Looking for Sapodilla expert advise

General Fruit Growing
21

Those do look like a tasty fruit.I found this link to information about them,provided by the California Rare Fruit Growers. Brady
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/sapodilla.html

22

Brady, the most common description for them Iā€™ve seen is a pear soaked in brown sugar. Very delectable, I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever met a person who doesnā€™t like them.

23

Congrats, Jimmy. Hope your growing season is long enough for sapodilla to fully ripen.

Unripe sapodilla carries a lot of astringency. Donā€™t know that would apply all varieties or not but several that I ate fall into that category.

Hope you will report the taste when they ripen.

24

exactly!, they are absolutely delicious. There are two types, the smooth creamy ones, and the gritty ones-- and as with your pear analogy, there are the gritty and non-gritty. The ponderosaā€™s are generally creamy ones, while the gritty ones are the button-ish types. Both are yummy.

If you also enjoy woodworking, the wood is one of the strongest, hardest, and most durable that one could source fom a fruit tree. It is up there with jujubeā€™s and persimmons/ebony.

25

Mamuang, We should find out soon as I donā€™t recall if any body in my geographic area (dallas, tx) has grown one. Like I mentioned earlier, the trees will be in my home made green house during the short winter ā€“ see photo.

1536Ɨ2048 671 KB

26

Jimmy,
Impressive green house. Wish you were my neighbor.

Do not forget about moisture/ humidity in there. I think they like it hot and somewhat humid. I have never grown it but see them around in Thailand.

27

Jimmy

Here is a photo of my 3 yrs old seedling. I call my tropic bonsai because it just a small tree by the window. I think it could grow bigger if I would take it outdoor with full sun during summer time.

Tony

//growingfruit-images.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/4/46edf43f70db743cc0d834feb1bb851136fe814a.jpg(image larger than 5000KB)

28

Where is your geographic area, Tony?

30

Jimmy

I lived in the Midwest, Omaha, Nebraska. Z5.

Tony

31

Nice treeling Tony! I have one thatā€™s about a year to a year and a half old thatā€™s potted too. Itā€™d definitely appreciate being outside in the summer! As would your adenium :wink:

32

Update on my sapodilla tree fruiting. Snapped few photos today (9/20/15), the fruits about the size of thumb nail, and I noticed many new flowers are formed. It looks like a year around fruiting plant !!

2448Ɨ3264 2.03 MB

2448Ɨ3264 2.14 MB

2448Ɨ3264 1.73 MB

33

the level of fruit-growing expertise is achieved in two ways. Being able to grow excellent fruits.
Or being able to grow excellent fruits way outside of their zones. Evidently the latter is notches above the former, and you seemed to have clinched it. Congrats!

btw, in the tropics, they actually adhere to the wet and dry seasons. Usually flowering near the end of dry season, and fruiting at the onset of rains.

34

Good for you! Let us know how they taste in 5-7 months.

35

hopefully not that long a wait, as cold weather is probably setting in over DFW area! From what i see in the pics, and at the date they were taken, thereā€™s a good chance theyā€™d be mature before it gets too cold, especially if they are of the smaller variety

36

Looking for a sapodilla disease/propagation expert whoā€™s willing to come to Central America and help us with our trees :slight_smile: Anyone have any ideas on who we might speak with?

37

i am no expert, and neither can i go to central america(though iā€™d love to!), but in my experience, air layering seems to have no effect on vigor and productivity of trees, and being airlayers, the trees are dwarfish, hence easier to harvest from. Sapodillas can be productive for >500 years.

btw, where in central america are you orcharding?

38

Thanks, jujubemulberry - if you would like to message privately, we can discuss this further :slight_smile:

39

Jimmy,
How were your sapodillas? Did they ripen for you?

1 Like