I have two sapodilla (Brown Sugar) plants at my backyard that I need to consult with some expert(s) here.
The trees are flowering as we speak. Since I am a newbie in regard to sapodilla, I need to understand its
flowering, fruiting processes. Here are the photos I took today. I noticed some flowers got dried out.
Does this mean the fruit is formed inside or the flower is completely dead?
am no expert, but from what i see, the petals have merely wilted, but that is not indicative of fruit failure.
i even think it is a good sign, since the peduncle seems to have retained its turgidity, so thereâs a chance it is âup to somethingâ
i hope youâd keep me posted, as have a keen interest about it
I mother grew one tree on her orchard long time ago. I remembered the tree was self fruitful. As long as the flower stems stay green and do not turn yellow and drop then that is a good sign.
Tony
Ahoy Jimmy, nice of you to get a Sapodilla, great fruit and the variety you got sounds like a nice one.
Itâs a common backyard tree here, there was an established one when we bought the house and we grew another from seed about 4 or 5 years ago and planted it, it put out a fruit earlier this year and is flowering again now. Itâs about 7 feet tall and the other tree is about 12-15 feet tall.
To answer your question those flowers with the brown heads look unpollinated to me, not because the petals turned brown but just the overall look of the flower. After growing them so long I sort of get a feel for if one has set fruit based on look. I wouldnât worry about it as these trees commonly put out way more flowers than they can possibly set as fruit. Even one or two fruit per terminal cluster of flowers is good. You still have baby flowers forming so keep us updated, maybe try using a paintbrush or mascara brush to move pollen from one opened flower to another as fruit set can be a bit low when the trees are still young.
good to see this thread revived from the archives. But am afraid âno news is bad newsâ from Jimmy.
I have noticed most if not all of the âfirst generationâ flowers dried out, and more new generation flowers coming up â see photos. Yes, BahamaDan, you are right, the new set of flowers keep popping up - as the old flowers dried out. I guess, may be the trees are still too young to bear any fruit ?? I start thinking of doing hand pollination when these new set of flowers open up.
Will keep you guys posted âŚ
not sure if youâve posted it before, but how much direct sun do your sapodiIIaâs get?
Both plants receive direct sun light for at least 5-6 hrs per day.
Forgot to mention the two varieties I have:
One plant is Alano, and the other is Hasya.
maybe giving it more sunIight wouId heIp with fruit set. SapodiIIaâs deveIop thicker and stronger wood when aIIowed Iots of heat and sunIight.
Hand pollination certainly couldnât hurt,whatâs your fertilization regime?
I have been using Dr. Earth organic fruit tree fertilizer for all my fruit trees.
Today I looked up close to one of my sapodilla tree and I noticed several flowers that looked like they are setting fruit. See photo below. Am I right? Or I donât know what I am looking at?
Looks like fruits to me. My Grandmother used to have a tree loaded of fruits every year. It took a long season to ripe but I really enjoyed the real sweet brown sugar flavor. Watch out for the sharp seeds. I have a three years old seedling about 2 1/2 feet tall that I kept by the West facing window. I donât think I will ever get any fruit out of this tree. I treated as a house plant and it reminded me of my Grandmother.
Tony
fruits, undoubtedIy, congrats!
quite fulfilling isnât it? Would you know if it is the bigger ponderosa varieties or the button types?
when does it start getting really cold in your locale? Alano and hasya are both supposedly the ponderosa types right?
I am very newbie about sapodilla. When I selected what to buy I referred to the link below:
http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/sapodilla/
or here is the photos of most common varieties.
The cold season in my area (Dallas, TX) is from December - January. I have a small home made
greenhouse at the backyard, so cold weather is not a problem.
nice! I guess your sapodilla fruits are slated for a taste test.
as for alano and hasya, the pictures seem to indicate they are true ponderosaâs, but not the giant ponderosaâs, so thereâs a good chance they will ripen for you outdoors.
keep us posted!