this (pic from internet):

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Very Interesting and informative.

[dolqiu]

thanks for all the information guys