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.