IM curious, my 2 younger papayas already show early sgns of sex (white hairs) but the older one (1 month older) has no white hairs. Ive put the oldest into flower and will find out soon , but should the same strain usually show sex the same way over and over again? What im trying to say is, since my younger babies show signs of female so early on, wouldnt have the older baby already have shown sex, therefore most likely proving its gonna be a male?
I don't think you can be sure unless you put the plant into flower. I had an early flowering female, two weeks into flower it turned hermaphrodite.
you are going to get some variations from plant to plant even if they are the same strain so you will get inconsistencies in when they show sex. i guess if you grew a strain enough and were familiar with all of its different phenotypes you might be able to make an educated guess based on when it preflowers but i sure wouldn't chop a plant down until it showed for sure.
Different plants do things differently, that's nature for you. The surest way to know is to flower them proper. Take clones and flower the clones, then you'll know what the parents are. The 36 hours darkness before 12/12 trick might help you see sex quicker. -mu