My papaya finally grew until it now reaches the top of the greenhouse (11-1/2 ft) I therefore cut the tree down to just below half (4-ft.). New branches have started growing just below the cut. Now it looks like I will have a papaya with two main trunks (twice the fruit). Growing quite rapidly. I must have received close to a hundred fruit from the tree so far. - Millet

It can branch out as many as sunlight space allows.

One thing to note, based on my experiences, chopping the papaya tree in half or less, will sometimes do a sex change. One trick that we do if the papaya is male, we chop it down, then most often the new branches will be female.

I germinated some this spring. They are in the front yard & have small fruit on them now. About 10 ft tall. Now it is a race to see if any of the fruit will ripen before the first frost. First frost here is usually mid - late Dec...

10 ft tall? They grow that fast over the summer? I thought they had to live longer before producing fruit. Were these seeds from grocery store fruit?

Laaz, when you and I were driving around Charleston, we seen some nice papaya trees. That papaya tree that was growing in the persons front yard, that had the large boat zucchini shaped papayas is the type that I cut back. - Millet

The ones I planted were the single size & yes from store bought papayas. I will get a pic or two tomorrow. They grow super fast with plenty of fertilizer & water.

These photos are from about a month ago.

Papayas as of today 9-18-08