Mabirizi got a second chance through growing pawpaws

Sulaiti Mabirizi shows off one of his fruits. Photo by Fred Muzaale

I am Sulaiti Mabirizi a resident of Butakoola village, Kayunga Sub-county Kayunga District. I am a commercial pawpaw farmer. I have been growing pawpaws for the last six years. I am a Primary Four drop out because my parents were poor and did not value education. But before I took on these two ventures, I was growing coffee as my main cash crop.

But after my coffee trees were destroyed by the coffee wilt disease, I contemplated on which crop I would grow to substitute coffee.

The devastation of my coffee garden brought me misery because it was my main source of income. But in 2011, I visited a friend in the neighbouring Kiziika village, who was growing pawpaw on a commercial scale.

I asked him how he was fairing and he told me that growing the fruit crop was very profitable since it does not require a lot of capital, that is in terms of starting it and maintaining the garden. Because of the good things he told about pawpaw growing, I decided to give it a try.

I started by growing one acre. It was convenient because I did not have enough land to do anything else.

Making a nursery bed
To get the pawpaw seeds, I got a ripe pawpaw from which I extracted healthy seeds, which I used to make a nursery bed. The pawpaw seeds I got were of the big pawpaw with yellow flesh. I chose this variety because it has a longer shelf life compared to the red flesh variety. In addition, its fruits are big and tasty.

I dried the seeds in the sun. I got loam soil mixed it with sandy soil to improve on its drainage. I also mixed cow dung in the soil to give it more fertility. I bought a kilogramme of polythene bags at Shs2,000 a kilograme from an agro shop in Mukono Town.

I later put soil and cow dung mixture in the polythene bags. After that, I put two pawpaw seeds in each polythene bag containing the soil. I made sure the seeds were well placed in the middle of the polythene bags. In total I had 200 bags.

Afterwards I placed the bags containing the seeds under a shed, which I had made from poles, banana leaves and grass. I used the leaves and grass to cover the top of the nursery bed. The place where I put the nursery bed was a bit raised to avoid running water from washing away my seeds.

I watered the nursery bed every day. One month after the seedlings have germinated, I sprayed them with Vegimax, which is a fertiliser to make them grow healthy. I also sprayed them with Dudu cyper to kill insects that attack the leaves.

Two months later, I transplanted to the main garden. I ensured that the soil of the main garden has good drainage to avoid root rot.

Proper spacing is important because if they are not well spaced, they will just grow tall and fruiting will be poor. I started with one acre of pawpaw where I had 250 pawpaw trees.

In the pits I put some compost manure. Because seedlings need a lot of water after they are transplanted to grow well, it is better to ensure that transplanting coincides with a rainy season.

This will also lessen the work of having to water the plants. Because pawpaws grow well when they are weed- free, I mulched the garden using banana leaves and grass. If weeds are left to compete with pawpaw trees for soil nutrients and water, the trees will just grow and proper fruiting will not take place.

Since pawpaws mature very fast, at only nine months I started harvesting ripe pawpaw. But the harvest was still low because the trees had not reached full production. Every week I was harvesting between 750 and 800 papaws since I was picking two to three papaws from each tree.

However, when the trees were about one and half years I was picking five to seven pawpaws every week from each tree. My pawpaw is bought by traders from Kampala, Juba, Jinja and Kenya who come and buy them from the garden. I employ people who harvest them when traders come.

Common problems
Pawpaw crinkle virus seen as wrinkled mature leaves will kill the plant. If this is evident, either remove the plant completely or try a rescue remedy by cutting back the tree to half its size and fertilising well.

For black spots that appear on the fruit in humid and wet weather, spray with an organic copper-based fungicide spray. Root rot is the most common due to overwatering. If you get cool weather keep you papaya plants dry.

Strong winds are another common cause of papaya disaster. Pawpaw plants have a shallow root system, they get very top heavy as they grow older, and they blow over easily. Then there are birds and fruit bats.

The only solution here is to pick the fruit as soon as it starts to change colour. Control broad mites with a sulphur spray. Keep an eye out for aphids and? caterpillars, which can be hosed off and squashed if the infestation isn’t too severe.

Get rid of fruit fly by hanging fruit fly Traps around the trees. To reduce fruit rot and fungal problems, pick the fruit early and ripen it indoors. In humid weather watch for mildew, which can be controlled with good airflow around the plants and can be controlled with fungicides

Harvesting
Paw paws fruit 9-18 months after planting so give suitable climate. A good strategy is to harvest the fruit just before it ripens so pick it when it’s about two-thirds golden in colour and allow it to finish ripening indoors. In the good climate, fruits will grow all year round and healthy trees can produce up to 30kg of fruit each growing season.

Determining sex of a papaya tree
Until the seedlings start to bloom months after germination, there is no way to tell them apart. The following excerpt from a Florida Extension Service Publication give some information on male, female and hermaphroditic (bisexual) papaya plants, and guidelines for selecting seeds to insure better percentages of female and hermaphroditic plants.