Actually I am using a combination of plastic wrap when the fruit is first setting and is very small and then as it gets bigger I remove the plastic wrap and put the produce bag over it.
OMG you poor woman!🙊🤦 Good bless you! 😇 Where there's a will there's a way! Thank you again for sharing your suggestion and your story. I really do appreciate it. It really did save me a lot of time. This is my first time growing my first fruit tree and I'm so grateful because I didn't know what to do! 🙏😇👍❤️💯☺️
Thanks for the tip. I've used organza bags, and that's worked for me. If you want to keep your trees short within reach to harvest your papayas, you need to top off the tree when it's within your reach. The tree will still produce a lot of fruit, and you won't need a ladder.
Thank you so much for this! I grew a papaya tree many years ago and every papaya I opened had maggots in it. I was so disheartened I didn’t attempt papaya for over 20 years! I’m growing a new tree this year and was wondering what to do to protect the fruit. I will try this. You give me hope!
Thank you. I was thinking around the same way. I really think your method is the most practical way and the cheapest way of getting around the problem. Thumbs up for you!
I love your persistence! Thank you for sharing all of your attempts to problem solve. I learned a lot of this video, and I'm pretty desperate, so I'm eager now to go out with plastic wrap and see what I can do.
I had previously wrapped closely packed fruit in some surplus taffeta but as I couldn't see when it was ripening, when I did open the cloth they were going mouldy. I think may be rats or bats might have gone at the unprotected fruit when they started to ripen and bit big holes. We have another bunch so I will try your plastic bag suggestion and the hole for drainage sounds like a good idea. Also cutting the tree so it doesn't keep growing as it already needs a ladder. I will come back later and report how it works out.
The plastic bag is see through so that helps. The plastic should be something of a deterrent for animals. They use sense of smell and the plastic will block the smell of the fruit. Also to be sure to make a hole in the bottom of the bag so air can circulate and any water can drain out. Do you have squirrels? The biting could be squirrels. If so that might need some additional measures. Or maybe birds? Good luck..
Wow. I have 10 papaya trees and they are absolutely getting hammered with fruit flies. I will certainly be wrapping the fruit up now as I really want to eat them :-) Thanks for sharing
I’m in very northern Florida… I grow red lady papaya… I’ve never experienced any pest issues . I’ve not imagined a fruit fly harming a green unripe papaya fruit . This is so interesting. Possibly my below freeze winter nights, make a completely different pest reality. (I cover the base of papaya plants each year , wool blankets and bubble wrap . Lose the top .
Thanks for sharing that. I have since moved to North Central Florida. And would love to be able to grow papaya. There are 2 volunteers from the compost now that both have small fruits. I'll try over wintering them and keep an eye out for the fruit flies.
Thank you so much this video. Sharing your difficulties and ultimately your success has helped me , i'm going out to my yard right now to wrap my papayas, i hope your suggestion will work for my little papayas.
Happy for you. It will work. It looks like they like having a wrapper. The little fruits themselves seem to have a latex component of their own. Careful on the ladder.
I am going to try this and will get back . Everytime the papaya fruit comes up it gets attacked by the fruit Flys.. only exception was a plant that was close to our pig's for some they never attacked that one plant . Thank you so much for posting .
I'll try it. Ive tried everything else too, but havent tried that. Im not sure it will work here where I live because we have just as much problem with a black spot fungus which rots the fruit, & I dont know if the plastic will make that worse or possibly protect it, so I will definitely try it to find out. These are the best types of videos where people like yourself show all the problems & the ways theyve finally resolved those problems. Good Job !
Very helpful, thank you!! I'm just starting to grow papaya and already the fruit pests are working on them. I'm going to put plastic bags on them tomorrow. Your video is very good!
Great, Hope that helps. it worked like a charm. Starting out with a little plastic wrap when the fruits are very small and then the produce bags when the fruits got bigger.there were hundreds. I gave many away I dehydrated many of the papayas. still eating them. 2018.
You rock! I'll go do this right now. I did conquer my leaf cutter ant problem without chemicals. Hope I have some papaya fruit that has not been damaged yet.
Thank you for your persistence and for sharing your idea. Removed all my weeping fruit and plastic wrapped the barely swollen flowers. Those wasps attack the blossoms almost immediately! Too bad I can't find an easy solution for wasps attacking my monarch caterpillars!
The blossoms will probably need to left open at the ends so they can be pollinated. If I wrap them too completely when the flower is still there they don't grow. They dry up and fall off. Good luck. Sorry about your butterflies. Nature is rough sometimes.
Thanks for sharing. I've been searching the internet to find a way to protect my papayas from fruit flies and your produce bag system is the best so far. I wish I could get as many fruits as you on one tree. My trees will produce about five at a time. Let us know your secrets for great fruit production. God bless..
Brilliant work! thanks for sharing. I have no papaya but peaches, and our fruit fly is called Queensland fruit fly, a distant relative but similar ever spreading threat here. (Australia) Cheers.
Thanks for vid. I laughed a little but great info. Thank you. My very first Papaya is 5ft tall. I can't believe how fast it grew. It is just starting to bloom. Excited
Thank you kind lady for sharing your info. May God bless you. I would suggest that you shorten your papaya trees by air layering in this way you would not need a ladder.
I use the 12" x 16" organza gift bags with drawstrings (on Amazon). Mesh is tight enough that papaya fruit flies cannot penetrate. However, you must put them at the very early stage, immediately when flower shows the slightest inclination for having fruit in it. Literally can be the second day that flower appears. Very delicate operation when at this stage as you can knock the flower off if not careful. I slip bag under the flower (between it and lower branch), then carefully pull the drawstrings and tie them around the TRUNK of the papaya. I use an overhand single knot then one extra overhand (double overhand). This way they are secure, but will allow the trunk to grow bigger. If you like, once papayas are large enough, you can re-tie them around the papaya stem rather than the trunk of the tree. Not sure if this is completely foolproof for all critters. For bananas, to keep away squirrels, etc., I use the large 30" butterfly cages/habitats with ziipper. Just zip them around the stem. Has protected the fruit from those mischievous squirrels. FYI, I am in South Florida.
Thank you for sharing your video. I grow veg and fruits in my backyard and never have problem before except this year my papaya fruits were full of maggots.
Thank you SO SO much for sharing!!! I have been trying to keep out the papaya wasp/fly and have had NO luck, I am so excited to try this!!! I've lost about 20 papayas so far. I started my first trees from seeds, now have 4 trees with flowers and fruit. But I haven't been able to eat any. =(
you have very lovely plants... i have some plants and i noticed that the leaves appear to be eaten in certaing areas... not sure what did that... dont see any cat, ants ect on the plants...
Hmmm. There are so many insects and they are all hungry. Good thing is it would be very difficult to do significant damage to a papaya tree in that way. And insects have their life cycles. So they chew away for a little while and then they are gone. Dried papaya leaves make a wonderful tea. Fresh leaves make a great vegetable dish (subji) like cooked spinach.
It takes a little work, up the ladder down the ladder but it works. As soon as the blossom falls away I wrap the small fruit in plastic wrap until the fruit is big enough to tie the produce bag onto it. One of my trees had over 100 fruits on it. Best wishes..
I have 20 trees and have had 2 major fruit fly infestations in the past 2 1/2 years. A nursery owner suggested to me that I pick any small papayas that have any latex leakage and get rid of them. The papaya will "bleed" after the eggs are laid. This way getting ahead of the problem. It did work! I think what also helped was lot's of tree toads setting up house in the papaya trees. I'm now in the midst of another papaya fruit fly infestation. I got lazy this time, and I'm paying the price. Tree frogs haven't taken up residence yet. Rainy season is late. So I tried making a foliar spray of diatomaceous earth and water. I think it actually might be working somewhat.
+Sandy Prager Good luck with it. As you know this fruit fly is very persistent. I had 16 trees they were about 2 years old and ended up tipping over and out of the ground during a strong windstorm. I tried cutting them back to about 2 ft above ground and a few of them put out new tree trunks, but most of them rotted. They are hollow and the water gets in there and rots them all the way to the roots. If there was a way to cut them back they could go for a few more years. But I don't see how to keep the water out, even covering them where they have been cut off it somehow still gets in there. Do you have any information on this or experience? Thanks
+Meena devi dasi Funny you mention that. Had I thought about it, I probably wouldn't have lopped off 4 of ours that fell/tipped over last January. We also had lots of wind and record setting rain. They're all now healthy with side shoots that are already flowering! But I'm sure if it was rainy season they would have shared the same fate as yours. :( I'm always planting new seeds. Between that damn fruit fly, and all the critters, I figure 40% green, and 10/15% ripe is a good mark to shoot for and be content with. Btw check out University of Hawaii seed lab. They'll sell you like 100 non-gmo seeds for a buck!
Great thanks for the tip for non GMO. I have a variety of papayas all from South america, I've herad GMO hasn't hit down there in the papaya crops. Hopefully... But that GMO is a huge problem in Hawaii. Probably why U of H has the seeds available. Maybe I'll just let them grow tall like they do and hope for sideshoots instead of cutting them down like that. Last year was a bumper crop year. There were so many I couldn't give them away fast enough. Bought a dehydrator. and froze as much as I could, 2 freezers full. they are saving my life. Such a healthy fruit. Actually I was told it's a berry? Dried leaves make a great tea. Fresh leaves can be cooked like spinach, they lose that puckery bitterness when cooked. and you know about the green papayas. Great cooked. The seeds, dried and powdered make a nice spice, a little peppery. The health benefits are astounding. I love my trees. I can't thank them enough.
Interesting about removing the small infested fruits that contain the eggs. I have another problem now. Some sort of wilt. They are susceptible to hundreds of diseases. Going to not grow any for a few years see if whatever it is goes away. Planting avocados.
Had the day off this morning, walking around our backyard with a cup of tea and a joint I noticed a little wasp attaching itself to our fruit… I knew something wasn’t right 😂 thank you for your tips family :)
I have a few red papayas in pots but they don't seem to grow as big very quickly in my area in Australia which is 1.5 hours drive north of Sydney in New South Wales, the latitude is 32.66° South of the equator. Our climate isn't tropical but humid subtropical meaning that we have cool winters which means that our temperatures can reach down to 33°F (about 2°C) overnight & the days get down to 11°C which means that the papaya plants die back & go into a state of dormancy over the winter. Horticulturist Jerry Coleby-Williams said that he had less problems growing them in Sydney than he now does after moving to Brisbane in Queensland as there is a bit more humidity therefore it gets that blackspot fungus there, it happens far less in Sydney. I put them out where it gets sun first thing in the morning at winter time & I put them in a semi shaded area during the summer, I think a 35-40°C (about a 95-100°F day) in the sun stunts their growth & can kill them. I hope that the plants are with me next year because I want to plant them in the ground when I move !
I wondered about that too. But, no. It is effective. I had to make sure there were at least a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag so fresh air could circulate inside.
Thank you for the post and info. This help. Will use produce bag to protect the papaya that I have growing in Orlando Florida. I have the papaya fruit where the papaya fruit fly laid its egg, so i will try this on the ones that are not infested. I think I made a mistake of killing the regular wasp and removing the nest. I noticed right after I did that, few days later the papaya fruit got attached by papaya fruit fly (Toxotrypana curvicauda Gerstaecker); naturally the regular Florida wasp were killing those papaya fruit flies, and as soon as I eliminated them, the problem with fruit fly started.
I struggle every year in SW Florida with the wasp who lay eggs in the young fruit. You can tell the wasp visited by the white latex on the side of the fruits. I tried NEEM oil but that washed away with the first rain. I'll try that veggie bag method. Thanks
Thank you so much for sharing! The papaya fruit fly is a new pest for me, so I’m researching ways to combat the issue. I feel very lucky to have found your video. One question for clarification: you’re talking about the bags in the fruit and veggie section of the grocery; the ones you pull off the roll yourself and bag your fruits/veggies yourself, yes? Not the plastic grocery bags they put all your food in at the register, right? Thanks again!!
I bought a few rolls of the clear on the roll veggie bags on Ebay. But the other ones would probably work too. I had a problem with the gated community complaining about bags on the trees... Ha Ha. all about appearances, you know,s so I could tuck the clear ones in really close and it wasn't so visible. They sure like the free papayas I gave everyone though. The affluent are funny. There was a giant mango tree in the common space. Filled with mangoes. No one would pick them. I picked them and gave everyone mangoes. But to go and pick for themselves they would not do.
this might not be the most practical solution for a commercial grower with 1500 trees. But for us backyard gardeners it'll get it done. Works great. Good luck.
Try large pieces of thicker clear plastic sheet to wrap around bunches, & tie it to tree trunk above & below bunches (with maybe stretchy material?) so the plastic sheet balloons out in the middle giving fruit room to grow. Maybe clear plastic drop cloths to protect floor from paint drips? Bunches of bananas have thick blue plastic put around them. Just an idea, because it sounds a lot easier if it'd work. Consider cutting top half of tree back to keep trees smaller also. A great video on how to do this @ www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2011/10/26/3348803.htm. The video is called "Lopping Pawpaws" because we call papaya trees "pawpaw trees" in Australia, but the video is definitely about papayas, as you will see. I lopped back mine yrs ago because I couldnt get to the fruit & hoped trees wouldnt die, & they were fine & they still grew lots of lovely fruit from side branches that just grew low down instead. You may want to try just one or two trees first if you dont feel confident about it. I congratulate you on your perseverance because healthy free homegrown fruit is definitely worth it,
+Susie Whitney Thank you for the link. I had been cutting the trees way back, like to about 2 feet above the ground. But then the water gets into the stump and rots tree. So I'll check the link out. Thanks again. About the plastic sheets wrapping around... Problem is the leaves... don;t see ow to wrap anything around until the leaves fall off, but by then the small fruit would be exposed. I've got the plastic bag thin down. It's not that much work now. Every three or 4 days i climb up to adjust things. These papayas are blessing. I have a dehydrator. They delicious dried. I use the unripe fruits as a vegetable. Steamed they are great. the leaves dried for tea, and the seeds powdered make an interesting spice, peppery. What a blessing. Best wishes..
Just saw your suggestions. Thanks. I have a pesky Home Owners Association to deal with. It's all about appearances. I can get away with a few things but I'm not supposed to even have any fruit trees at all. Rule is no fruit trees. Can you imagine it,. No fruit trees in Florida. These people are crazy. They are afraid it will attract animals. So whatever I do has to be real low visibility. The produce bags are bad enough but I can tuck them under the fruits and they are transparent. So I get away with it.
I grew my own horned melons and papayas and dragon fruits i had 3 trees of the dragon fruit and papaya and horned melons are on vines live in florida to and this helped alot
Requires some work and looks a little funny, but it works for the papayas. They have a tough skin though, it's reinforced with natural latex... so will be interesting if the bags work on peaches... little softer skins. Give us an update. :>)
Thank you for the video. I am in the process of putting nylon stockings on mine. It seems like I can cover a lot of them with one set of stockings. I like the bag idea. Have you thought about cutting your papaya back so they are easier to reach, I am pretty sure they will grow a new head, I have only tried it with a small one. Maybe being tall is an advantage to keep some of the pests from reaching them.
+Mark Fowler Good luck with the nylons.. Too expensive for me. 11 trees. I had one tree that was way too tall to service. I cut it all the way to the ground. I wasn't counting on it coming back. But it did. 4 new trunks all producing as much fruit each as the original trunk had produced,. Nice... I cut another one back thinking maybe that wouldn't happen again. But it did. I saw a video a while back where someone had been doing that for 40 years to the same papaya tree. The trunk just gets wider and wider. amazing trees. Amazing fruits. I have a decent dehydrator and the fruits are great sliced thin and dehydrated.
+Mark Fowler I just talked to a friend that has a different method you may want to look into, it is easier. He gets a yellow plate, he is using like a disposable dessert plate, i think, but any yellow plastic plate would work. Paint tanglefoot on the plate and attach it with string or long twist tie around where the fruit is. He says he catches the papaya fruit fly on the plate and does not have any problems with them injecting eggs in the fruit.
+Mark Fowler just saw your post... thanks. I'll DEFINITELY try that. Party supply store, maybe Dollartree, ought to have yellow plastic dinner plates. I knew white flies were drawn to yellow and they can be captured that way. If that works, what a relief. The bags work... but it's a lot of work. It's a miracle fruit. I'm actually turning slightly orange from eating so many.
+Mark Fowler Not sure the varieties. Just some seeds from a produce stand.... label from Costa Rica. From what I understand South American papayas are non gmo. Some of the fruit from Hawaii might be gmo though. Three or four different kinds. They all produce a lot of fruit, so no problem there. One of them wasn't producing any fruit. It was quite tall and stout. I cut it to about a foot off the ground. Thinking I would just plant another one hoping for fruit. But it surprised me. 4 new trunks and they all put out a lot of fruit. Really a miracle tree.
The best place to grow papayas is the desert, althoug the tree set back during the winter , it will come back and produce a very good yield especially in the fall and there is no rot no fungus no flies
moved a 5 hours north. too cold here for papaya. the video was taken in West Palm Beach Florida. zone? One tree has made it through the winter here so here come the plastic bags and plastic wrap, Happy to hear this worked for you.
I just got Dwarf Red Lady papaya, it's about 2.5 ft tall and very healthy. I have a large sun room I have typical house plants in, no bugs, etc. It gets very bright light during most of the day and around 2 pm it's sunny. It's a Dwarf so I could lop off the top to keep it short but am wondering if it would be good to grow it in that year round room supplemented with a grow light to mimic the sunshine? Your video was great and thanks for posting it, I am learning alot. The nursery said it's a hermaphadite tree, self pollinating, and disease resistant.
Yes. They were very active. I was in southern Florida at the time. Here in North Central Florida papaya doesn't grow well. Too cold in the winter months.
I had the same problem fruit fly attack my papaya. Its look nice outside and its turn yellow n when i cut open inside there are worm bcos fruit fly when inside the papaya. I try apple cider with dish soap n i also try cover with plastic n still dont work. Recently i bought fruit fly trap from internet n hang it on the tree n see there hundred of them went into the trap. So i hope the next papaya that i am going to harvest will be good. Hope for the best.
Throwing away the fruit is so disappointing. The larvae in the papaya fruit fly ruins the whole fruit, not like in an apple or a peach where you can just cut around the worm. I did two stages. When the little fruit with the flower on it was done blooming I would use a little plastic wrap. When the fruit got a little bigger, big enough to support a produce bag I would tie a bag on. Poking holes in the bottom so that when it rains the water could run out the bottom. Good luck.
Just became acquainted with this persistent pest and my search for solutions brought me here. My fruits are young and some of them have that milky sap on it. Does it mean the fly successfully laid eggs inside and are the fruits ruined? Appreciate any advice this is my first attempt to grow papaya.
Deep fried "green" papaya strips are great. Little salt and ketchup. mmmm. Better than french fries. I bought a deep fryer just for this. All stainless steel cheap on eBay. Enjoy... www.ebay.com/itm/2500W-6-3QT-6L-Stainless-Steel-Electric-Deep-Fryer-Home-Commercial-Restaurant/401651670424?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Cut them when u see some yellow wrap them in news paper in leave them in a dark place also pray ask God to share your fruits rightfully with His animal kingdom and last enjoy the fruits that you get its a big circle, ,,,, God bless
Try using Neem oil mixed in water and a little dishwash liquid. shake n spray , before it flowers and during and after flowering. as per need. check ratio on net
You’re doing the lords work Meena. Thank you 🥲
OMG you poor woman!🙊🤦 Good bless you! 😇 Where there's a will there's a way! Thank you again for sharing your suggestion and your story. I really do appreciate it. It really did save me a lot of time. This is my first time growing my first fruit tree and I'm so grateful because I didn't know what to do! 🙏😇👍❤️💯☺️
papaya trees are wonderful. Good luck.
One of the best story telling on yt, what a soothing voice ❤
Thanks for the tip. I've used organza bags, and that's worked for me. If you want to keep your trees short within reach to harvest your papayas, you need to top off the tree when it's within your reach. The tree will still produce a lot of fruit, and you won't need a ladder.
😄 I am here in Florida with the same problem. I will use your method. Thank you so much.
Good luck. It worked like a charm for me.
This is just what I needed to know. Thank you for sharing this...
Thank you so much for this! I grew a papaya tree many years ago and every papaya I opened had maggots in it. I was so disheartened I didn’t attempt papaya for over 20 years! I’m growing a new tree this year and was wondering what to do to protect the fruit. I will try this. You give me hope!
Thank you. I was thinking around the same way. I really think your method is the most practical way and the cheapest way of getting around the problem. Thumbs up for you!
You are great, the time taken and the dangerous leader climbing. With due respect you special for love of papayas.
Great solution and video!
I love your persistence! Thank you for sharing all of your attempts to problem solve. I learned a lot of this video, and I'm pretty desperate, so I'm eager now to go out with plastic wrap and see what I can do.
It will work. Just be careful on the ladder. :>)
You mean plastic bag right?
Or did you not hear the whole video?
I had previously wrapped closely packed fruit in some surplus taffeta but as I couldn't see when it was ripening, when I did open the cloth they were going mouldy. I think may be rats or bats might have gone at the unprotected fruit when they started to ripen and bit big holes. We have another bunch so I will try your plastic bag suggestion and the hole for drainage sounds like a good idea. Also cutting the tree so it doesn't keep growing as it already needs a ladder. I will come back later and report how it works out.
The plastic bag is see through so that helps. The plastic should be something of a deterrent for animals. They use sense of smell and the plastic will block the smell of the fruit. Also to be sure to make a hole in the bottom of the bag so air can circulate and any water can drain out. Do you have squirrels? The biting could be squirrels. If so that might need some additional measures. Or maybe birds? Good luck..
Wow. I have 10 papaya trees and they are absolutely getting hammered with fruit flies. I will certainly be wrapping the fruit up now as I really want to eat them :-) Thanks for sharing
Thank you !!!!! I live in Florida and it’s always nonstop war with that wasp 🐝! I love that some people really willing help others !!! 🥰
I’m in south Florida and the rain with the brown bag is a pain in the you know what. I’m definitely trying this today 💚💚
I’m in very northern Florida… I grow red lady papaya… I’ve never experienced any pest issues . I’ve not imagined a fruit fly harming a green unripe papaya fruit . This is so interesting. Possibly my below freeze winter nights, make a completely different pest reality. (I cover the base of papaya plants each year , wool blankets and bubble wrap . Lose the top .
Thanks for sharing that. I have since moved to North Central Florida. And would love to be able to grow papaya. There are 2 volunteers from the compost now that both have small fruits. I'll try over wintering them and keep an eye out for the fruit flies.
Thank you so much this video. Sharing your difficulties and ultimately your success has helped me , i'm going out to my yard right now to wrap my papayas, i hope your suggestion will work for my little papayas.
Happy for you. It will work. It looks like they like having a wrapper. The little fruits themselves seem to have a latex component of their own. Careful on the ladder.
Thank you that sounds reasonable enough to try. Thanks again. I'm trying tulle at this time so I will see how this work.
It'll work. Just be careful on the ladder.
I am going to try this and will get back . Everytime the papaya fruit comes up it gets attacked by the fruit Flys.. only exception was a plant that was close to our pig's for some they never attacked that one plant . Thank you so much for posting .
Good luck. It works great.
I'll try it. Ive tried everything else too, but havent tried that. Im not sure it will work here where I live because we have just as much problem with a black spot fungus which rots the fruit, & I dont know if the plastic will make that worse or possibly protect it, so I will definitely try it to find out. These are the best types of videos where people like yourself show all the problems & the ways theyve finally resolved those problems. Good Job !
Sorry to hear about the fungus. It's always something. Maybe this will help? www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/disease/black-spot-fungus.htm
Very helpful, thank you!! I'm just starting to grow papaya and already the fruit pests are working on them. I'm going to put plastic bags on them tomorrow. Your video is very good!
Great, Hope that helps. it worked like a charm. Starting out with a little plastic wrap when the fruits are very small and then the produce bags when the fruits got bigger.there were hundreds. I gave many away I dehydrated many of the papayas. still eating them. 2018.
You rock! I'll go do this right now. I did conquer my leaf cutter ant problem without chemicals. Hope I have some papaya fruit that has not been damaged yet.
Good luck. It works. Just have to get up on the ladder. Let us know how it goes.
It's really helpful to me I hope, I have same problem. Today I try this method . Thank you so much .
It'll work. Just you have to climb up into the tree.
it's September 2020 and it is going to help me watching your video. thanks a lot! you made things easier for me.
Thank you for your persistence and for sharing your idea. Removed all my weeping fruit and plastic wrapped the barely swollen flowers. Those wasps attack the blossoms almost immediately! Too bad I can't find an easy solution for wasps attacking my monarch caterpillars!
The blossoms will probably need to left open at the ends so they can be pollinated. If I wrap them too completely when the flower is still there they don't grow. They dry up and fall off. Good luck. Sorry about your butterflies. Nature is rough sometimes.
Thanks for sharing. I've been searching the internet to find a way to protect my papayas from fruit flies and your produce bag system is the best so far. I wish I could get as many fruits as you on one tree. My trees will produce about five at a time. Let us know your secrets for great fruit production. God bless..
Thank you for your efforts and sharing your solution
Excellent informariion my dear.
Brilliant work! thanks for sharing. I have no papaya but peaches, and our fruit fly is called Queensland fruit fly, a distant relative but similar ever spreading threat here. (Australia) Cheers.
Same problem here in Melbourne. Did you try something that worked for you?
Thanks for vid. I laughed a little but great info. Thank you. My very first Papaya is 5ft tall. I can't believe how fast it grew. It is just starting to bloom. Excited
Papaya is a lot of fun to grow. If weather conditions aren't quite right it gets temperamental and only produces male blossoms for a while. Good luck.
Update, hows it growing?
Keep it topped off if you don't want your tree to grow 40 feet. I topped mine off just under 6 feet so I can reach my fruit.
Thank you kind lady for sharing your info. May God bless you. I would suggest that you shorten your papaya trees by air layering in this way you would not need a ladder.
I use the 12" x 16" organza gift bags with drawstrings (on Amazon). Mesh is tight enough that papaya fruit flies cannot penetrate. However, you must put them at the very early stage, immediately when flower shows the slightest inclination for having fruit in it. Literally can be the second day that flower appears. Very delicate operation when at this stage as you can knock the flower off if not careful. I slip bag under the flower (between it and lower branch), then carefully pull the drawstrings and tie them around the TRUNK of the papaya. I use an overhand single knot then one extra overhand (double overhand). This way they are secure, but will allow the trunk to grow bigger. If you like, once papayas are large enough, you can re-tie them around the papaya stem rather than the trunk of the tree. Not sure if this is completely foolproof for all critters.
For bananas, to keep away squirrels, etc., I use the large 30" butterfly cages/habitats with ziipper. Just zip them around the stem. Has protected the fruit from those mischievous squirrels.
FYI, I am in South Florida.
Thank you so much. I’m going crazy
I live in the bahamas and I have the same thing you have fruit flies destroyed my papaya trees so I will try your way thank your ❤
It requires some work to get the bags on the fruits, but it's worth it. Works like a charm. Happy harvest.
Thank you for sharing your video. I grow veg and fruits in my backyard and never have problem before except this year my papaya fruits were full of maggots.
Thank you for the info 👍
Great info and story! Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you! Very informative and I appreciate your suggestions. We will try those too.
This video absolutely helps. I am going through the same thing with my tomatoes. Thank you. I am going to use plastic bags that I bought off Amazon.
Thank you SO SO much for sharing!!! I have been trying to keep out the papaya wasp/fly and have had NO luck, I am so excited to try this!!! I've lost about 20 papayas so far. I started my first trees from seeds, now have 4 trees with flowers and fruit. But I haven't been able to eat any. =(
+Robin Montenegro It's up the ladder. down the ladder. but it works, really well. Good luck.
😂. You cracked me up but thank you. Having the same problem
you have very lovely plants... i have some plants and i noticed that the leaves appear to be eaten in certaing areas... not sure what did that... dont see any cat, ants ect on the plants...
Hmmm. There are so many insects and they are all hungry. Good thing is it would be very difficult to do significant damage to a papaya tree in that way. And insects have their life cycles. So they chew away for a little while and then they are gone. Dried papaya leaves make a wonderful tea. Fresh leaves make a great vegetable dish (subji) like cooked spinach.
@@Meenadevidasi
many thanks Meena Devi ,,,Hari Bol ...
The drain hole is key. Thanks for running us through all of your trial and errors.
Thanks so much for your input. We have been dealing with the same problem. Going to give this a try.
It takes a little work, up the ladder down the ladder but it works. As soon as the blossom falls away I wrap the small fruit in plastic wrap until the fruit is big enough to tie the produce bag onto it. One of my trees had over 100 fruits on it. Best wishes..
I have 20 trees and have had 2 major fruit fly infestations in the past 2 1/2 years. A nursery owner suggested to me that I pick any small papayas that have any latex leakage and get rid of them. The papaya will "bleed" after the eggs are laid. This way getting ahead of the problem. It did work! I think what also helped was lot's of tree toads setting up house in the papaya trees. I'm now in the midst of another papaya fruit fly infestation. I got lazy this time, and I'm paying the price. Tree frogs haven't taken up residence yet. Rainy season is late. So I tried making a foliar spray of diatomaceous earth and water. I think it actually might be working somewhat.
+Sandy Prager Good luck with it. As you know this fruit fly is very persistent. I had 16 trees they were about 2 years old and ended up tipping over and out of the ground during a strong windstorm. I tried cutting them back to about 2 ft above ground and a few of them put out new tree trunks, but most of them rotted. They are hollow and the water gets in there and rots them all the way to the roots. If there was a way to cut them back they could go for a few more years. But I don't see how to keep the water out, even covering them where they have been cut off it somehow still gets in there. Do you have any information on this or experience? Thanks
+Meena devi dasi Funny you mention that. Had I thought about it, I probably wouldn't have lopped off 4 of ours that fell/tipped over last January. We also had lots of wind and record setting rain. They're all now healthy with side shoots that are already flowering! But I'm sure if it was rainy season they would have shared the same fate as yours. :( I'm always planting new seeds. Between that damn fruit fly, and all the critters, I figure 40% green, and 10/15% ripe is a good mark to shoot for and be content with. Btw check out University of Hawaii seed lab. They'll sell you like 100 non-gmo seeds for a buck!
Great thanks for the tip for non GMO. I have a variety of papayas all from South america, I've herad GMO hasn't hit down there in the papaya crops. Hopefully... But that GMO is a huge problem in Hawaii. Probably why U of H has the seeds available. Maybe I'll just let them grow tall like they do and hope for sideshoots instead of cutting them down like that. Last year was a bumper crop year. There were so many I couldn't give them away fast enough. Bought a dehydrator. and froze as much as I could, 2 freezers full. they are saving my life. Such a healthy fruit. Actually I was told it's a berry? Dried leaves make a great tea. Fresh leaves can be cooked like spinach, they lose that puckery bitterness when cooked. and you know about the green papayas. Great cooked. The seeds, dried and powdered make a nice spice, a little peppery. The health benefits are astounding. I love my trees. I can't thank them enough.
Sandy Prager '
Interesting about removing the small infested fruits that contain the eggs. I have another problem now. Some sort of wilt. They are susceptible to hundreds of diseases. Going to not grow any for a few years see if whatever it is goes away. Planting avocados.
Thank you! I cant wait to harvest my first backyard papaya tree!
Very helpful. Thank you
Had the day off this morning, walking around our backyard with a cup of tea and a joint I noticed a little wasp attaching itself to our fruit… I knew something wasn’t right 😂 thank you for your tips family :)
I have a few red papayas in pots but they don't seem to grow as big very quickly in my area in Australia which is 1.5 hours drive north of Sydney in New South Wales, the latitude is 32.66° South of the equator.
Our climate isn't tropical but humid subtropical meaning that we have cool winters which means that our temperatures can reach down to 33°F (about 2°C) overnight & the days get down to 11°C which means that the papaya plants die back & go into a state of dormancy over the winter.
Horticulturist Jerry Coleby-Williams said that he had less problems growing them in Sydney than he now does after moving to Brisbane in Queensland as there is a bit more humidity therefore it gets that blackspot fungus there, it happens far less in Sydney.
I put them out where it gets sun first thing in the morning at winter time & I put them in a semi shaded area during the summer, I think a 35-40°C (about a 95-100°F day) in the sun stunts their growth & can kill them.
I hope that the plants are with me next year because I want to plant them in the ground when I move !
thanks, that is really cool. Im going to try that out.
I'm glad this worked for you! I'm wondering though...wouldn't the fly be able to to get through the plastic wrap?
I wondered about that too. But, no. It is effective. I had to make sure there were at least a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag so fresh air could circulate inside.
Thank you for the post and info. This help. Will use produce bag to protect the papaya that I have growing in Orlando Florida. I have the papaya fruit where the papaya fruit fly laid its egg, so i will try this on the ones that are not infested. I think I made a mistake of killing the regular wasp and removing the nest. I noticed right after I did that, few days later the papaya fruit got attached by papaya fruit fly (Toxotrypana curvicauda Gerstaecker); naturally the regular Florida wasp were killing those papaya fruit flies, and as soon as I eliminated them, the problem with fruit fly started.
Thank you , I will apply your remedy
Good luck with it. It works. The fruits seem to like having their own little baggy. 😊
Thanks for your help. I was wondering what was happening to my fruits, finding punctures in small fruits rotting on the tree. Thankyou!!!
Great. Hope this helped.
I struggle every year in SW Florida with the wasp who lay eggs in the young fruit. You can tell the wasp visited by the white latex on the side of the fruits. I tried NEEM oil but that washed away with the first rain. I'll try that veggie bag method. Thanks
Thank you so much for sharing! The papaya fruit fly is a new pest for me, so I’m researching ways to combat the issue. I feel very lucky to have found your video. One question for clarification: you’re talking about the bags in the fruit and veggie section of the grocery; the ones you pull off the roll yourself and bag your fruits/veggies yourself, yes? Not the plastic grocery bags they put all your food in at the register, right? Thanks again!!
I bought a few rolls of the clear on the roll veggie bags on Ebay. But the other ones would probably work too. I had a problem with the gated community complaining about bags on the trees... Ha Ha. all about appearances, you know,s so I could tuck the clear ones in really close and it wasn't so visible. They sure like the free papayas I gave everyone though. The affluent are funny. There was a giant mango tree in the common space. Filled with mangoes. No one would pick them. I picked them and gave everyone mangoes. But to go and pick for themselves they would not do.
Thank you 🙏
Should help.
AWESOMENESS alert! Thank you so much!
+Eddy W. Happy if this helped. It really does work. Just a little labor intensive. But I feel it is well worth it.
When is the best time to bag them to protect from the bugs ?
I loved your whole experience video ❤️👍
I'm going to try this.
Thank you for sharing, excellent tip! What a determination. Good for you
Awesome! Thanks I'll try it! Im losing all of them.
this might not be the most practical solution for a commercial grower with 1500 trees. But for us backyard gardeners it'll get it done. Works great. Good luck.
good idea, thank you for making this video.
Try large pieces of thicker clear plastic sheet to wrap around bunches, & tie it to tree trunk above & below bunches (with maybe stretchy material?) so the plastic sheet balloons out in the middle giving fruit room to grow. Maybe clear plastic drop cloths to protect floor from paint drips? Bunches of bananas have thick blue plastic put around them. Just an idea, because it sounds a lot easier if it'd work. Consider cutting top half of tree back to keep trees smaller also. A great video on how to do this @ www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2011/10/26/3348803.htm. The video is called "Lopping Pawpaws" because we call papaya trees "pawpaw trees" in Australia, but the video is definitely about papayas, as you will see.
I lopped back mine yrs ago because I couldnt get to the fruit & hoped trees wouldnt die, & they were fine & they still grew lots of lovely fruit from side branches that just grew low down instead. You may want to try just one or two trees first if you dont feel confident about it. I congratulate you on your perseverance because healthy free homegrown fruit is definitely worth it,
+Susie Whitney Thank you for the link. I had been cutting the trees way back, like to about 2 feet above the ground. But then the water gets into the stump and rots tree. So I'll check the link out. Thanks again. About the plastic sheets wrapping around... Problem is the leaves... don;t see ow to wrap anything around until the leaves fall off, but by then the small fruit would be exposed. I've got the plastic bag thin down. It's not that much work now. Every three or 4 days i climb up to adjust things. These papayas are blessing. I have a dehydrator. They delicious dried. I use the unripe fruits as a vegetable. Steamed they are great. the leaves dried for tea, and the seeds powdered make an interesting spice, peppery. What a blessing. Best wishes..
Just saw your suggestions. Thanks. I have a pesky Home Owners Association to deal with. It's all about appearances. I can get away with a few things but I'm not supposed to even have any fruit trees at all. Rule is no fruit trees. Can you imagine it,. No fruit trees in Florida. These people are crazy. They are afraid it will attract animals. So whatever I do has to be real low visibility. The produce bags are bad enough but I can tuck them under the fruits and they are transparent. So I get away with it.
I HAVE USED TO STOP OTHER SPECIES FRUIT FLY PLASTIC BAG WITH REAL SMALL HOLES
IT WORKED
The papaya itself is loaded with latex. so a plastic bag isn't going to bother the fruit. Just kind of a cozy place to hang out. :>)
I grew my own horned melons and papayas and dragon fruits i had 3 trees of the dragon fruit and papaya and horned melons are on vines live in florida to and this helped alot
That makes me feel very good to hear. Glad it helped.
Dragonfruit trees? Dragonfruit grow on a rainforest cactus... maybe you don’t actually have dragonfruit?
Thanks a lot ... makes me laugh too 😆😁
:>)
Thank you, I will use the plastic bag on my peach tree's peaches.
Requires some work and looks a little funny, but it works for the papayas. They have a tough skin though, it's reinforced with natural latex... so will be interesting if the bags work on peaches... little softer skins. Give us an update. :>)
thank you, that certainly helped me :)
Thank you for the video. I am in the process of putting nylon stockings on mine. It seems like I can cover a lot of them with one set of stockings. I like the bag idea. Have you thought about cutting your papaya back so they are easier to reach, I am pretty sure they will grow a new head, I have only tried it with a small one. Maybe being tall is an advantage to keep some of the pests from reaching them.
+Mark Fowler Good luck with the nylons.. Too expensive for me. 11 trees. I had one tree that was way too tall to service. I cut it all the way to the ground. I wasn't counting on it coming back. But it did. 4 new trunks all producing as much fruit each as the original trunk had produced,. Nice... I cut another one back thinking maybe that wouldn't happen again. But it did. I saw a video a while back where someone had been doing that for 40 years to the same papaya tree. The trunk just gets wider and wider. amazing trees. Amazing fruits. I have a decent dehydrator and the fruits are great sliced thin and dehydrated.
That is awesome information, thank you so much! What type of papaya do you have, probably a lot? I have three red ladies and an unknown.
+Mark Fowler I just talked to a friend that has a different method you may want to look into, it is easier. He gets a yellow plate, he is using like a disposable dessert plate, i think, but any yellow plastic plate would work. Paint tanglefoot on the plate and attach it with string or long twist tie around where the fruit is. He says he catches the papaya fruit fly on the plate and does not have any problems with them injecting eggs in the fruit.
+Mark Fowler just saw your post... thanks. I'll DEFINITELY try that. Party supply store, maybe Dollartree, ought to have yellow plastic dinner plates. I knew white flies were drawn to yellow and they can be captured that way. If that works, what a relief. The bags work... but it's a lot of work. It's a miracle fruit. I'm actually turning slightly orange from eating so many.
+Mark Fowler Not sure the varieties. Just some seeds from a produce stand.... label from Costa Rica. From what I understand South American papayas are non gmo. Some of the fruit from Hawaii might be gmo though. Three or four different kinds. They all produce a lot of fruit, so no problem there. One of them wasn't producing any fruit. It was quite tall and stout. I cut it to about a foot off the ground. Thinking I would just plant another one hoping for fruit. But it surprised me. 4 new trunks and they all put out a lot of fruit. Really a miracle tree.
The best place to grow papayas is the desert, althoug the tree set back during the winter , it will come back and produce a very good yield especially in the fall and there is no rot no fungus no flies
Makes sense. But if it is too hot the fruit won't set?
Thank you
great video. thanks
Wow, great work exceptional results.
What zone are you in?
moved a 5 hours north. too cold here for papaya. the video was taken in West Palm Beach Florida. zone? One tree has made it through the winter here so here come the plastic bags and plastic wrap, Happy to hear this worked for you.
I just got Dwarf Red Lady papaya, it's about 2.5 ft tall and very healthy. I have a large sun room I have typical house plants in, no bugs, etc. It gets very bright light during most of the day and around 2 pm it's sunny. It's a Dwarf so I could lop off the top to keep it short but am wondering if it would be good to grow it in that year round room supplemented with a grow light to mimic the sunshine? Your video was great and thanks for posting it, I am learning alot. The nursery said it's a hermaphadite tree, self pollinating, and disease resistant.
Red Lady is GMO.
This is in Florida? Fruit Flies are that bad over there ?
Yes. They were very active. I was in southern Florida at the time. Here in North Central Florida papaya doesn't grow well. Too cold in the winter months.
gotta use a much bigger plastic bag than that. papaya fruits grow fast.
Does fruit fly sting trough the produce bags?
I had the same problem fruit fly attack my papaya. Its look nice outside and its turn yellow n when i cut open inside there are worm bcos fruit fly when inside the papaya. I try apple cider with dish soap n i also try cover with plastic n still dont work. Recently i bought fruit fly trap from internet n hang it on the tree n see there hundred of them went into the trap. So i hope the next papaya that i am going to harvest will be good. Hope for the best.
What's the name of the trap?
How soon do i have to start wrapping each fruit? Its my first time growing papaya. I've actually throw away 7 fruits.
Throwing away the fruit is so disappointing. The larvae in the papaya fruit fly ruins the whole fruit, not like in an apple or a peach where you can just cut around the worm. I did two stages. When the little fruit with the flower on it was done blooming I would use a little plastic wrap. When the fruit got a little bigger, big enough to support a produce bag I would tie a bag on. Poking holes in the bottom so that when it rains the water could run out the bottom. Good luck.
Just became acquainted with this persistent pest and my search for solutions brought me here. My fruits are young and some of them have that milky sap on it. Does it mean the fly successfully laid eggs inside and are the fruits ruined? Appreciate any advice this is my first attempt to grow papaya.
Yes … some of the fruit will be able to kill the larvae though ..
thanks buddy
Deep fried "green" papaya strips are great. Little salt and ketchup. mmmm. Better than french fries. I bought a deep fryer just for this. All stainless steel cheap on eBay. Enjoy... www.ebay.com/itm/2500W-6-3QT-6L-Stainless-Steel-Electric-Deep-Fryer-Home-Commercial-Restaurant/401651670424?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
I used electric mosquito bat to kill those bugs. Bt i have to do twice a week.
Cut them when u see some yellow wrap them in news paper in leave them in a dark place also pray ask God to share your fruits rightfully with His animal kingdom and last enjoy the fruits that you get its a big circle, ,,,, God bless
Yes. God bless. For all the gifts. The papaya is such a generous servant.
This is old but.. imagine we have acres of this for side income..
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PAPAYA Condoms :P
Nopejust to plastic bag
Organic pesticide anyone !
Try using Neem oil mixed in water and a little dishwash liquid. shake n spray , before it flowers and during and after flowering.
as per need.
check ratio on net
It doesn’t protect from oviposition. The female injects the eggs inside, and the maggots eat their way out.
🤣😂😂😂