How long does it take for black sapote to start fruiting ?

[Bananaizme]

 I have a black beauty bs and it's been flowering the last couple of years but they never seem to take and develop into fruit. The tree is a couple of years old and is around 7 to 8 feet high and girth of trunk is a couple of inches thick. Am I expecting too much from this young tree ? I'm curious what others experiences have been time wise from planting to getting your first fruit set .

William

[sildanani]

This is a dioecious species, you'd need male and female plants for fruit.

[Bananaizme]

  I'm surprised by your comment,when I bought the tree I remember reading that it was self fertile. Maybe I got some bad info ? I don't know. I did just buy a reinecke variety but it's small and no where near flowering or fruiting yet. I sure hope that this is not the case or I'll have a long wait for fruit.

William

[TREESNMORE]

Grafted named trees like Black Beauty ,  fruit on there own.

[sapote]

My BS fruited by itself. You might have to wait 2 more years as I remember my tree had no fruits the first 2 years with plenty flowers. I killed in a very cold winter with many near mature fruits, and I never have tasted one yet.

[sildanani]

  I'm surprised by your comment,when I bought the tree I remember reading that it was self fertile. Maybe I got some bad info ? I don't know. I did just buy a reinecke variety but it's small and no where near flowering or fruiting yet. I sure hope that this is not the case or I'll have a long wait for fruit.

William

Lol, I may have been misinformed! What I read must have been outdated. It looks like some flowers are hermaphrodite and some are only male. Maybe there are only male flowers on the tree? Or not enough pollinators?

[Bananaizme]

Grafted named trees like Black Beauty ,  fruit on there own.



Mike thanks for the response. I think that I need to just have more paitience.

William

[HIfarm]

I suspect most named variety are probably hermaphrodites.  I recall hearing that female trees will also fruit on their own, but generally producing seedless fruit -- not sure if this is true.  If true, the main problem would be if you have a seedling that is a male tree.

John

[Mike T]

They can be shy bearers at first but rapidly become crazy prolific.4 to 8 years for seedlings to start is standard and often there is a season or two with not setting fruit at the start. Nearly all named varieties are hermies, but seedlings can be hermaphrodites (seeded and seedless), male which produce no fruit, self fertile females producing seedless fruit and females which need a male or hermie to produce fruit otherwise they can remain barren.

[Bananaizme]

    Mike
I'm sure that it's just because the tree is young. I just need to be paitient. Thanks for explaining how the flowers work.

William

[Johnny Redland]

My tree is about 5ft tall and very bushy. Its a Bernecker variety.  I have about 10-15 well sized fruit on it right now. It is very drought tolerant. One thing I noticed though is that it doesn't like fungicide/insecticide sprays.  Light applications are ok, but anything more and it will drop leaves.  My white sapote behaves similarly.

[RodneyS]

Grafted named trees like Black Beauty ,  fruit on there own.

Would you recommend black beauty, over another variety such as reinecke? 

[luc]

I had 3 trees , all 3 started from seed from the same fruit , fruited in 4 years , had to cut one down ...way too much fruit . One has oval and the other round fruits.

[Bananaizme]

 Luc

I have a seedling black sapote that's maybe 4 years old , it's slightly larger than my grafted black beauty but has never flowered yet. I have been thinking about giving it a fertilizer that is high in phosphorus,hoping to trigger some flowers. It is in a squat 15 gallon right now, thinking about replanting into a 25 gallon next spring and pruning it back to control its size. I don't want trees that require ladders to reach the fruit.

William