Papaya cultivation
PAPAYA
(Carica papaya)
Family: Caricaceae
Papaya produces fruits throughout the year. It requires less area for tree, comes to fruiting in a year, is easy to cultivate and provides good income. It has a high nutritive and medicinal value. Papain prepared from dried latex of its immature fruits is used in meat tenderizing, manufacture of chewing gum, cosmetics, for degumming natural silk and to give shrink resistance to wool. Besides, it is also used in pharmaceutical industries, textile and garment cleaning paper and adhesive manufacture, sewage disposal, etc.
Climate and soil
Papaya is a tropical fruit. However, it also grows well in the mild subtropical regions in India up to1, 000 m above mean sea level. Temperature is one of the most important climatic factors which determine the success of papaya cultivation. Night temperature below 12`-14`C for several hours during winter season affects its growth and production severely. It is very much sensitive to frost, strong winds and water stagnation.
It can grow in a wide variety of soils, provided these are well drained and aerated. A rich, well drained sandy loam soil is ideal for papaya cultivation. It grows well in deep, rich, alluvial soils on banks and deltas of big rivers of India. Papaya can also be grown in calcareous and stony soils provided with heavy dose of organic manures. Soils with high pH (8.0) and low pH (5.0) should be avoided.
Varieties
A large number of varieties are cultivated. As a matter of fact many of these are not real varieties since these cannot be relied upon to reproduce the parental characters in all their progenies. However, well known varieties grown in India and with certain specific plant and fruit characters and described below.
Pusa Delicious
It is a gynodioecious variety with 100% productive plants with good fruit yield and quality having excellent taste and good flavour
.
Pusa Majesty
This is also gynodioecious variety with high productivity and better keeping quality of fruits. This is also one of the highest papain yielding varieties.
Pusa Giant
This is a vigorous variety and is dioecious in nature. The plants are sturdy and tolerant to strong winds. The fruits are suitable for making tooty fruity and candies like petha.
Pusa Dwarf
It is a dwarf sized dioecious variety with good yield. Fruits are medium sized with oval shape and are preferred by consumers.
Co1
A dwarf and dioecious variety. Fruits are medium sized with spherical shape.
Co2
It is medium tall, dioecious variety, having good fruit quality with high papain content. It is predominantly cultivated for papain production.
Co3
It is gyodioecious variety with tall, vigorous trees. The fruits are medium sized, with high sugar content and red colored flesh. This is preferred for dessert.
Co4
It is a dioecious variety with medium tall, vigorous trees. There are purple tinges on the stem, petiole and leaf, it is suitable for home gardening.
Co5
It is a selection from Washington variety, cultivated mainly for papain production. It yields 1,500-1,600kg/ha of dried papain.
Co6
A selection from Pusa Majesty, it is dioecious having dwarf stature. It produces large sized fruits. It is recommended both for papain and dessert purposes.
Coorg Honey Dew
A selection from honey dew, it is a gynodioecious variety having excellent fruit quality under south Indian conditions.
Pink Flesh Sweet
It is a selection with excellent quality fruits. Fruits are medium sized with pink flesh. The TSS is 12-14`brix. It is a good dessert variety.
Plant 1
Its plants are dioecious providing medium sized fruits. It is recommended for Tarai area in Uttar Pradesh which receives high rainfall during July August.
Sunrise Solo
This is a gynodioecious variety having pink flesh and good taste.
Taiwan
This is also gynodioecious variety with blood red colored flesh and good taste.
Propagation
Papaya is commercially propagated by seed. Gynodioecious varieties breed true to type and are preferred by commercial growers. Tissue culture or micropropagation is recent techniques for propagating papaya. These, however, need to be standardized.
Since papaya is commercially grown by seed, production of quality seed is most important for successful production and establishing papaya based industries in the country.
Cultivation
Sowing
About 250-300g seeds are sufficient for a hectare. The seedlings can be raised in nursery beds 3m long, 1m wide and 1ocm high as well as in pots or polythene bags. The seeds should be sown 1cm deep in rows 10 cm apart and covered with fine compost of leaf mould. Light watering should be done with water can in the morning. The nursery beds may be covered with polythene sheet of dry paddy straw to protect seedlings. Tender seedlings should also be protected from heavy rainfall. Dusting of insecticides to protect the seedlings against insect pests is also advised. Damping off is most serious disease. Treating seeds with 0.1% monosan (phenyle mercury acetate), ceresin, agosan of thiram dust before sowing is the best preventive measure to check it. The nursery beds should also be treated with 5% formaldehyde solution before sowing. If disease appears in the nursery, Bordeaux mixture (1%)or copper oxychloride (0.2%) should be sprayed.
The seedlings raised in polythene bags stand transplanting better then those raised in seed beds. Perforated polythene bags of 20 cm x 15 cm size of 150-200 gauge can be used as a container. They are filled with a mixture of farmyard manure, soil and sand in equal proportion. Four to five seeds are sown in each bag. After germination only three seedlings are retained.
The seedlings may be transferred to nursery beds of pots or polythene bags to avoid overcrowding and further check of growth of. This is also done when the field is not ready for planting. Generally 15-20 cm tall seedlings become ready for planting in about two months.
Field preparation
Since papaya does not withstand water logging, a well drained upland should be selected for its cultivation. Its plants are also sensitive to strong winds. In open and high lying areas, where plants are exposed to strong winds of storm, suitable windbreaks are essential to protect them. Such windbreaks also save the trees to a great extent from damage caused by cold winds of frost.
The seedlings are planted in pits of 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm size. The pits are dug about 15 days before in summer and filled with top soil along with 20 kg farm yard manure, 1 kg neem or karang cake and 1 kg bone meal or fish meal. Tall and vigorous varieties are planted at greater spacing, while medium and dwarf ones at closer spacing.
Planting
Papaya is planted during spring (February-March), monsoon (June-July) and autumn (October-November). Spring planting is done in areas where the climatic condition is mild throughout the year. Monsoon planting is preferred in the frost prone areas, and autumn planting generally done in the regions where the rainfall is high and virus problem is acute in rainy season. Plants are protected against frost damage by covering them with a polyethylene sheet.
Planting distance is determined by the integration of light interception, cultivar and economic consideration. A spacing of 1.8 m x 1.8 m is normally followed for most of the cultivars. A closer spacing of 1.33 m x 1.33 m (5, 609plants/ha) is optimum for the variety Coorg Honey Dew. The spacing of 1.4 m x1.4 m or 1.4 m x1.6 m is best suited for papaya Pusa delicious under subtropical condition of Bihar. Spacing of 1.6 m x 1.6 m gives highest yield of fruits as well as papain in Tamil Nadu. A closer spacing of 1.2m x1.2 m for Pusa Nanha is adopted for high density orcharding, accommodating 6,400 plants /ha.
Planting of papaya seedlings should be preferred in the evening. The seedlings from nursery beds are lifted with a ball of earth and planted in the field. Plants raised in polythene bags are planted after removal of polythene. Three seedlings should be planted in each pit followed by light irrigation. Only one seedling may be planted with pure gynodioecious varieties. It is also important to keep some extra plants reserved in the nursery or in polythene bags for gap filling in the field.
Aftercare
Proper care should be taken to save the seedlings in the field especially from insect pests and heavy rainfall in early stage. In frost prone areas, they should be protected with small thatches or polythene structure. Some extra seedlings reserved in the nursery may be utilized for gap filling.
Since sufficient space is available between rows, papaya-based cropping systems (sequential and intercropping) are most remunerative. Papaya + tobacco intercropping in north Bihar is ideal. It is advised not to grow crops like chilli, tomato, brinjal and okra to avoid viruses as they act like hosts. No intercrop should be taken when flowering and fruiting starts. A suitable crop rotation must be followed to maintain soil fertility and to avoid replant problem. Intercropping leguminous crops after non-leguminous ones, shallow –rooted crops after deep rooted ones are beneficial.
Weed control
Weeds grow luxuriantly in papaya fields and exhaust most of the applied nutrients. In the beginning, they also compete for light, air and water, resulting in poor fruiting. Deep hoeing is recommended during first year to check weed growth. Hoeing should not be done in rainy season or after fruiting since its plants are shallow-rooted. Overgrowth of weeds also causes water logging condition and makes the plants vulnerable to root rot and foot –rot in rainy season. Therefore weeding should be regularly done, especially around the plants. Application of fluchloralin or alachlorin or butachlorine (2.0g/ha) as pre-emergence, 2 months after transplanting can control all weeds for 4 months.
Removing unwanted male plants
It is necessary to keep 10% male plants in papaya orchards for good pollination, where dioecious varieties are cultivated. As soon as plants flower, extra male plants should be uprooted. The hermaphrodite plants produce good-quality fruits and should not be confused with male while removing them from the orchard. Weaker and diseased plants should be uprooted, after ensuring 1 plant/pit. Earthing up should be done 30 cm in radius around the plants on or before the onset of monsoon to avoid water logging. It also helps plants to stand erect.
Manuring and fertilization
Papaya is heavy feeder and needs heavy doses of manures and fertilizer, apart from the basal dose of manures applied in the pits, 200-250 g each of N, P2 O5 and K2 O are recommended for getting high yield. Application of 200 g N is optimum for fruit yield but papain yield increases with increase in N up to 300g. a dose of 250 g N, 250 g P and 500 g K/plant is recommended for papaya Coorg Honey Dew under Bangalore conditions, while 200g each of N, P and K in split doses in the first, third, fifth and seventh month is recommended for papaya Co1 under Coimbatore conditions.
Deficiency of lime and boron has often been observed in papaya orchards. Spraying of 0.5%zinc sulphate (twice) and one spray of Borax (0.1%) may be done depending upon the nutrient status of soil.
Irrigation
Optimum soil moisture is essential for growth, yield and quality or fruits, under low moisture conditions, floral sex shifts towards female sterility, resulting in low yield. At the same time, over irrigations may cause root-rot disease. Thus efficient water management is required in papaya cultivation. Number of irrigations depends upon soil type and weather conditions of the region. Protective irrigation is required in the first year of planting. In the second year when its plants are laden with fruits, irrigation at fortnightly interval in winter and at 10 days interval in summer is needed from October till May.
Generally basin system of irrigation is used but care is taken to avoid water stagnation around the plant. In low rainfall area, where the water is scarce, sprinkler or drip system can be adopted.
Papaya plants are very susceptible to water logging. Even 24 hour stagnation with water may kill the well established plants. Therefore it is most important to select upland for papaya plantation. It may further be shaped sloppy in heavy rainfall areas to make a few furrows or trenches for quick and complete drainage of water during rainy season.
Pot cultivation
Papaya can also be grown in big pots. Half cut iron drums and wooden crates can also be used for this purpose. The size of pot should not be less than 75cm x 40 cm. Papaya seedlings can be raised in August –September. The polythene bags used for raising seedlings should be filled with one-third part of each of sand, compost and soil. The seeds should be sown 1 cm deep with 5-6 seeds in each bag. It should be watered regularly with watering can. When seedlings are 10-15 cm high they should e planted in pots already prepared during October-November. At least 4 plants in each pot should be planted. These are thinned down to one after removing male and other diseased or weaker plants.
Apart from the organic manures, a dose of chemical fertilizers containing N (50g), P (50g)and K (75g) should be applied as topdressing. Chemical fertilizers should be applied after flowering. The same quantity should be repeated in each month from July to October. Precaution should be taken that these fertilizers are applied at least 15 cm away from the plant in a circular fashion. Water should be immediately applied after topdressing.
Harvesting and postharvest management
The fruit should be left on tree until they fully mature. Usually fruits are harvested when they are of full size, light green with tinge of yellow at epical end. On ripening, fruits of certain varieties turn yellow while some of them remain green. When the latex ceases to be milky and become watery, the fruits are suitable for harvesting.
While picking fruits from the tree, care must be taken that they are not scratched, and are free from any blemishes; otherwise these are attacked by fungus and start decaying during marketing. The fruit yield of papaya varies widely according to variety, soil, climate and management of the orchard. On an average, yield of 60-75 tons/ha may be expected in a season from an orchard of papaya.
INPUT FROM
Dr. Mansha Ram
Division of Fruit Crops and Horticultural Technology
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012
INDIA
(Carica papaya)
Family: Caricaceae
Papaya produces fruits throughout the year. It requires less area for tree, comes to fruiting in a year, is easy to cultivate and provides good income. It has a high nutritive and medicinal value. Papain prepared from dried latex of its immature fruits is used in meat tenderizing, manufacture of chewing gum, cosmetics, for degumming natural silk and to give shrink resistance to wool. Besides, it is also used in pharmaceutical industries, textile and garment cleaning paper and adhesive manufacture, sewage disposal, etc.
Climate and soil
Papaya is a tropical fruit. However, it also grows well in the mild subtropical regions in India up to1, 000 m above mean sea level. Temperature is one of the most important climatic factors which determine the success of papaya cultivation. Night temperature below 12`-14`C for several hours during winter season affects its growth and production severely. It is very much sensitive to frost, strong winds and water stagnation.
It can grow in a wide variety of soils, provided these are well drained and aerated. A rich, well drained sandy loam soil is ideal for papaya cultivation. It grows well in deep, rich, alluvial soils on banks and deltas of big rivers of India. Papaya can also be grown in calcareous and stony soils provided with heavy dose of organic manures. Soils with high pH (8.0) and low pH (5.0) should be avoided.
Varieties
A large number of varieties are cultivated. As a matter of fact many of these are not real varieties since these cannot be relied upon to reproduce the parental characters in all their progenies. However, well known varieties grown in India and with certain specific plant and fruit characters and described below.
Pusa Delicious
It is a gynodioecious variety with 100% productive plants with good fruit yield and quality having excellent taste and good flavour
.
Pusa Majesty
This is also gynodioecious variety with high productivity and better keeping quality of fruits. This is also one of the highest papain yielding varieties.
Pusa Giant
This is a vigorous variety and is dioecious in nature. The plants are sturdy and tolerant to strong winds. The fruits are suitable for making tooty fruity and candies like petha.
Pusa Dwarf
It is a dwarf sized dioecious variety with good yield. Fruits are medium sized with oval shape and are preferred by consumers.
Co1
A dwarf and dioecious variety. Fruits are medium sized with spherical shape.
Co2
It is medium tall, dioecious variety, having good fruit quality with high papain content. It is predominantly cultivated for papain production.
Co3
It is gyodioecious variety with tall, vigorous trees. The fruits are medium sized, with high sugar content and red colored flesh. This is preferred for dessert.
Co4
It is a dioecious variety with medium tall, vigorous trees. There are purple tinges on the stem, petiole and leaf, it is suitable for home gardening.
Co5
It is a selection from Washington variety, cultivated mainly for papain production. It yields 1,500-1,600kg/ha of dried papain.
Co6
A selection from Pusa Majesty, it is dioecious having dwarf stature. It produces large sized fruits. It is recommended both for papain and dessert purposes.
Coorg Honey Dew
A selection from honey dew, it is a gynodioecious variety having excellent fruit quality under south Indian conditions.
Pink Flesh Sweet
It is a selection with excellent quality fruits. Fruits are medium sized with pink flesh. The TSS is 12-14`brix. It is a good dessert variety.
Plant 1
Its plants are dioecious providing medium sized fruits. It is recommended for Tarai area in Uttar Pradesh which receives high rainfall during July August.
Sunrise Solo
This is a gynodioecious variety having pink flesh and good taste.
Taiwan
This is also gynodioecious variety with blood red colored flesh and good taste.
Propagation
Papaya is commercially propagated by seed. Gynodioecious varieties breed true to type and are preferred by commercial growers. Tissue culture or micropropagation is recent techniques for propagating papaya. These, however, need to be standardized.
Since papaya is commercially grown by seed, production of quality seed is most important for successful production and establishing papaya based industries in the country.
Cultivation
Sowing
About 250-300g seeds are sufficient for a hectare. The seedlings can be raised in nursery beds 3m long, 1m wide and 1ocm high as well as in pots or polythene bags. The seeds should be sown 1cm deep in rows 10 cm apart and covered with fine compost of leaf mould. Light watering should be done with water can in the morning. The nursery beds may be covered with polythene sheet of dry paddy straw to protect seedlings. Tender seedlings should also be protected from heavy rainfall. Dusting of insecticides to protect the seedlings against insect pests is also advised. Damping off is most serious disease. Treating seeds with 0.1% monosan (phenyle mercury acetate), ceresin, agosan of thiram dust before sowing is the best preventive measure to check it. The nursery beds should also be treated with 5% formaldehyde solution before sowing. If disease appears in the nursery, Bordeaux mixture (1%)or copper oxychloride (0.2%) should be sprayed.
The seedlings raised in polythene bags stand transplanting better then those raised in seed beds. Perforated polythene bags of 20 cm x 15 cm size of 150-200 gauge can be used as a container. They are filled with a mixture of farmyard manure, soil and sand in equal proportion. Four to five seeds are sown in each bag. After germination only three seedlings are retained.
The seedlings may be transferred to nursery beds of pots or polythene bags to avoid overcrowding and further check of growth of. This is also done when the field is not ready for planting. Generally 15-20 cm tall seedlings become ready for planting in about two months.
Field preparation
Since papaya does not withstand water logging, a well drained upland should be selected for its cultivation. Its plants are also sensitive to strong winds. In open and high lying areas, where plants are exposed to strong winds of storm, suitable windbreaks are essential to protect them. Such windbreaks also save the trees to a great extent from damage caused by cold winds of frost.
The seedlings are planted in pits of 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm size. The pits are dug about 15 days before in summer and filled with top soil along with 20 kg farm yard manure, 1 kg neem or karang cake and 1 kg bone meal or fish meal. Tall and vigorous varieties are planted at greater spacing, while medium and dwarf ones at closer spacing.
Planting
Papaya is planted during spring (February-March), monsoon (June-July) and autumn (October-November). Spring planting is done in areas where the climatic condition is mild throughout the year. Monsoon planting is preferred in the frost prone areas, and autumn planting generally done in the regions where the rainfall is high and virus problem is acute in rainy season. Plants are protected against frost damage by covering them with a polyethylene sheet.
Planting distance is determined by the integration of light interception, cultivar and economic consideration. A spacing of 1.8 m x 1.8 m is normally followed for most of the cultivars. A closer spacing of 1.33 m x 1.33 m (5, 609plants/ha) is optimum for the variety Coorg Honey Dew. The spacing of 1.4 m x1.4 m or 1.4 m x1.6 m is best suited for papaya Pusa delicious under subtropical condition of Bihar. Spacing of 1.6 m x 1.6 m gives highest yield of fruits as well as papain in Tamil Nadu. A closer spacing of 1.2m x1.2 m for Pusa Nanha is adopted for high density orcharding, accommodating 6,400 plants /ha.
Planting of papaya seedlings should be preferred in the evening. The seedlings from nursery beds are lifted with a ball of earth and planted in the field. Plants raised in polythene bags are planted after removal of polythene. Three seedlings should be planted in each pit followed by light irrigation. Only one seedling may be planted with pure gynodioecious varieties. It is also important to keep some extra plants reserved in the nursery or in polythene bags for gap filling in the field.
Aftercare
Proper care should be taken to save the seedlings in the field especially from insect pests and heavy rainfall in early stage. In frost prone areas, they should be protected with small thatches or polythene structure. Some extra seedlings reserved in the nursery may be utilized for gap filling.
Since sufficient space is available between rows, papaya-based cropping systems (sequential and intercropping) are most remunerative. Papaya + tobacco intercropping in north Bihar is ideal. It is advised not to grow crops like chilli, tomato, brinjal and okra to avoid viruses as they act like hosts. No intercrop should be taken when flowering and fruiting starts. A suitable crop rotation must be followed to maintain soil fertility and to avoid replant problem. Intercropping leguminous crops after non-leguminous ones, shallow –rooted crops after deep rooted ones are beneficial.
Weed control
Weeds grow luxuriantly in papaya fields and exhaust most of the applied nutrients. In the beginning, they also compete for light, air and water, resulting in poor fruiting. Deep hoeing is recommended during first year to check weed growth. Hoeing should not be done in rainy season or after fruiting since its plants are shallow-rooted. Overgrowth of weeds also causes water logging condition and makes the plants vulnerable to root rot and foot –rot in rainy season. Therefore weeding should be regularly done, especially around the plants. Application of fluchloralin or alachlorin or butachlorine (2.0g/ha) as pre-emergence, 2 months after transplanting can control all weeds for 4 months.
Removing unwanted male plants
It is necessary to keep 10% male plants in papaya orchards for good pollination, where dioecious varieties are cultivated. As soon as plants flower, extra male plants should be uprooted. The hermaphrodite plants produce good-quality fruits and should not be confused with male while removing them from the orchard. Weaker and diseased plants should be uprooted, after ensuring 1 plant/pit. Earthing up should be done 30 cm in radius around the plants on or before the onset of monsoon to avoid water logging. It also helps plants to stand erect.
Manuring and fertilization
Papaya is heavy feeder and needs heavy doses of manures and fertilizer, apart from the basal dose of manures applied in the pits, 200-250 g each of N, P2 O5 and K2 O are recommended for getting high yield. Application of 200 g N is optimum for fruit yield but papain yield increases with increase in N up to 300g. a dose of 250 g N, 250 g P and 500 g K/plant is recommended for papaya Coorg Honey Dew under Bangalore conditions, while 200g each of N, P and K in split doses in the first, third, fifth and seventh month is recommended for papaya Co1 under Coimbatore conditions.
Deficiency of lime and boron has often been observed in papaya orchards. Spraying of 0.5%zinc sulphate (twice) and one spray of Borax (0.1%) may be done depending upon the nutrient status of soil.
Irrigation
Optimum soil moisture is essential for growth, yield and quality or fruits, under low moisture conditions, floral sex shifts towards female sterility, resulting in low yield. At the same time, over irrigations may cause root-rot disease. Thus efficient water management is required in papaya cultivation. Number of irrigations depends upon soil type and weather conditions of the region. Protective irrigation is required in the first year of planting. In the second year when its plants are laden with fruits, irrigation at fortnightly interval in winter and at 10 days interval in summer is needed from October till May.
Generally basin system of irrigation is used but care is taken to avoid water stagnation around the plant. In low rainfall area, where the water is scarce, sprinkler or drip system can be adopted.
Papaya plants are very susceptible to water logging. Even 24 hour stagnation with water may kill the well established plants. Therefore it is most important to select upland for papaya plantation. It may further be shaped sloppy in heavy rainfall areas to make a few furrows or trenches for quick and complete drainage of water during rainy season.
Pot cultivation
Papaya can also be grown in big pots. Half cut iron drums and wooden crates can also be used for this purpose. The size of pot should not be less than 75cm x 40 cm. Papaya seedlings can be raised in August –September. The polythene bags used for raising seedlings should be filled with one-third part of each of sand, compost and soil. The seeds should be sown 1 cm deep with 5-6 seeds in each bag. It should be watered regularly with watering can. When seedlings are 10-15 cm high they should e planted in pots already prepared during October-November. At least 4 plants in each pot should be planted. These are thinned down to one after removing male and other diseased or weaker plants.
Apart from the organic manures, a dose of chemical fertilizers containing N (50g), P (50g)and K (75g) should be applied as topdressing. Chemical fertilizers should be applied after flowering. The same quantity should be repeated in each month from July to October. Precaution should be taken that these fertilizers are applied at least 15 cm away from the plant in a circular fashion. Water should be immediately applied after topdressing.
Harvesting and postharvest management
The fruit should be left on tree until they fully mature. Usually fruits are harvested when they are of full size, light green with tinge of yellow at epical end. On ripening, fruits of certain varieties turn yellow while some of them remain green. When the latex ceases to be milky and become watery, the fruits are suitable for harvesting.
While picking fruits from the tree, care must be taken that they are not scratched, and are free from any blemishes; otherwise these are attacked by fungus and start decaying during marketing. The fruit yield of papaya varies widely according to variety, soil, climate and management of the orchard. On an average, yield of 60-75 tons/ha may be expected in a season from an orchard of papaya.
INPUT FROM
Dr. Mansha Ram
Division of Fruit Crops and Horticultural Technology
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012
INDIA
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