Babaco Papaya Salvage Job

I had a couple of Babaco papayas that I managed to accidentally "kill" in September. I most likely either over watered or watered with water that was too cold. Papayas don't like cold water and easily get "root rot" as a result.

After this happened I chopped of the dead and mushy base of the tree and transplanted them into smaller pots. It has been almost two and a half months and the trees have lost most of its leaves but the tree is still green and appears to have some life left to it.

I had some left over rooting hormone (see my thread on my Carrie mango tree) so I decided to see if I could use it to save these papaya trees. Here is how they looked after I pulled them out of their pots. I had already cut off the bottom of the trees.



Here's a close up.



Rooting hormone is a white powder(naphthaleneacetic acid 0.20%)that I mixed with a little water to make a paste. I covered the wound with the paste.



Here they are after putting them back into pots. Hopefully they'll make it.




UPDATE: 3/10/10

This project is pretty much dead. The tree on the left is hollow like a straw. The tree on the right, though still green and solid has not shown much life. I'll give it through spring to see if it sprouts new leaves.

Tainung #1 F-1 Hybrid Papaya

This is a Tainung #1 Papaya, from Taiwan that I planted from seed on 9/19/09. It begins to fruit at only 4 to 5 feet tall, and produces fruit in the first year from seed. It produces all three flowers; male, female and bi-sexual flowers.



It started getting pretty cold with temps in the low 50's and papayas don't like the cold so I put this soda bottle over it yesterday to act as a greenhouse which will hopefully retain some heat. I'm not sure what size it should be right now but it seems kind of small after two months. I don't think autumn was the best time of year to plant a cold "hating" tree. I have a few more seeds that I'll plant in the spring and see if they do any better.

Fuji Apple

This is an Ultra Dwarf Fuji Apple tree. I would have preferred to have had a multi-grafted apple tree but this will do for now. I will try to graft more varieties onto it in the Spring.

Carrie Mango Tree

This is my Carrie Mango tree. It used to have three branches but two of them have broken off. I'm thinking about chopping off the top so that it can grow new branches and balance itself out again. The branch you see in the pot is one of the branches that fell off. I stuck it in the dirt in the hope that it will root itself but the chances of that is pretty slim.

11/14/09
Before chopping off the top of the tree I want to try to salvage the branch since it has gotten pretty big and see if I could make a whole new tree out of it. I'm going to start by cutting away a portion of the bark. Its my hope that this is where the new roots will sprout from.



Here it is after I cut it entirely away. Its called a girdle.



Then I'm going to place a plastic bag around it filled with peat moss.



Here it is. I added a plastic tube at the top to make it easier to water.



The bag was a little saggy so I placed a tie around it to tighten it up a bit.



I put another stick for more stability and there you have it.



I put foil around it to keep the sunlight out since roots won't grow in the presence of light.



I plan on cutting off this branch, regardless of whether it grows roots or not, next spring. Since this was only done as an experiment I didn't do some things that should have been done such as applying some sort of rooting hormone. My main objective was to cut the top off the main trunk to stimulate new branches. Since I would have lost this branch anyway, I decided to try to see if I could save it and make a whole new tree. Check back next spring to see the results.

Update: 11/21/09. I bought some rooting hormone powder (naphthaleneacetic acid 0.20%) to give this a better chance of making it. I mixed the powder with a little bit of water to make a paste. I applied it to the exposed part of the branch and also made additional "wounds" above the original girdle. I also removed the next set of leaves above the girdle. I didn't have any free hands so I don't have any pictures of this process but here is the finished product.



Update: 1/7/10
Here is a pic of the branch I'm going to chop off next spring. As you can see, its growing new leaves and branches. I looked under the foil and did not see any roots yet.



UPDATE: 3/10/10

I've been gradually snipping the branch so that now it is hanging by the bark. I'm trying to induce the branch to form roots since it is barely hanging on. This is how it looks now. I'll probably give it another couple of weeks before I totally cut it off and replant the branch.





UPDATE: 7/21/10

I should have updated this about two months ago because that is approximately when my experiment died. My air layered branch didn't make it. Although I may have a successful air layered mango after all. Read up on my post about my Manila mango to see what I mean.

Oro Blanco Grapefruit

Mt Oro Blanco Grapefruit which has Chandler Pomello and Cocktail Grapefruit grafted onto it. They have not sprouted yet.

Improved Meyer Lemon

I grafted Variegated Pink Lemon onto it. It has not sprouted yet.

Owari Satsuma Mandarin

Here is my Owari Satsuma Mandarin. Its also planted in a 15 gallon Smart Pot with CHC.

Tarocco Blood Orange

This is my Tarocco Blood Orange tree. I'm not sure if you can notice but I grafted some Moro Blood and Sanguinelli Blood Oranges onto it. The Sanguinelli sprouted but since it is Autumn it has not grown very much. I'm not sure if that sprout will make it through the Winter to next Spring. It is planted in a 15 gallon Smart Pot in Coconut Husk Chips (CHC).

Testing

This is a test of my first post on this blog.

This will be my spot for posting pictures to other forums.

10/30/10

Papaya trees


Manila Mango rooted cutting