Gee, you could be the person who bought my tree! We just sold a mature sapote in Fremont California and moved to Hawaii. Here I have Mamey Sapote, Chico Sapote and Black Sapote but no more White Sapote. My tree is only a video memory on the web.
Plant Abundance If I collect, clean and package the seed for mailing I charge $1 each in lots of ten seeds plus $3 for postage. If you come by and pick your own seed from over ripe fruit it is no charge. The one gallon size Sapote plants are $10 each. These I can't ship because my location of Alameda county is in a quarantine zone. You have to pick them up from the sight.
Thanks for the video, Bill. Your song is a very interesting. It made me think it had been crafted using the framework of an Alap of a Raga highlighted with subtle moments of an Appalachian dobro guitar.
Bill, thank you for all your videos. Quite inspiring. I am in the process of creating polyculture perennial systems in the east bay. I would love to buy some white sapote starts ( if you are selling them at this time) and come see/ admire your system. I spent all last year in residency in a permaculture center in Occidental Ca, and am feeling inspired to create now. Much respect.
Daniel Boarman Thank you Daniel. You are welcome to visit. I am out working in the field Monday through Friday until afternoons. Visiting in the evenings or on week ends work best. I have sapote seedlings at the moment but they are still in the germination bins and I will be shifting to one gallon containers this week end.
Hey Bill. I'm from Idaho and we don't get ANY exotic fruit in the farm towns where I'm from. I'm now in Corvallis, Oregon to go to OSU and I had the opportunity to try a White Sapote from Santa Barbara today, among many other things being 90 miles away from Portland (being a port city they are able to obtain the hard-to-find stuff.) It was amazing, It is now my favorite fruit. It blows my mind to find such exotic things here...Dragon Fruit, Star Fruit, Cactus Pears and now a White Sapote. Man, I really want to get out there and try this new world, the world of fruit, it's like traveling to a new world for a few minuets or a different country. If ya' can't afford to travel to another county, why not bring it to your home? Right? You sound professional in this video and the video is informative. I will be sharing this. Thank you.
Jeffrey, This is a very nice message and I like your thoughts on using fruit to taste the world at home. So let me welcome you to wide world of fruit. It is larger than even I can imagine. I have been a fruit explorer for many years and I am still surprised by how much fruit there is to try out there. The White Sapote video was shot at my home in the CA Bay Area but I have others shot at my second home near Hilo HI. What doesn't grow in CA grows in HI and the reverse. I have a number of videos on youtube about other exotics like Dragon Fruit and hardy bananas. Enjoy and thanks for the feed back. Bill
Yes, mine is 15 years old, it has been pruned back twice and it is about 25 to 30 feet high. They make excellent screen and shelter plants because they are large and evergreen. I use mine to block the light and noise from the post office next door and to stop the west wind off the Golden Gate.
I had a bad feeling about dark times ahead in CA when I left in 2016. Looks like my hunch was correct. All we need now is a real good earth quake. No rules on the book to keep the earth quakes at bay while the pandemic is at work.
@@GreenGardenGuy1 Hi Bill, I live in Fremont. I bought some plants from you in the past before you moved. Where can I get the seeds from a White Sapote here in the bay area?
@@baynatureboy4636 Make friends with the people that bought our house if they haven't cut everything down yet. Niles Community Park has a large old fruiting tree. Prusch Park San Jose has a younger one. Behind Dominican sisters of San Jose Convent in Fremont, CA there were to old trees.
I grow a few of the same crops in HI as I plant in CA but not too many. Blueberries, Blackberries, Avocados and Citrus are the 4 things I grow in both places. As far as the Sapote seed is concerned I manage a pretty good income from the potted seedlings. The lady across the street is allowed all the sapote she can pick as long as clean seed comes back. Cleaning sapote seed is a very messy job. I grow a completely different mix of crops on the Island. Most of the HI crops are 401K income
It is a bit sweet for my tastes but it makes a good replacement for maple syrup on waffles. As a fresh fruit I like it marinated in lime juice for a few hours and chilled. The tree is easy in a limited climatic region of the USA. Outside mild winter regions it is nearly impossible.
nice music bill....and thanks for the info about the sapotes...i am not clear about what would be the best method for growing sapotes....would a cutling work better than a seed in terms of the time that it would take to get some fruit? i enjoy your vids...
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the tune. It is one of my favorites too. Making cuttings from sapote is almost impossible. The usual means of propagating named trees is by grafting scions of the cultivar to seedling root stocks. This keeps the genetics stable and allows the plants to fruit a few years earlier than seedlings. My experience is that sapote grown by seed taken from desirable trees is usually of good to better quality. They are fairly stable genetically.
I'm so envious of your white sapote! I just planted a Suebelle yesterday because *just like you say in the video* I recently tried a white sapote and couldn't get enough of it. Do you know of any sapote trees that are pruned to stay smaller, say under ten feet tall? Supposedly Suebelle stays smaller but yours clearly is an upright tree.
I have 'Suebell' about 30 years old,I keep down to 15' or so with pruning a few times a year.. Bears all year. No real one season. Even at that,I really cant come close to eating all it puts out. Nice looking tropical tree.
+knowallcity Mine bares crops in two distinct waves. It does this twice in a year and occasionally the crops overlap a bit. Between the two cycles there is no ripe fruit for several months. Your constant fruiting might be the product of the heavy pruning.
Maybe- nice idea. I was worried years ago,I would throw the tree off. Instead It got sweeter and still plenty of fruit. Are you growing Cherimoya? Theres one in Palma Ceia in Hayward that is enormous. A tree towering over the house. I have seedlings ready to plant.
+knowallcity I still grow the seedlings for sale in CA but I moved the cherimoya fruit growing to the house in HI. No squirrels in HI. In Fremont the rodents were too much trouble. I have several friends that raise nice cherimoya in Fremont.
So, my white spote started producing for the first time this year. Would you recommend just planting new ones from seed or should I graft? Have you ever tried to air layer one?
They should air layer. The one I tried failed but that doesn't mean much. Grafting onto seedlings is the usual propagation practice. If the tree you have is a named type or it is a superior unnamed then grafting is a good plan. They tend to be fairly true from seeds though.
Thanks for the video! I was wondering if you ever sell the seeds through the mail? I know I wouldn't be able to grow a Sapote outside, but it'd be fun to try indoors. Thanks again. Steven.
Steven, Yes, I sell Sapote seed. $10 for ten fresh seeds and postage to mail them. Whether you can grow this tree would depend on where you live. As a general rule the San Francisco Bay area is about as far north on the globe as this tree will survive. If you can grow a lemon in the back yard you can probably grow sapote.
I wouldn't say there is a strong demand for Sapote but the demand is larger than the supply around here. I put a lot of stuff on Craig's list, and I sell some to my gardening customers. The lions share go to one man from the park district that likes to give away fruit trees on Earth Day. He is good for several hundred. The rest trickle out with visitors to my garden. It has been more than 40 years since my garden cost me money. It works for a living and pays taxes too!
Good for you. I didn't realize there was such a strong demand for Sapote. Do you sell your crops/plants via word-of-mouth or do you employ more-specialize methods?
Avocados do the same thing. I pick the bottom the birds get the top. Since the Sapote makes about 2000 pounds of fruit per year what I don't sell ends up going to the crows and it doesn't bother me much.
Two to three years from a grafted tree and 5 to 10 for seedlings to bear fruit. You can prune hard and shape a tree to grow smaller than the one in my yard but there are no dwarf Sapote to my knowledge. Even if you had the right conditions indoors few of us have enough space for these trees. I wouldn't try growing these indoors.
hi bill....i just bought 4 sapote fruits for 5 or 6 dollars at the local farmers market, they were green and somewhat hard to the touch...they took about 3 days to get ripen, i ate the last 2 today...and they are just as good as the chirimoyas, i got about 18 seeds from the sapotes, to plant them do i have to brake the outer layer? or they get planted as is? and when is a good time to plant them? i am in socal and we are getting 75 degrees days still...thanks for your help and i am glad i found your vid..
I never crack the shells on Sapote, the seedlings do that quite well on their own. Cracking the shell will probably do more damage than good. Sometimes the root of the seedling will get caught in the shell and begin to circle. If that happens I remove the seed coat but this is after the seed germinates and it is easy to pick off. Storing Sapote seed is not advisable, it has a short shelf life. Planting it is preferred. I plant seed here in the Bay in winter but I use a heater cable on a bench in my green house. I kind of doubt the temperatures will be optimum out doors for you right now but it may work. I usually figure the seed needs about 75 degree soil in the day with about a ten degree drop at night. The germination period is 2 - 6 weeks. If you don't have a greenhouse or a cold frame I would use a sunny southern window sill to sprout the seeds.
Thanks so much for the info!! Your video it is quite more interesting to watch that all the ones I found! Great info and staring from the farm, and yes! Yellow how they supposed to be eaten :) . I have been using sapotes for years!! I use them for desserts, sauces, dishes and smoothies and juices of course!! Peace! Where is your farm?
My farm is in Hawaii but the Sapote video is shot in my suburban back yard in California's Bay Area. Spreading trees around the area when you have no space for them is a great idea. 99% of all the trees I grow in CA end up somewhere else. In HI most of them end up in my fields. No matter where they end up raising trees is a great thing to do. Bill
Perkunas Core My place is in Puna on the east side of Hawaii's Big Island. Puna isn't nearly as civilized as Maui. Lots of jungle, wild pigs and lava flows. The main two crops planted on my farm are coffee and pineapples. Shading the coffee I have bananas and a mix of almost any fruit tree that will work in the climate.
Yup, that's me, Bill Merrill. I compose, play and record all the music for the 200 plus GreenGardenGuy videos. That cut was done with a Fender Strat played with a finger slide and pumped through a Mesa Boogie amp with a Lexicon delay set to tape echo.
Evan, Fremont has a long history of growing sapote but this fact is only known to a small group of residents. There are a few trees in the town that must be over 60 years old. The one in Niles community park is quite old and there are others at the Mission San Jose Convent that date back to the early part of the 20th century. The White Sapote will grow pretty much where ever Eureka Lemons and Bearss Limes are possible. The only trouble I have seen with the trees is the extreme drought we are experiencing is hard on them. Mine is dropping leaves and praying for rain. I am in process of editing a new video that has Sapote and Cherimoya trees from Fremont featured. I will post it to my channel later in the week. Subscribe and stay tuned! I have a group of Sapote seedlings in gallon pots right now. I ask $10 each for them.
I live in Central Florida, zone 9b (~25 degree F min.), based on your experience, do you believe that a White Sapote tree would thrive here? This winter, temperatures dropped to 27 degrees and burnt my 3-gallon Valencia Pride mango down to the graft - luckily the mango has now bounced back - do you suppose the same fate might fall upon the Sapote; that is, dying back severely and struggling back to life in spring? If that's in fact the case, I might skip the struggle. I'm just curious.
Mango is a tropical crop and White sapote is subtropical. The sapote can be grown anywhere that lemons, limes and Mexican avocados grow. My own tree has been down to 25 degrees for brief periods with no harm. If you have sapote problems in your area it won't be from the cold. Good luck, Bill
The best way to learn is by doing. The best way to see Sapote in Egypt is to plant them yourself. I grow hundreds of Sapote for planting in California each year. I provide them to a man who gives the trees away on Earth Day for others to plant. You don't need to be a farmer in order to grow a lot of trees. If you don't have any luck let me know next spring. I should have plenty of Sapote seed again by then.
This looks great! I'm from Menlo Park in Northern California...do you know any place that I can just buy sapote? I'm not too sure about growing it....it might be a viable option but I just want to eat the fruits. Where should I go or who should I contact in order to buy sapote in general?
There is a small commercial crop of Sapote grown in CA but because the fruit is very difficult to handle without damage most growers and distributors don't want much to do with it. The only two places I have seen the fruit in markets is Andronico's and once at Safeway. The trees are common enough in parts of the Bay area so if you know one they produce over 2000 pounds of fruit a year. Getting a taste isn't too hard. There are two trees in public places that I am aware of on this side of the Bay. One in the Niles community Park, Fremont, the other is in Prush Park, San Jose. There is fruit in my tree and I sell it to the public on a pick your own basis.
Thanks for the great info! This was exactly the response I was looking for. Where is your personal tree located, and how much are you asking for the fruit?
Hey you never know, LOL. Thanks for the offer, but it would be quite a trip coming up from SoCal . . . why do you want the seed - taking them to Hawaii I suppose?
Great video, how would white sapote fare in South India's highly humid and tropical climate and how many years to fruit from seed? We have rambutans and mangosteens doing well here and recently heard of avocados nearby also fruiting. I also have a 15 year old sapodilla tree, not really a great fan of it due to its grainy texture even though its sweet. Its very difficult to obtain exotic fruit plants due to strict import regulations but still recently I managed to get an australian black sapote (just 6 inches tall), had to pay around $70 for it, sounds crazy i know, big money when converted to indian rupees and worse still I have no clue whether it will grow and fruit here, just my limited knowledge from the internet !!! These exotics are virtually unknown and unheard of in these parts. There is also a white sapote seedling for the same price as the black which i had brought so i would very much appreciate your honest and expert opinion on how it would do here in the highly humid tropics.
+lovin george George, Most of my experience with White Sapote is in the subtropical climate of California. Here the tree grows anywhere that true Lemons will grow. I have a friend in Puna Hawaii at low elevation where we grow most of the US commercial Papaya that has a successful White Sapote. The climate is warm but not hot with about 3 meters of rain per year. I am also aware that White Sapote is grown in South Florida where the weather is quite warm and humid. According to J. Morton the fruit has been grown in India before. Here is the link. hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/white_sapote.html#Origin and Distribution
That is called an orchard cut. It is a practice that many commercial farmers use. Depending on the variety of White sapote it may or may not help tree shape. Some types insist on vertical growth and need to be bent sideways. It would work with Suebell which is rather horizontal.
The small seeds are abortive, they didn't pollinate properly. The large one was fully pollinated and will grow, the others will not. This is actually pretty normal on some varieties of the White Sapote
I was offered a piece of a white sapote fruit at my favourite plant nursery, I saw some fruit on one of the nursery trees and I thought maybe it's a white sapote so I enquired about it and the nurseryman owner confirmed that it was. I had never come across the white sapote before, I had seen the black sapote plant before but not with fruit on, which is not related to the white sapote, but related to persimmon. I had heard that the white sapote fruit can differ in flavour one fruit to the next, I don't know if that is true, anyway, I didn't like the flavour, but thats ok, everyone has different taste. Maybe thats a plant that can grow in Hawaii.
I grew Sapote in CA and also have one here in HI. My California tree was a seedling, in Hawaii I have a grafted Suebell. You are right, the flavors do vary. I do not like the ones with the caramel taste. My CA tree had a hint of lemon and vanilla, it was good. Suebell is well known for good flavor.
Most of the Sapote trees I grew were from local tree seed sources. These were unnamed plants. I like the ones with the vanilla/lemon taste and do not like the caramel tasting ones. The only grafted tree I have is Suebell. I think it is one of the best.
Hey bill, what time of year is the fruit ready in Fremont as I read that the fruit is ready in northern cal in Feb? But yours is ready June? When does it flower also? Thanks
Different Sapote crop differently. This tree was almost ever bearing if I irrigated. Since I was never a big water waster when the drought set in I allowed the rain to control the crops fruiting cycles. I ended up with two separate fruiting cycles, one that ripened late fall to early winter and a second that ripened in Spring to summer.
As far as the main cycles are concerned 6 months is as good as any figure but under humid and steady growth situations the flowering can happen erratically at almost any time. This erratic flowering makes it pretty hard to see the main cycles. Many people I speak with say their sapote are ever bearing. Californias seasonally dry climate caused the distinct flushes. As an example they grow Kona coffee on the dry side of Hawaii and it has a single fall picking season. I grow Kona coffee here on the wet side and mine flowers through out the year because our weather pattern is almost the same 12 months out of 12. Sapote will do the same thing.
North Florida is a lot of territory. I can't give an exact answer without knowing a town so we can check climate figures. In short the plant will grow anywhere that you find true Lemons like Eureka or Lisbon or where Mexican avocados like Bacon, Zutano and Mexicola grow. It has a change where Sweet oranges and Meyer lemons grow. If most citrus doesn't grow in your area then Sapote probably won't either.
Hi, I live in Baku,Azerbaijan near Caspian sea.We have a subtropical semi - arid climate with warm and dry summers, cool and occasionally wet winters, and strong winds all year long.In January and February about 5 -7 days temperature drop below freezing.It s about - 1 -3 C.But some years we have - 7 C.Pineaplle guava doing well here. We have fruits of it.But when temperature drops below - 5 C the leaves and some branches demage. Snow usually remains only for a few days after each snowfall.What do you think will white sapote grow and fruit in this land without covering in winter?
Sorry, It doesn't sound like you will have much luck with this tree. I grows easily anywhere that lemons, limes and Macadamia nuts will grow. It will probably grow where sweet oranges can be grown but it won't tolerate temperatures below freezing for more than a few hours. Bill
Orange tree grows and fruit here. We just cover it when temperature drops under zero.But mature orange trees can tolerate little freezing.I d like to try white sapote tree here.Maybe it will survive like orange trees by protecting in winter.But I don't know where to by them online.There are no white sapote seeds in ebay.Where can I by them online?
I typed the search for "white sapote seeds for sale" and got 5 hits on ebay. Two of them have the wrong Latin name so they are probably an error but three sources seem to have seed. If you can get sweet orange to fruit you could probably get the sapote to grow. The only problem will be the size of the tree. They easily become too large for covering.
Thanks, now I see it on ebay .Not top rated seller but there is no choice. I ll buy that seeds in may when temperature here is warm enough for germinating. I hope the seeds will get to me and I hope they are fresh. I saw your another video with hardy avocado and banana. My dream is to have such hardy banana seedlings in my garden but I cant buy them by internet .Will that hardy avocado give such quality fruits like in your tree if I get and plant the seeds of that sort? And one more question. Have you ever tried to plant some hardy cherimoya or babaco or other exotic fruit trees in your area?
Sapote are quite true to type from seed but what tree the seed comes from matters. There is no way to predict your out come from seed unless you know the parent plant. My tree is from the seed of a local tree. It is good quality but the fruit is smaller than the parent. The hardiest avocado types all come from Mexico. Seeds from Mexicola, Stewart, Bacon or Zutano will produce the strongest cold hardy trees. Again, there is no way to predict the quality of the fruit from seed but my experience with seedling avocados is pretty good. Most of the trees from seed bare decent fruit. I grow Bacon Avocado here in California but no avocado is hardy to a snowy winter climate. I have raised Babaco. It is border line hardy in my area where temperatures seldom fall below freezing for long. My opinion of the fruit is not good. I find it sour and not desirable. Cherimoya is less hardy than limes, lemons Mexican Avocados or Sapote. The flowers require a beetle for pollination and it doesn't exist in California we have to pollinate by hand. I suggest you try raising the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) instead. It is related to Cherimoya but will live in a snowy climate. I have a video about this tree. I raise bananas in my California garden and I've found about 6 types that grow here. Of them, my favorite variety is Ice Cream. Most of the bananas sold as hardy either don't have good fruit or aren't particularly strong to cold. Orinoco is another Banana that has a long history of success in California. Between my home in Hawaii and my other home in California I have raised almost any fruit you can think of at one time or another. The only ones that I keep in the garden are the ones I like to eat and the ones that sell well. Ask me about specific plants and I probably have some experience with them.
Just to confuse the issue, I see there are several sapote fruit types with varying names. Yellow sapote (canistel or egg fruit), black sapote (chocolate pudding fruit), Mamey sapote (flavour combination of sweet potato and pumpkin with undertones of almond, chocolate, honey and vanilla), Chikuu (sapodilla, manilkara zapota). You're probably familiar with many of these, I'm guessing some if most would grow OK in Hawaii. Changing the subject a bit, some years ago I worked with a young guy who's father raised beef cattle probably Angus, but could be Wagyu as well, I didn't ask, but he said grass fed cattle which his father's were, produced better tasting superior meat than if the cattle were grain fed. Grass fed are allowed to roam free whereas grain fed cattle are kept in coops or small enclosures. I believe him, but don't know if I have specifically compared the different meats, grass to grain fed beef. Grass fed beef is supposed to be more lean and have more nutrition with a better fat profile. With mass production like in the US, beef cattle are grain fed and the grain can be soy, corn with hormones and antibiotic drug supplements. The young guy who's father raised beef cattle also said that happier cattle allowed to roam free supply a better quality meat. I have heard the same argument that the happier the animal is, that has to be slaughtered for meat, produces a better tasting meat. I think although I don't have specific knowledge working in this area that there is some truth to these statements. Regarding the meat industry, at the moment there is a raging argument in our parliament about live sheep exports and over the past couple of years there have been mass deaths of live sheep being exported from Australia to the middle east. The particular Islamic countries where Australia's sheep are exported to, prefer to slaughter live animals in accordance with their religion. Animal welfare activists and many politicians, want to see the live sheep export stopped because of pictures of sheep on the ships dying due to heat or overcrowding.
The sheep thing sounds like a real horror. All the beef raised in Hawaii is grass fed. The Parker ranch on the west side of this Island is the largest cattle ranch in the USA. The grass fed beef tastes different. I like it better but it took a bit of getting used to. The cows are the happiest cows I have ever seen anywhere. They glisten in green pastures with rainbows. I get hungry just driving by. I have all the Sapote you mentioned planted here on the farm. My trees are still young but I buy a lot of this fruit locally too.
I think along with nearly half the politicians, all the Labor and Green party politicians and some in the coalition Government that the time for live sheep exports should come to an end as the welfare of the sheep can't be guaranteed and further pictures of emaciated or dead sheep in ship cargoes is unacceptable. Sheep farmers also don't like to see their sheep dying on the ships and I think a transition could be made to process the sheep in Australia. A couple of years ago there was a scene showing a cow being mistreated in an Indonesian abattoir and the Labor Government immediately stopped live beef cattle exports to Indonesia. The Labor Government was greatly criticised for the immediate suspension and sued by cattle farmers of northern Australia for halting live cattle exports to Indonesia for 6 months. Indonesia is Australia's biggest buyer of live beef cattle. The current Coalition government recently decided to continue with live exports, but if there is a change in Government and Labor wins the next election which is looking fairly likely, then they may introduce a bill to stop live exports of sheep and cattle. If I was a farmer with livestock that had to go on ships for export, I wouldn't want the animals to suffer, most people wouldn't. (It was bad enough when our family dog died)
I must try growing blueberries when I move. I had a small blueberry bush more than 10 years ago, but didn't fertiliser it taking into account the lower pH required. Because I didn't really have a good area in which to grow it correctly, I removed it.
+Harry Rissik I believe we have to ask the question in reverse. The major cultivars of sapote top out at 3 to 4". Four inch is a pretty small grapefruit. My tree is not a cultivar. It is a seedling that I selected not for size but for its remarkable lemon vanilla flavor. Like the old saying goes, size isn't everything
:P A slight overstatement of size, but still it is interesting how the fruit of a species can vary so much.Btw did you plant yours from the seed of a fruit you liked or did you buy the seedling? and ty for responding so quickly :)
+Harry Rissik I'm pretty much a collector. Most of the time I try the fruit, remove seeds and plant if I like the qualities. To a more limited extent I do cross breeding of varieties I enjoy. Currently I am working on crossing several types of dragon fruit. The Sapote was growing at the Mission San Jose Convent. It had been there since the 1930's. I found the variety not only adapted to our local conditions but the fruit was some of the best I ever ate. I raised about 200 seedlings from this tree. One of them ended up in the back of my yard as a wind break. The flavor and smell of the seedling is similar to the parent tree but the fruit size is a bit smaller. Another possible reason for my fruit size is I tend to dry land farm most of my orchard crops with no irrigation. We are now in the fourth year of the worst drought recorded out here. Perhaps the fruit is smaller because of the weather conditions too.
Awesome, i tend to do the same with fruit i like, however, being in South Africa, the fruit i grow is probably quite different to yours. Although we do have some tropical fruit down here (i.e. Granadilla, cherimolla, dragon fruit, lytchee , coconut etc.) and ofcourse white sapotes :P
what variety is your sapote? I purchased two sapote which are suebelle and Vernon in a 3.4 gallon container because I assume that I needed a cross-pollinator. the Vernon has already started to bear fruit while the suebelle just continue to flower.
I will assume the container size of "3.4" you indicate is a typo. Even if it is a 34 gallon container that is still pretty small for trees with such large root systems. Competition will limit one tree over the other. When trees first come into bearing they seldom do things right. In time the two plants will probably both yield. Vernon is known to be self fertile and a good producer. Suebelle is generally a good producer too but isn't as fertile. Are the trees in an area where bees get to the flowers? They require insects for cross pollination. My tree was a seedling I grew from a century old sapote growing in the Roeding Estate at Mission San Jose. It had no cultivar name. I sold the tree with the property in May and moved to Hawaii. Here I have Mamey Sapote, Green Sapote, Chico Sapote, & Chocolate Sapote. I have yet to replant the White Sapote but I will eventually when I find a good one.
GreenGardenGuy1 my area is in oakley ca. i do have bees and insects flying in my backyard. I am working on my tropical gardens and watching alot of your video. After seeing all your video, I am planning to make a video of my own this summer.
I’m in Dublin california really close to Fremont. Can you please put me in touch with somebody I can buy trees off of? Really want a white and green sapote
Green sapote is a near impossibility but white Sapote is easy. LaVerne Nursery form Piru grafts them. LaVerne is a wholesaler so you need to locate a local retailer who does business with them. I have been away from California for many years so I no longer have my finger on the pulse of nursery there. Things change rapidly in that business. When I ran Navelt's Nursery in Fremont or in Danville I used to order trees from LaVerne but Navlet's sold to Sloat a few years back. Perhaps Sloat stocks them? Regan's Nursery in Fremont used to stock Sapote but I am not sure if they are still in business either. Menlo Growers in Gilroy is a wholesale citrus grower but Mike does do some retail direct business. I know he used to distribute LaVerne's Sapote trees too. If all else fails call Laverne and find out who they sell to in the Bay Area these days. As for green sapote they are very rare and the trees are better adapted to southern CA. Dublin's weather would likely kill them. Looking around nurseries in LA might yield some results. I have several green sapote plants here at the nursery in Hawaii but California will not allow me to ship to your state. I can only supply 46 mainland states. I sold plenty of Sapote trees in CA but my tree originated as a seedling harvested from the old Sapote at Mission San Jose convent. There is also an old tree at the Niles community park. Good luck, Aloha
Thanks for the info! Real quick off the top of your head can you tell me what fruit trees you think might do good here? I’m closest to Danville. I have cherimoya, Jaboticaba, goji, plum, banana, old pineapple guava tree, star fruit, papaya, jack fruit, dragon fruit and pawpaw. Note I also play Blues guitar in the garden too. I think that we give our plants an advantage there haha
I worked with Navlet's in Danville for a few years. The climate in Danville is significantly colder than on the other side of the hills towards the Bay. Much of what you have listed would be at risk in the Fremont area. The fruit in your list that would survive Danville weather in the long term are Plum, Pineapple Guava and Pawpaw. Cherimoya, Jaboticaba and Goji are borderline. A good cold snap and they die. I killed them in Fremont when the weather plunged. Banana of the right type will survive at the root but it isn't likely to produce good fruit. The rest of the stuff on your list is dead when you eat an ice cream cone in July. They full tropicals and require a greenhouse to survive your climate. Danville is a great place to grow grapes apples, figs and cherries to mention a few. Good luck with your fruit exploration. Aloha
In the USA the only places were the tree will reliably grow is in California, Florida and Hawaii. If you look in these locations the tree is pretty easy to find. I used to sell the trees in CA when I lived there but since moving to Hawaii the new tree is too young to fruit. Once it produces I will be back to selling the trees. In Hawaii Plant it Hawaii is a source for the trees. In California the wholesale grower LaVerne Nursery raises them. The retailer Menlo Growers in Gliroy, CA often sells the trees grown by LaVerne. Some of the Home Depot in CA do business with LaVerne too.
GreenGardenGuy1 do you think I could get away with growing this in zone 9a Florida? We have a handful of light frosts typically 32-30 for an hour or two. One week out of year it may dip into 20s for a few hours. This was our January but our February was 80s this whole month.
No, I have no suggestions on smaller Sapote. This isn't a small plant no matter how you look at it. The only good comment I have is prune carefully, prune often and work the frame of the tree horizontal rather than vertical. This will give you a smaller plant as long as you have lots of sq. ft. at ground level. If ground space is a premium like mine then let the tree grow vertical. I tried for years to reduce the height of mine and finally gave up. Sapote just grows too fast for me!
It is open pollinated. The seeds came from a ancient Sapote at the Mission San Jose Convent. It in turn gave birth to hundreds of other White Sapote in the Fremont area. Currently I sold the tree along with the house but I planted a Suebell at the new house in Hawaii. I find Suebell to be a very good variety.
If they are firm and have a nice yellow color they should ripen. If the are hard and green it is less likely they will be much good. White sapote are a poor fruit for shipping and market sales. The best way to have them is right from the branch when ripe. They are very perishable so if they are ripe enough to eat handling usually destroys the fruit.
In this area of California the only major fruit fly pest at the moment is Drosophila suzukii, the Asian Cherry Piercer. These attack cherries, raspberries,& blackberries but they have no taste for Sapote. In other localities with different pests you may find fruit flies that like Sapote. Rats, birds and squirrels are the main pests here. The trees produce huge quantities of fruit twice per year so they will draw creatures. Even with these creatures I get more fruit than I can handle.
Well.. anything that has sugar will ferment and can then be distilled. This isn't always a good thing though. Cashew apple liqueur from Goa is some pretty nasty tasting stuff. I love apples but I would rather drink Bourbon than Apple Jack. You are welcome to pick down the current crop and make a batch. All I want is the seed.
In the USA it is too. The cultivar Suebell is very large. This tree was a rarity, an old seed grown tree found at a convent in CA. The quality of this type isn't the size,it is the superior flavor. Size isn't everything. Aloha
@@GreenGardenGuy1 It may be, I am from MÉXICO and we have white, black, brown, yellow and mamey, I have no the yellow thought I germinated one but for error left the root out of soil. What I am happy is these fruit is abroad to avoid extinction. I have also avocados, capulín, peach, granates, etc.
Do you know of anyone who has managed to keep a Sapote fairly small while still being able to produce fruit? I would love a white sapote, but not for the price of a 30+ foot tree.
+Joseph Lynn Yes, I have videos about Ming Wei Shen parts 1, 2 & 3. Probably part 2 has his well trained Sapote. He uses wires to train the branches side ways like a bonsai grower. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Lc7K0TPujDk.html Don't forget that the only real estate in California that is free is vertical. From my point of view as long as the tree is in the northern part of the lot so sun isn't being blocked the elevation of the plant doesn't really matter much.
I'm out of White Sapote right now. I have Chico Sapote and Chocolate Sapote but no White. The trees aren't hard to find though. I recently bought a grafted Suebell Sapote.
I'm sorry to contradict the information given by your seed supplier but we never soak seeds in water until they sprout. The limit for soaking seeds is 24 hours before planting in soil. Seeds need air to germinate, if placed under water for too long they will rot and die there without germinating. One day in water to break the dormancy then put them in pots of potting soil and water sparingly until they sprout. Sapote germinate erratically from 3 weeks to 3 months time.
That's an easy one. It's in a pot! The figures i gave are for trees planted in a timely fashion to the earth. The sapote is a very fast growing plant. A pot would cramp the tree and stunt it's development. It is very difficult to provide nutrients to old pot bound trees so they struggle.
