Q: I tried growing a papaya tree a few times with no success. My attempts produced a tree but before fruiting, the top core leaves will distort and turn yellow, then die off after one week. Why is this happening? – Danny Sao-It is difficult to diagnose your problem without seeing the full scale of it. Your papaya trees could be infected by a virus transmitted by whiteflies that causes leaf curling (distortion), especially near the tree top. My advice is to remove the latest infected tree and discard it by burying it very deep into the soil or chopping it then burning it up. Do not compost it.Note that leaf curl treatment, which involves spraying with dangerous dimethoate and monocrotophos pesticides, can be costly especially just for one tree.-Find out more in our Ready, Set, Grow! column in Star 2 – The Star [link in bio!]-If you have any gardening questions, send your queries to http://questions.eatsshootsandroots.com-* All questions are answered by Dr Christopher Teh, soil biologist and senior lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia #eatsshootsandroots #DearPlantDoctor #ReadySetGrowESR #TheStar #garden