I heartily agree, Amen, and envy your praise of tree-ripened Suebelle sapotes! Far as commercial value, they are so soft and tender and customers are so disgusted by bruised fruit the farmers I used to buy from would secret sapotes behind the counter and I'd have to ask for and receive them with a timid apology for their appearance - and that was scant hours after picking! I whacked my tree in half a few months ago to encourage bushiness which it's sure doing but I don't see flowers yet (wha!). And the trees are so productive! I've picked ripe fruit from my yard tree in the dead of winter! Wish I was devouring one right now!

I have seedling plants of white sapote, not Suebelle though.
I hear they are hungry trees- it does seems the more I fertilize, the faster they grow.....

I havn't tasted a white sapote yet.... now I am really hot on getting a Suebelle....
Where did you get yours?

Mine was bought in the 80's down in L.A. and has been moved,potted,planted and almost never summer watered since then. This year was different.It was watered,it must have been pollinated by those pesty ants and it all resulted in the biggest crop ever.
I also had starting last summer,thrown away old ammonium sulphate under it. That caused Sue to flush like no other time.
In all those other years of no water,fruiting had been rare or didnt taste right. Sue's on my rental property and never did get treated right-lol.I never dreamed Sapote's could be so good. From April to continueing now Sue has been giving ripe delicious fruit. They may look like bad apples,but inside,pure edible gold. I wish i had the will power to blend a few instead of eating them right up .They must make a killer smoothee.
Suebelle will never overwelm you with huge amounts all at once. And she's not a big tree. About the size of a nice Patio tree, or say,semi dwarf Citrus or Apple. With those lush green leaves sort of Schefflera like up close.
What I had read about them twenty years ago did come true. Amazing.
Take my advice-fertilize Sue,dont worry about pests-they may even help pollinate,be patient and the reward for fruiting the "ugly apple" will be like hitting the fruit tree lotto!

wish i lived in a warmer area

absolutely incredible looking tree Stanofh. I tasted some white sapote for the first time this year. I loved the taste and like the fact that the fruits supposedly ripen from winter till summer, it would do well filling up that empty winter spot when I'm fruitless except for some citrus. I planted a bunch of seedlings and will one day graft overthem with known varieties.

That is a fantastic tree. Suebell is supposed to be one of the best. Over here east, Redlands is another excellent one. Not sure how well Suebell does in humidity. I have Redlands and 'Spice Park Late'. Perhaps I need to fert them more as indicated. I've only tasted one, tasted great, til my wife pointed out a slight off aftertaste. I believe variety choice is super important for White Sapote, the inferior ones have that aftertaste.

Gary

nice pics stan. please can you post a pic of the inside of the fruit?

You know I have never pruned Sue. A major left branch was cut by a crew i paid to put up a new fence to the left (out of picture).I wasn't happy. Then, this year another crew paid to take down an old wooden shed to the right..yep. lopped of another large low branch. My point is, that if you do prune Sue,she takes it in stride and I do think if it was grown for foliage only(no! a waste!) and pruned for form, it makes a great ornamental tree.The leaves not only resemble as i said, a Schefflera,but they also look to be arranged on the branches like a Schefflera. With a twice yearly shearing-you have a tropical looking glossy tree.
I imagine with one of the larger Sapote trees that do bare more than you can eat,a pruning works out well all around.Great form and still plenty of fruit.

Sorry I don't have a picture and don't think my equipment would handle it anyway but there are several white sapote trees growing near me in a public park. I have no idea what variety or how long they've been there but they are HUGE and bear TONS of FRUIT! I've never seen much fruit on the ground, and once I discovered them on a dogwalk I began checking on the trees, squeezing the fruit, because I wanted to sample some. So far my checking hasn't intersected with their ripeness. Folks do complete picking raids on "unsupervised" fruit trees in my neighborhood and I'm curious if that's the fate of these trees. Huge old fruit trees for ornament which are unharvested by the owner are relatively common here in Los Angeles and those seem to be preyed upon - whereas my heavily supervised small trees have yet to be raided. The first white sapote I ate was a hostess gift from a guest neighboring such an enormous old local sapote tree he said the owner was giving away bushels and picking and cleaning was burdensome.

dghays, do you know what type you had that had the off taste you mentioned. I have been looking everywhere for a suebell, but it seems like they are tough to find down here in FL. I have seen redlands though. Are they supposed to taste just as good?

A response to an email to Fruit & Spice park was that Redlands was the best they ever tasted. Not sure of the var I bought which had the off taste.

Gary

Thanks for the info.

How does a Suebelle compare to a Mcdill tastewise? I have 20 seedlings and looking to graft either variety.

Where did you get the sapote tree?