Babaco facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Babaco |
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| Babaco fruit being sold as food | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Vasconcellea
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| Species: |
× heilbornii
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The babaco (scientific name: Vasconcellea × heilbornii) is a special type of fruit plant. It's a hybrid, meaning it's a mix of two different plants: the mountain papaya and the toronche. This interesting fruit comes from Ecuador in South America.
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How Babaco Plants Grow
Babaco plants are quite tough! They can grow high up in the mountains, even over 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) high. They are also the best at handling cold weather compared to other plants in their family.
Babaco plants are like small shrubs. Unlike regular papaya plants, babaco plants only have female flowers. This means they don't need a separate male plant to make fruit. A single babaco plant can give you 30 to 60 fruits every year! These plants usually live for about eight years. Because they are smaller, babaco plants can even be grown in large pots, which is harder to do with their cousin, the papaya.
How New Babaco Plants Start
It's quite easy to grow babaco plants, especially in a greenhouse. To make new plants, growers take small shoots (new branches) from an existing plant. They cut these shoots to be about 15–25 centimeters (6–10 inches) long. Then, they dip the bottom part of the shoot in a special powder that helps it grow roots. After about three weeks, the new plant is ready to be moved to its own spot.
Ideal Growing Conditions
Unlike tropical papayas, babaco plants prefer a cooler, subtropical climate. In a greenhouse, it's best to keep the temperature around 10°C (50°F) at night and 12°C (54°F) during the day. For the fruit to ripen quickly, a temperature of 18°C (64°F) is ideal. If it gets too cold, the fruit might have rough or pitted skin.
Babaco plants grow slower during winter months. In Ecuador, where they come from, the plants start making fruit about 10 months after being planted. They continue to produce fruit for about six months. Each plant can yield around 40 fruits, with each fruit weighing about 1 to 1.5 kilograms (2.2 to 3.3 pounds). Because the plants produce so much fruit, they often need a support system to hold them up.
Harvesting Babaco Fruit
The fruit starts to ripen when its color slowly changes from green to yellow. It's important to pick the fruit carefully with special cutters, leaving a short stem attached. If you wait too long, the fruit might fall off and get bruised. In cooler climates, babaco fruit usually starts ripening in November and continues until June.
What Makes Babaco Special?
The babaco plant is a small tree, usually growing about 5–8 meters (16–26 feet) tall. Its fruit is different from the regular papaya because it's narrower, usually less than 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide.
One of the coolest things about babaco fruit is that it has no seeds! You can also eat the smooth skin. People say it tastes like a mix of strawberry, papaya, kiwi, and pineapple. The fruit has a unique five-sided shape, which is why its old scientific name was Carica pentagona (pentagona means five-sided).
Babaco fruit is not very sour. It contains a special enzyme called papain. This enzyme is also found in papaya and can sometimes cause a mild tingly feeling or "burn" if you eat a lot of it.
Just like papaya, babaco is grown for its tasty fruit and its fruit juice. It has been successfully grown in many places far from Ecuador, like New Zealand, California, parts of England, Guernsey in the Channel Islands, and even in Italy (especially Sicily and Calabria).
Images for kids
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A friendly robot
See also
In Spanish: Babaco para niños
