Cold hardiness of Mamey Sapote

[Vincent]

Just how much cold can a mamey sapote take? Does an established 5 to 6 foot tall tree realistically handle 29f ? 28f? Is anybody outside of Miami and Pine Island growing them well?

[alexgardens]

I cannot answer the first two questions, but I can tell you that my dad is growing mamey seedlings successfully in St. Pete. They do look much worse during the colder months, but they grow back and look healthy again once it's warmer. I have seen a grafted tree set fruit in St. Pete also, but I do not know if that fruit reached maturity and the last time I saw the tree it didn't look amazing, nor did it have any fruit on it. Occasionally we'll get frosts in St. Pete, but it is not common. Homestead is really where the mameys are grown commercially, from what I understand.

That being said, I'm sure mamey could fruit and do well in other areas!

[ofdsurfer]

While I can't say exactly how much cold a mamey can take, I can tell you that I'm growing a pace mamey.  It has survived at my location for the past eight years. I'm well north of Miami.  I have it in a prime microclimate spot of my landscape and I'm on the barrier island so I have some help but it was a tiny three gallon tree for the winter of 2009 and still small for 2010, both were bad winters.  I had frost both winters but it didn't freeze.  I covered it those winters but haven't since then.  It is fruiting however hurricane Matthew knocked all of this seasons crop off unfortunately.

[Vernmented]

The biggest problem isn't with hardiness, the problem is the some cultivars take 18 months to ripen the fruit. When the tree gets stressed with cold it will drop the fruit. Also, the trees always look bad before they drop all their leaves and the new ones pop. I keep hearing reports that 'Viejo' is more cold hardy and it is a nice tasting fruit. I could be wrong about this but I think it only takes around a year to ripen.

[bsbullie]

They arent going to be happy at 28-29 degrees F and may even case some dieback.

Areas of St Pete that are closer to the coast have a much watmer mi imhm temp environment and can proba ly successfully fruit mamey.

Green Sapote is a little more cold tolerant but still not handling temps below 30F very well.

Another issue is that Mamey will want to be well over 5-6 feet in height as they mature, even with trimming.

[RiversOFT]

It went down to 29 and 31 two nights in a row about a Week ago here it was only below freezing a few hours total but mine didn't even notice it

[Vincent]

Nice!

[greenman62]

Just how much cold can a mamey sapote take? Does an established 5 to 6 foot tall tree realistically handle 29f ? 28f? Is anybody outside of Miami and Pine Island growing them well?

I am in New Orleans
My Mamey has seen 28or 29ish temps  at least twice before.
i want to say it was 4 yrs old, maybe 4 and 1/2 (from seed)
it had lost some leaves, and smaller branches, but came back nicely.

in Jan we had 1 night that hit 27, or maybe 26F.
the problem may have been that it rained hard for 2 days prior.
everything was soaked.
it never made it... RIP Mamey