Taste of Redlands white sapote

[bradflorida]

Has anyone tasted this variety?  How would you describe the flavor?

Brad

[Mike T]

A workmate yesterday offered me a fruit that was bright canary yellow and asked what I thought it was. My reaction was it looks like a really bright yellow,clean and large Garcinia dulcis.To my surprise when I bit into it,it was a white sapote and the best one I have ever tried with very thin edible skin and creamy flesh.I have tried plenty of white sapotes before but never one so bright in colour or luscious in taste.Apparently the tree gets loaded for the first month of summer and yields boxes of fruit.

[harveyc]

I picked my first Redlands in early September, my earliest fruit of the season.  It was very good to excellent.  I'm not good at describing flavors but my wife thought it had a bit of a peach flavor.

I posted a couple of photos at www.facebook.com/WhiteSapoteFruit/posts/1070463582978010

[fyliu]

Really! A Californian saying a FL variety is very good changes my perspective of it. I've always heard that this is one of those fruits where Floridians have to put up with the few not very good varieties that can grow there. Glad that's not the case.

[harveyc]

Yes, it surprised me.  I was really not optimistic about this one for the same reasons.  I've had many great white sapote including Vernon, Lemon Gold, even Rainbow.  This was a great surprise.

[phantomcrab]

I tried one at the F&S park and it was very good. I'm not sure how to describe the flavor but if there had been more I would have eaten more. No aftertaste either.

[fourseasonsflorida]

If anyone is growing Redlands in FL, I would like to hear your experience.  I would think Redlands would grow well, since the name suggests it is from the Redlands district of South Florida.  I had a Younghans cultivar growing but never got to taste it before I relocated.

[achetadomestica]

I bought a small tree earlier this year called Supersweet. I got it from Fruitscapes in Pine Island. From what I understand it was developed here in Florida. Has anyone tasted it? Initially this summer the tree turned yellow and looked horrible. I put a cover over it to shade it and boy did it bounce back. I also got a Suebelle tree and the high humidity and hot summer sun turned it yellow as well. I also put a cover on this tree.Now both trees are very dark green and look great. I took the covers off a couple weeks ago and am watching closely. The Suebelle is flushing now and hopefully the new red growth will turn dark green?
Mike

[Tetsu0]

Another white sapote variety available in Florida now is the younghan's gold, which is supposedly better than redlands. Can anyone compare or comment on the taste of younghan's?

[fourseasonsflorida]

I can't comment on the taste of Younghans but I planted it out of a 3g pot in Palm Bay and it took off.  The tree was about 3ft high.  That was about 4 years ago.  It grew like a weed and looked similar to a mango tree, except bushier.  The tree is still in that backyard and it's now 15ft.  I'll have to go back and check it out when fruit is in season.

[gunnar429]

I can't comment on the taste of Younghans but I planted it out of a 3g pot in Palm Bay and it took off.  The tree was about 3ft high.  That was about 4 years ago.  It grew like a weed and looked similar to a mango tree, except bushier.  The tree is still in that backyard and it's now 15ft.  I'll have to go back and check it out when fruit is in season.

Yes, these are the two I have planted out.  Interested in that supersweet.
Another tree that is at Fruit & Spice Park is Smathers....never tasted any of them ripe, that i can recall at least.

[HMHausman]

Here's what I wrote 3 years ago about this:

I have a large tree of what is now known as Redland White Sapote.  I tasted it at the F&S Park back in the mid-90's and thought it was one of the best White Sapotes I had ever had (overtaken, subsequently btw by my trying Younghan's Gold).  At that time, Chris Rollins was calling the tree "Not-SES 2" for what became obvious reasons, when the tree fruited and it looked nothing like SES 2 which the label said it was.  It was later named Redland.  I grafted bud wood and got a successful take and planted it out.  What I most liked about Redland was the lack of any bitter aftertaste that I had encountered in some White Sapotes. And as you said, it does have a very nice florally flavor.  My tree grew large ad began producing.....but sporadically. And, to my chagrin, my fruits all had a bitter aftertaste.  Now the tree fruits very infrequently if at all. I have hacked the tree back, fertilized it, minor elemented it, sprayed it and nothing.  It has now been relegated to dragon fruit trellis status.  I posted in the Yahoo Group a question about why this might have been.  My post was largely ignored. My thoughts at this time are that the rootstock may be the issue and may affect the fruit flavor.  Or, it is a soil issue, or it is both a rootstock and a soil issue.  I am 100% sure that I did not mix up the budwood....as I took no other bud wood of white sapote from my visit to the F&S Park that particular visit with Al Will's class.  Anyone else have any ideas?

[fyliu]

One of my friends had a non-fruiting tree that looked great. One year he decided to stop watering it at all and it started fruiting very well. This was in San Diego so the tree could actually get stressed from no water. It was also a seedling tree that never fruited before.

[fourseasonsflorida]

My Younghans was flowering and getting tiny fruit developing within a year after planting, but the fruit would all drop, probably because the tree was still small.  I didn't water it much after the first couple months and it was very drought tolerant in full day sun.  I'm definitely attempting white sapote again once I get my own property - it's super easy to grow. 

Looks like it's a matter of getting it to flower/hold fruit.  I wonder if it naturally likes a drier climate and therefore, in FL, it is more of a struggle with the higher humidity?

[gunnar429]

I don't recall there being a problem with the trees at F & S park fruiting.

[Future]

If anyone is growing Redlands in FL, I would like to hear your experience.  I would think Redlands would grow well, since the name suggests it is from the Redlands district of South Florida.  I had a Younghans cultivar growing but never got to taste it before I relocated.

I bought a tree from pine island a few years ago.  Buried it 30 mins north or Orlando.  I think it flowered once but to date has never set fruit.  I don't lived there so left it next to a sprinkler.  Might get root rot eventually....

[michsu]

My suebelle white sapote is flowering a lot here .. (you have to click in the picture again to zoom - twice).. lots of clusters of buds? I think all over.. this is the 1st year it did that, is it the right time to be doing that? Thanks.

[fyliu]

suebelle flowers all year but doesn't set much fruit other than the main crop. There's a main crop that ripens around November

[chicomoralessxm]

These varieties sound amazing?
Does anyone have a white sapote tree or seeding to sell shipping to miami not st maarten?

[gunnar429]

These varieties sound amazing?
Does anyone have a white sapote tree or seeding to sell shipping to miami not st maarten?

I may have a seedling that I was going to use to graft.  I will have to check and see if it is still doing well

[fourseasonsflorida]

So, apparently there's a Redlands at F&S Park in Homestead that produces great fruit (according to this thread).  But, has anyone actually grown a white sapote (of any cultivar) here in Central or South Florida that grows well, is productive, and produces a good fruit?  Getting back to what I said before, it seems that the Californians have a more suitable climate and therefore, much more success with white sapote.  Info from CRFG:

"It does poorly in areas with high summer heat such as the deserts of the Southwest, and in the high humidity of the tropical lowlands of Hawaii and Florida. The tree does best where the mean temperature from April to October is about 68° F." 

That definitely does not describe FL. I would like to hear from someone directly who is personally growing a white sapote in FL that produces well.  They seem to grow well but be fickle producers in FL from what limited evidence I have so far.

[pschill444@aol.com]

Hello Michsu & all im in spring valley ca. my 17 year old sue bell seedling normaly gives me 2 medium main crops per year and a few fruits here & there almost year around its  starting full bloom now but blooms throught the year spring to fall always lots of fruit my neighbors tree a 15 year old badly neglected seedling of mine gives i heavy crop each summer i believe temp. and humidity has a lot to do with fruit set perfering the cooler moist nights of winter bloom  to hot dry nights of summer, i have watered my neighbors tree a few times when i seen it allmost defoliated  and it seems to induce a fresh bloom cycle,      Patrick

[pschill444@aol.com]

These varieties sound amazing?
Does anyone have a white sapote tree or seeding to sell shipping to miami not st maarten?

have fresh seeds and seedlings.    Patrick

[FlyingFoxFruits]

white sapote does very well in Central FL, producing so much fruit it often goes to waste.

some of my favorites so far, smathers, suebell, skipper (a local variety, much like suebell), and another seedling near me that has no name (which also reminds me of suebell).

I have heard of some growers having trouble with excessive moisture in the soil, and others reporting nutrient deficiencies....but all of this can be addressed, by either choosing a proper planting site, or applying micronutrition /drenching with chelated Fe.

suebell does seem sensitive to heat , but it fruit well if you keep it happy, (either giving it a protected but bright location, or watering religiously)

So, apparently there's a Redlands at F&S Park in Homestead that produces great fruit (according to this thread).  But, has anyone actually grown a white sapote (of any cultivar) here in Central or South Florida that grows well, is productive, and produces a good fruit?  Getting back to what I said before, it seems that the Californians have a more suitable climate and therefore, much more success with white sapote.  Info from CRFG:

"It does poorly in areas with high summer heat such as the deserts of the Southwest, and in the high humidity of the tropical lowlands of Hawaii and Florida. The tree does best where the mean temperature from April to October is about 68° F." 

That definitely does not describe FL. I would like to hear from someone directly who is personally growing a white sapote in FL that produces well.  They seem to grow well but be fickle producers in FL from what limited evidence I have so far.

[From the sea]

Redlands do good in the Keys. Fruits in the summer, no problem with the heat.

 

So, apparently there's a Redlands at F&S Park in Homestead that produces great fruit (according to this thread).  But, has anyone actually grown a white sapote (of any cultivar) here in Central or South Florida that grows well, is productive, and produces a good fruit?  Getting back to what I said before, it seems that the Californians have a more suitable climate and therefore, much more success with white sapote.  Info from CRFG:

"It does poorly in areas with high summer heat such as the deserts of the Southwest, and in the high humidity of the tropical lowlands of Hawaii and Florida. The tree does best where the mean temperature from April to October is about 68° F." 

That definitely does not describe FL. I would like to hear from someone directly who is personally growing a white sapote in FL that produces well.  They seem to grow well but be fickle producers in FL from what limited evidence I have so far.