The photo above is the sliced fruit of the mutant papaya.

This red papaya is something you will really love to eat because its thick flesh is sweet and juicy. This is not a hybrid developed by the major seed companies. It is a mutant that came out in our farm in Teresa, Rizal.

In 2015, we were invited to Lanao del Norte. During that trip we were able to bring home seeds of the Golden Papaya. This is an old variety that produces fruits that are yellow even if they are still immature. The immature fruits look as if they are already ripe.

We planted the seeds hoping to multiply the golden variety because we were sure a lot of people would be interested to grow the same. We were able to germinate the seeds. Some were light colored (yellowish) while others were very green.

We planted both the green and yellowish seedlings. Both grew quite well in the beginning. Eventually, however, the yellow ones perished and only a few green survived. One of the surviving green seedlings bore fruits that were more than a foot long and about five inches in diameter. The fruits had very small cavity and the red flesh was juicy and sweet.

We planted just a few seedlings because there was little space available in our nursery. The fruit featured here was harvested on April 12 and eaten on April 16, 2019. It could be a 5th generation already. We are germinating the seeds again. Hopefully, we could eventually stabilize the plant so that it will consistently produce uniform fruits that are elongated with very good eating quality.

We are not a plant breeder, but who knows? By constantly selecting and propagating the seeds we might eventually end up with something worth producing commercially. Abangan!