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ashleysf_gw

Sapote tree recommendations for Zone 9

ashleysf
14 years ago

I am buying it as a gift for my husband. After several years of me pestering him about what fruit tree to grow, and not getting any meaningful answer, he finally said that sapotes are his favorite, but thought that it would never survive in the SF South Bay, and hence never mentioned it.

Well, I like a challenge and I want to try growing a sapote tree now in our back yard. What is the sweetest variety? And what can survive Zone 9 conditions? And what sources I can order them from? Any help is appreciated.

Comments (9)

  • ashleysf
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Sorry, need to repost this - it seems he read up some more about them and what he meant was Sapodilla and not Sapote. He is from India and it seems Sapodilla is called Sapota over there. And Sapodilla is what he wants. So, please recommend good Sapodillas for my zone. Thanks.

  • boom1
    14 years ago

    you would probably be best with a dwarf variety you can keep in a container like silas woods.

    t0ptr0picals has grafted ones in stock.

  • red_sea_me
    14 years ago

    I have ordered from top twice and was sent large healthy trees both times. On one of the orders, my muntingia tree dropped all it's leaves but regrew them quickly. I ordered the tree after our weather had warmed and it took a couple days longer to arrive. Just my small experience.

    In CA you can find sapodillas, check Ong's, Roger Meyer or even Exotica. Some have seedlings, I believe Ong has grafted. Grafted will cost you more. White sapote (casimiroa edulis) should be no problem in you area but sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) would probably need some winter protection, at least when young. I believe they can be grown in a pot, also consider getting a late season variety so you fruit or flowers dont get zapped by cold.

    good luck,
    -Ethan

  • Andrew Scott
    14 years ago

    All I am saying is I would call and confirn the size of the tree. I know I will use my 20 dollar credit, and not order again, it was not just the issue of the size of the tree, the did not communicat with me at all, that is why I gave them the negative feedbaack, Wait they communicated with me after the order was sent. Just look at my Green Caimito pic, that should tell you why I had a bad experience! I even left it on there web site, under there comments.

  • jun_
    13 years ago

    I read Alano is more cold hardy than other varieties, but there was no hard numbers to go by. It is also very very sweet and has smaller fruit than others.

    regarding t0p.....the guy, I think Mike, is really deficient in people skills. I complained after waiting 10 days that my order hasn't even been shipped, he ended up refunding my order without even asking if I wanted to cancel. the typical "we apologize for the inconvience" lines, but I felt a strong underlying attitude towards any customer who would dare stand up to him.

  • ch3rri
    13 years ago

    ashleysf, if you're asking for best sapodilla, I would recommend alano or hasya. Alano is a smaller fruit compared to hasya. Both tastes great. I'm not sure how cold your area get but I think young small tree will not survive temperature lower than 40-50 F. So maybe you can plant the tree in pot and until it gets larger then plant in ground. I plant my hasya in pot and it fruited for me. The fruits were sweet and at nice size. You can check out Pine island nursery website for sapodilla rating.

    Good luck.

  • swrancher
    13 years ago

    Over last winter my yard got down into the twenties several times and my small totally unprotected Alano Sapodilla tree did just fine. Its actually grown quite a bit since the winter and had its first large bloom, and fruitset recently. Several of us with these trees noticed they seem to do well in the cold versus other trees. Do a forum search as there are some posts about it.

  • deepu_p
    11 years ago

    Hi Ashley,

    Came across this thread and was excited to find someone having similar interest in Sapote. I am from Bay area as well. Was curious if you finally planted the tree and how is it doing in this CA weather. Any suggestions or recos about Sapote tree planting would be helpful

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