Owens Corning

National Gardening Association Meet Babaco

It's a papaya that's easy to grow at home

by David Silber

Imagine yourself in the cool and misty mountain valleys of Ecuador. It was there -- no one knows exactly when -- that a horticultural miracle occurred. A new type of papaya appeared, one perfectly suited to home-garden growing: The six-foot-high plant is completely adaptable to container growing, and it fruits prolifically. Grow it outdoors anywhere it doesn't freeze, and in pots everywhere else.

The large fruits of this natural hybrid are fragrant and torpedo-shaped, with five flattened facets. Sliced crosswise, they have a pentagonal outline. Known to the natives as babaco, they are delicious to eat.

The flavor is kind of like pineapple and banana, but not as sweet, and quite different from that of Hawaiian papayas. The fruits contain three times as much papain, a digestive enzyeme, as common papayas, as well as a full complement of vitamins and minerals. In short, babaco earns its keep.

One of several papayas indigenous to Ecuador, babaco has long been cultivated throughout the inter-Andean region of Ecuador from the Loja Province northward to El Carchi, usually between 5,900 feet and 9,500 feet in elevation. It was classified as Carica pentagonal.

As with all papayas, babaco is not a tree but a large evergreen plant that resembles a small palm. It grows quickly to its mature height of about six feet and width of about four feet. The one- to two-foot-wide leaves are smooth and hairless, with broad lobes. Healthy plants make as many as 30 fruits a season, each one eight to 12 inches long and four inches in diameter, and weighing one to two pounds. The plants can live and fruit for up to 20 years -- but most don't. A typical life span is four to eight years.

The seedless fruit starts out with a green skin. Upon ripening, it turns golden yellow and develops a pronounced fruity aroma without the muskiness of the common papaya. Squishy-soft fruits are the most flavorful. The juicy flesh is about two inches thick, creamy white, fragrant and acid. Texture is similar to that of a casaba melon. Fruits harvested half-yellow will ripen indoors at room temperature.

The thin skin is completely edible. Chop up half a fruit and drop it into a blender with orange juice and a banana. Or, sprinkle the fruit with sugar and allow to set in the refrigerator for a few hours to enhance the flavor. Sweetened babaco is tasty combined with dairy products such as yogurt.

How to grow babaco

The ideal babaco climate approximates Ecuador's highlands: cool summers and frost-free winters with an average winter temperature of 430F and a minimum of about 35 degrees F. In southern California it grows best in full sun, near the oceans. In these areas, daytime high temperatures rarely exceed 80 degrees F. Given partial shade, however, babaco thrives in hotter, inland climates. I get excellent results here in Granada Hills (northwestern San Fernando Valley) by shading plants with 50% shade cloth (supported by a frame). A site that provides dappled shade would be a near equivalent.

Start with plants from mail-order nurseries. Depending upon size, cost is $15 to $40. Choose a site that offers sun or light shade, protection from strong winds and excellent soil drainage. An otherwise hardy and robust plant, babaco is susceptible to root rot disease. If your soil is poorly drained, heavy clay or has a caliche layer blocking drainage, build a four- by four-foot raised bed and fill it with a container soil mix.

Condition the native soil by spading in a couple of two-cubic-foot bags of a good planting mix; or use your own compost. At planting time, apply a slow-release fertilizer such as Osmocote 14-14-14 (one teaspoon per gallon of soil). Underfertilized plants drop small fruits. To ensure an adequate supply of calcium, add two cups of gypsum in alkaline western soils, or two to four cups of ground limestone in acidic eastern soils. Mulch is important. Babaco roots grow up into a thick layer of organic mulch to draw on the available nutrients and air.

Place a five-foot redwood support stake adjacent to the stem at planting time. This may seem unnecessary because young plants stand straight. Soon, however, the trunk will be straining under the load of developing fruit.

Water sparingly after planting. The roots are especially sensitive to excess soil moisture just after transplanting. Thereafter, the soil should be allowed to dry partially between watering. If you suspect you are underwatering, watch for premature yellowing of the older leaves and fruit drop.

Revitalize a tall, straggly plant by cutting it off at about 1 1/2 feet from the ground. It will promptly resprout. Leave one or two sprouts and remove the rest. These will develop into new fruiting "trunks" and remove the rest. Use the old trunk (except for the top several inches) for cuttings. Make each about 12 inches long, and use rooting hormone and bottom heat to get them started.

Where it's too cold in winter, too hot in summer.

Babaco's small size makes it suitable for indoor and container culture. In cold areas, container-grown plants are moved to a sunny window in winter, then back outside in summer. [NG's horticulturist grew -- and fruited -- babaco in Vermont!] Likewise, where summers are hot and humid, move the container to a cooler, drier location from April to September. Because it is self-fruitful, babaco can set fruits indoors as well as outdoors.

A 15-gallon pot or whiskey barrel planter is just the right size for long term growing. Choose a container mix that has a large portion of coarse material such as perlite or ground bark (1/4" size). Avoid peat moss; it's too water retentive. Never allow the sunlight to fall on the side of container-grown plants to avoid cooking the roots.

Given its compact size and precocious fruiting habit, babaco can find a home just about anywhere. Give it a try.

David Silber and his wife ,Tina, grow Babaco and a host of other exotic fruits around their home and nursery in Granada Hills, California.

Copyright NGA

Reprinted with permission HouseNet, Inc.

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