Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah - The babaco looks interesting, though I don't think they taste much like papaya - wonder what they are like health wise? I know the papaya is very good for the digestive system. Also not sure I can get a Babaco easily in Perth...?


I'll be growing the papaya (if I can find one!) in its only half blue barrel (100L GB) so it can only become pot bound and not upset any other plants - I'll make sure the media guard is easy to access and rotate to stop the roots getting in the drain.

Babaco is good for cool climates, they come from high in the Andies so cold is in their genetic makeup. Hard to get here unless you want to pay a fortune. Yellow paw paw are male/ female ration about 1 to 6.

I wonder how aquaponics affects Phytophthora growth.
Phytophthora is a mould and is a massive problem up north.
It is usually brought on by wet conditions, which is what made me think of it.

Please post if you think you get it!

I am considering growing American PawPaw. They are called Indiana Banana and native in my state so they should handle the frost. From what I understand these taste similar to banana and are unrelated to the red/yellow variety of Mexican/Hawaiian papaya/papaw.

They dont like cold THAT much.
They may come from the mountains, but are an understory tree. They dont like frost.
They have a tangy taste, most people say they are like a cross between a pineapple and kiwifruit, but i dont taste it. They take some getting used to, but can be nice.
They are very prolific fruiters, with some fruit that i have had being roughly 2-3 kilos, with another 20 fruit at 1-2kg waiting for harvest.

I'm going to jump on this thread instead of starting my own...

I bought, and just received, 15 seeds for 'Red Maradol' papaya, this is apparently the variety that is cultivated commercially around most of the tropics. I am going to try planting five seeds at a time spaced about 2 months apart because you need either male and female plants or hermaphrodite plants and there's no way to know which is which until after they set flowers.

I am not sure whether these will actually be "in" my aquaponics system, i may end up using byproducts of AP such as fish waste to fertilize these and leave them in pots instead.

I grew paw paw in my old ibc tote system and I got tons of fruit from the tree....only problem was we had a storm that blew it down before they ripened. It can be done though.

I've been thinking about adding a papaya tree to my IBC. Could someone tell me how large the roots will grow?

Aquaponics wa has a few of them. Did same thing to theirs too.

[quote="SuperVeg":*now Paul, stop that*]I wonder how aquaponics affects Phytophthora growth.
Phytophthora is a mould and is a [b:*now Paul, stop that*]massive[/b:*now Paul, stop that*] problem up north.
It is usually brought on by wet conditions, which is what made me think of it.

Please post if you think you get it!
[quote:*now Paul, stop that*]
http://www.padil.gov.au/pests-and-disea ... 6594/2671#[/quote:*now Paul, stop that*][/quote:*now Paul, stop that*]
That seems to be the major thing that kills them
They seem to last about 5 to 7 years before they just die.
Ive got a few in the ground and one in a garden bed(wicking)
The one in the bed is going mad covered in fruit

They grow like weeds from seed so its easy to start again
I got them coming up every where from my worm farm even after years, all of my current ones have come up on their own

Theirs amaze me,they are growing in a very shallow gb and seem to produce plenty of fruit and the roots don't seem all that large.The only problem I have had both in AP and in the ground is that the plants rot off at ground level.

I grew one that grew 2m in one season and had lots of fruit that didn't ripen by winter. over winter the slugs chewed the fruit stems and started rot and then the whole plant slowly rotted. I think because they grow so fast and sappy in AP they are more vulnerable to rot.

The 'bulkhead' sections in the trunk on my AP one were about 8 inches apart compared with 1-2 inches in ground grown ones. That means its harder to cut the trunk off and start again if you have any issues. I think if I had a warmer winter environment or greenhouse I'd try again, though for now I've just stuck them in the ground. (as I have for all my fruit trees - IMO AP are far better suited to leafy greens and at a push fruiting annuals [if N and P managed well])