Hello all.

I'm in coastal Southern California. I recently bought a 4" tall Hawaiian papaya sprout online. The instructions that came with it said to use a cactus potting soil, which I did. It seemed to be doing just fine up until we had a triple digit heat wave that lasted about a week and a half.

I'd been trying to water it every day since the cactus soil kept draining so fast. But there were a couple of days when I wasn't able to water it during that heat wave and it just wilted over like it was trying to pop itself out of the soil, since the trunk is a little shy of 1/4" wide. I thought they were supposed to thrive in the heat.

I got the trunk to firm back up a bit, but now I'm noticing what looks like it might be trying to rot at the base. Is there anything I can do to save it? I really don't want it to die on me, I already named him, so kind of attached.

I'm pretty much a novice at fruit growing, and trying to learn as much as I can. So thank you for any advice.