Posted by (mangoman) on December 08, 2009

Oh I absolutely will! Thank you for the post Penny! Actually the dent is from me having to cut out a bad spot :( Hopefully I can get a few years of seelessness! lol

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 08, 2009

Beautiful fruit, Eric. It’s really fun to start things from seed and have them turn out so well.

Posted by (Chip) on December 09, 2009

Mangoman! selling your harvests can prove to be difficult [unless you are selling to friends and family] we have even tried donating to meals on wheels, food banks the red tape was just to much. the one thing you can do with out a license is trade with a road side produce vendor. for some thing you want…“Chip”

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 09, 2009

Thanks interesting Chip. I remember having a yard sale once. I had some extra plants I potted up to sell. I wasn’t allowed to say “plants for sale” in the paper because I didn’t have a license. I guess the farmers and nurseries need protections but it seems kinda silly when people need food not to be able to at least donate to them, doesn’t it?

Posted by (Chip) on December 09, 2009

I agree Susan I can understand safe guarding the food supply but there is no way I could satisfy all of the demands to even donate let alone sell outright I was getting a five gallon bucket of yellow pears tomato’s a day and they could not take them. and that was a shame. I just took them in to work and traded with a produce vendor.“Chip”

Posted by (Janna) on December 09, 2009

Eric, that papaya looks mmmm….good! It also looks like you’ll have lots more of them to enjoy. The artsy photo of the tree looks like it could be in a magazine. (Or on the cover of a gardening book written by Eric Young!)

Chip, I can’t belive that you couldn’t sell or even DONATE your bounty! That is a shame. Guess I’m naive, but I always thought the roadside fruit and veggie vendors just brought crops from home and parked on the side of the road to sell their goods. Apparently, there’s much more to it than that.

Posted by (kgardens) on December 10, 2009

Wow, Eric that is one beautiful papaya.  I’m going to be starting some seeds from a grocery store one.  I hope I’m as successful as you.  I have no idea where I’m going to put mine and since I don’t know what variety it is I have no idea how big it will get.  Experimenting is half the fun.  Where did you get your seeds? 
Kay

Posted by (mangoman) on December 10, 2009

I got my seeds from a papaya from Parksdales. I gew it in a pot for about 1 year but it was NOT doing good. Papaya need a lot of soil (they have a tap root) I would suggest growing it in a pot for the winter util about march (?) and then planting it in the ground. If it dies next year don’t worry about it it will regrow from the stump (don’t forget to protect it though).

Eric

Posted by (kgardens) on December 10, 2009

Thanks for the advice Eric.  I hope to be able to start my seeds this weekend. 
Kay

Posted by (Chip) on December 10, 2009

You are so right Eric, you can start a lot of plants from the seeds you get when you buy produce. One that surprises a lot of folks is pineapples and they grow easy in this area. All you need is the tops some times the produce folks will cut them off and throw them away just ask for them or make sure you get one with the top still on it. just put the top in some decent soil keep wet for a few weeks they seem to like company so if you do this do two or three together then just leave alone. the catch is it take’s for ever for it to produce a pineapple but it is worth the wait ..“Chip”

Posted by (Chip) on December 10, 2009

You learn something new each day! I have used the apple core/banana peal on Tomatoes but have never thought to use that for pineapples. >>“Chip”

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 11, 2009

That’s funny Penny. I did the same thing with those pea seeds. Now I have 3 little clusters of sprouts. Do I separate them or just let the strong survive?

We’ll want to see pics of those larkspurs—-among the weeds.

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 11, 2009

My four o’clocks are wide awake and blooming at 7 AM. In December. Maybe they are on Australian time.

Posted by (Chip) on December 11, 2009

Oh boy! are you two so right unless you have grown something before from seed you just cant tell them apart from the weeds some stuff looks likes weed’s right up to the last minute so all you can do is wait it out. as for thinning them out or letting them sort them self’s you are better of thinning them out. I have had the whole group of seeds kill themselves off. they do transplant easy at this point so just put them in seed trays let them grow up a bit this takes an easy touch and is tedious work but I think sometimes it is worth it..“Chip”

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 11, 2009

Thanks Chip. So they are too fragile to make it in the ground if I transplant them to other spots? If I put them in seed trays, how big do they have to get before I do put them back in the ground?

Posted by (Chip) on December 11, 2009

You can put them straight in the ground if you like in the seed trays they are not competing with weeds or any thing it is just a safer environment for them to start in. Once a plant has developed its second set of leaves you can transplant them from the seed trays I some times wait a few days after, and if you can time it on a full moon! this is not a joke I have had this proved to me over and over again this is why moon cycles are so important to farmers plants started and seeds sown on full moons just do better there is a scientific reason for this and it would take some one better educated then me to explain it I just know this works..“Chip”

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on December 11, 2009

Thanks Chip. I appreciate the knowledge. I totally plant by the Moon and love the way it works.

Posted by (mangoman) on December 13, 2009

I recently made a smoothie out of my second papaya that was ok. Coul’ve been better. The second papaya had 2 seeds though. I guess the seedless papaya days are over. :(