Greetings!

It has been again a hectic month for me (and also the previous months). As of the moment, I have not been able to plant new seedlings and vegetables in the past weeks but I do have some growing seedlings that I am taking care of and planning to transplant in the coming days.

One of the seedlings that I am taking care of are Papaya seedlings. I have about 20 pieces of them. I intend to sell the fruits of these Papayas at a nearby local market for some extra income.

A few days ago I transplanted four of them since they are now mature and ready for transplanting I am hoping that they will thrive in their permanent location since the weather in January is very windy all day long.

The Seedlings

These papaya seedlings were from a ripe papaya that was given to me by one of my relatives. If I am not mistaken, the papaya variety is Red Lady. I actually blogged about these seedlings on how I germinated them, you can check the blog here on how I experimented/planted them for germination, and check it here eight days after I planted the seeds.

I planted the seeds on October 25, 2023, and they germinated and grew quickly in just under eight days. So, basically, the seedlings were more than two months old when I transplanted them.

^{The four Papaya seedlings that I transplanted a few days ago. The seeds for these seedlings were planted on October 25, 2023, making them more than two months after when I transplanted them}

The Location

The location where I transplanted the seedlings is a plot of our land that has always been used to plant rice. The soil's type is clay and can be very hard like a stone when dried but it does break on its own when watered, in short, it is not a good draining soil but it is very good at retaining moisture.

^{In this gif I am using a to hoe dig a hole beneath the soil for transplanting. Can you see some cracks nearby? Those cracks were 5-6 inches deep but once you dug it up you can see the clay with moisture (but a little dry and harder than Play-Doh)}

To give you a clearer view, below is an image of nearby cracks near the place where I transplanted the papayas. It looks quite dry, the cracks suggest that it is dry, but not very dry, if you dig it up you will see the clay. Not only that, can you see that there are green plants in the image? Yes, that's right, the upper part of this soil still has some moisture in it even if it hasn't rained for more than two months. That's how very good this soil is to retain moisture.

Transplanting the Papaya

I think I am a little late in transplanting these papayas because they now have very visible roots all around the soil when I removed them from the plastic. Check out the side of my son, there's a crack, but it is okay. I am quite surprised that my son has an interest in planting, at this moment he wants me to let him place the seedlings but I have to assist him since the soil of the seedlings may break if handled incorrectly.

^{Me and my son placing the seedling to the hole that I dug using a hoe}

Here's how it looks (see image below). There's a crack on the upper left of the image. I have to put soil around the papaya's brown soil so that its soil will not crumble away from the stem.

That is all for now guys, catch you up with the next one. Wishing you all safety, good health, and abundance.

Thank you very much to all of the Hive Ecosystem Curation Teams/Individuals, I am very grateful for the upvotes/curation/support. God bless you all!

I am a Computer Engineer, blogger, farmer, gardener, father, and husband. I love countryside living, nature, and farming (rice/vegetables), and I have two decades of experience as an I.T. professional