Congrats on your new tree! And yes, it is beginning to bloom. :-)

Thanks, FruitCally. I can't wait to taste of its fruit. I really haven't got the faintest idea how delicious it is except that I've heard that it tastes like chocolate pudding. I wonder where I can buy some to try the taste out. So, do you currently own one and how is it doing for you?

I've been looking at the Chocolate Sapote in the nursery but still haven't got one. Do have a White Sapote though, but still a bit small. I've been told that Epsom Salts (Magnesium sulphate) is good for getting fruit trees flowering/fruiting. Haven't tried it yet though.

I used to have one black sapote -- same kind -- but it was killed during the very cold winter more than 10 years ago while the many fruits was ripening. I never had the chance to taste them. It's a handsome tree with almost black trunk and waxy nice looking leaves.

I remembers none of the flowers became fruits for the first couple years. It would only hold fruits when the trunk was bigger than 1" dia.

Sapote

I just planted one yesterday that I grew from seed. The fruit tasted great.

Hi Bananafan. We are growing both the black sapote and white sapote in our garden.

The black sapote seems to want to flower profusely while the white sapote has been quite shy. Since both trees are relatively young, we've been removing the buds early on.

By the way, the black sapote is said to taste like chocolate pudding with a dose of honey/sugar added to it! By itself, it may taste a bit bland for the palate.

Also, we've found that the black sapote loves plenty of water and sun (almost like a Jabo). Love the glossy leaves. They sure do make handsome trees.

You have a much better climate in Florida for growing tropicals. It should do very well for you!

Tropicalbreeze, I've fed all my palm trees and ferns with epsom salt and their leaves will turn from yellowish green to a deeper green. Can epsom salt can be applied to all fruit trees or only some specific ones?

Sapote,

I'm sorry to hear that yours died some years back. So how big was it when it happened? Yes, I've heard a lot that small fruit trees usually don't keep their fruit well. My Sugar Apple was sending out 7-8 fruit, but now only two has stayed around ... I don't know if they will reach their maturity. Still, as an amateur fruit grower, I'm always curious to see some form of growth. If they all drop off, I will give it a little more pruning so it will flush more and be ready for next year's bloom.

Did you enjoy the fruit from it and are you going to get one to plant again?

I was told years ago that Epsoms Salts was a very safe fertiliser. You couldn't overdose plants with it. I've scattered it generally thoughout the garden every now and then. It seems to help but I've never over done it to see if they're correct about over use being safe. A lot will always depend on what your soil is like. If there's a shortage of magnesium then of course the results will be more dramatic. If there's sufficient in the soil then there'd be no harm. The advice I got for using it on fruit trees was that if the trees are slow to get fruiting then a dose of Epsoms Salts would get them started.

Flatwood farms, I'm glad to hear that you've planted one. Will it take the cold weather where you are and how long does it take for the plant to bear fruit when you grow it from seed? I bet you're hoping for it to grow a lot before the cold weather comes around.

Thanks, FruitCally for your kind words. I'm glad to hear that you have both the Chocolate and the White. How would you describe the taste of the White Sapote?

Yes, we do have rather nice weather for the most part. It's a blessing that even for bananas when they're damaged, they're not killed to the ground, each year they still come back up. However, for fruit trees, if the cold damage should happen, it's going to be tougher for them. I've heard that even for lychees, if the Winter is harsh enough, it can damage a huge and mature tree. I must say the past Winters have been really kind so many of my lychees continue to grow larger. One even made it to quite a bit of fruit production, but I'm keeping my fingers cross that all will go well from now going forward.

I hope your Chocolate and White sapotes will bear fruit for you soon. Do keep us updated of how they're doing.

This post was edited by bananafan on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 21:05

White sapotes are super sweet and do have soft texture. :-) They're quite delicious!

I think the 'Homestesd' white sapote tastes like lemon custard. My black sapote fruit came from a friend in Pinellas county, fl. I hope it's OK with this winter; I do know that years ago I planted 2 back in our wetland area having shade and they loved the spot and got pretty tall- then froze.

I'm absolutely dying for my white sapote to bear fruit. I read up there where trunk of 1 inch diameter? Mine is seed grown however, and you must mean a grafted type? But (my) trunk is at least 3 inches diameter, and I have pruned it twice. Thanks for posting that, keeping me hopeful.

"Sapote,
I'm sorry to hear that yours died some years back. So how big was it when it happened? Yes, I've heard a lot that small fruit trees usually don't keep their fruit well. My Sugar Apple was sending out 7-8 fruit, but now only two has stayed around ... I don't know if they will reach their maturity. Still, as an amateur fruit grower, I'm always curious to see some form of growth. If they all drop off, I will give it a little more pruning so it will flush more and be ready for next year's bloom.

Did you enjoy the fruit from it and are you going to get one to plant again?"

When it was killed by the very cold nights, 27F might be, it also killed the Longan and burned Cherimoya leaves. The black sapote was 4" trunk 8ft tall. I never had the chance to taste the fruits already bigger than 3" and about ripen in a few weeks. I did not and will not plant a new tree until I taste the fruit to make sure my effort is worth.

My white sapote was ok and now it's more than 12" trunk and 20ft tall with many fruits.

Sapote