Give up on/replace this unproductive Hasya sapodilla? Or stick it out?

[beefyboy]

If its only in its second year, now is the time for growth obviously. The Sapodilla root system is slower to set than a mango in most cases but in two years it should be locked into place if it has proper root to soil contact. I would suggest you check your root structure for settling in the growing medium for nearly 100% of the time it has disintegrated medium and the roots have poor soil contact. Push all your mulch back first!  Usually you will need a few shovels of good sandy soil. Use a sprayer wand and gently work the soil down further with fingers and light water pressure. make sure not to disturb and tear roots, it takes a little time. You will find many holes around the root ball so fill with sandy soil.  Watch how your tree responds if this is the case! I never see anyone bringing this matter up but it is more important than any fertilizer out there.

[gozp]

Could someone please comment on the size of the sapodilla varieties that have been mentioned on this Thread in comparison to the softball sized 'Hasya'?:
'Molix:' Fruits are similar to 'Morena,' and somewhat less productive than 'Morena,' (*)
'Morena:' 'Excellent Flavor and low stone cell count'; 'Excellent Large Size sapodilla' (but generally smaller than 'Hasya'?)...'much better than 'Hasya' in production;' Way more productive than 'Hasya,' (*),
'Alano,'
'Makok,' &
'Silas Woods:' Fruits are on the smaller side. (*)
[Other varieties that may be worthy of comparison to the 'Hasya' are:]
'Prolific,' &
'Excalibur.'


(*): http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24004.0

How does Brown Sugar variety compare?

[beefyboy]

That does not sound accurate rating Morena over Molix! Matter of fact, its the opposite. Molix is usually rated as having a better flavor and if your on the West coast, Molix is the choice for production too. I cannot comment on Morena from my own experiences in my yard unfortunately! Going by Steve at fruitscapes and others. I have tasted a few and they are indeed very good. If you minus out stone formation, the good ones are all very similar or close for the most part. Molix goes gang busters here on this coast.

[Cookie Monster]

Wonder if the hasya just needs to put on some size? My tikal was a stingy producer until it had been in the ground for 6 or 7 years. Now it pupes out boatloads of fruit.

[LEOOEL]

Years ago I lived closer to downtown Miami, and in the backyard was a 'Yuge' established sapodilla tree that never produced fruit. One year I decided to fertilize it, and in the next season it produced lots and lots of large, softball sized sapodilla fruit that were of excellent eating quality with no stones. I suspect it was a 'Prolific' sapodilla variety.

Now that my 'Hasya' is producing, I'm going to make sure it has adequate fertilizer and water, and then see what happens.

P.S.   In order to eat quality sapodilla fruit, experience has taught me that having a keen eye for the right harvest picking moment is crucial; otherwise, what you're really eating is a rotten fruit.

[mangokothiyan]

My Hasya has hundreds of flowers on it right now, but no fruit. What  can I do to get the tree to produce? What is the best fertilizer for sapodillas?  I had 8-3-9 and  Har's 0-3-12.

[bsbullie]

Wonder if the hasya just needs to put on some size? My tikal was a stingy producer until it had been in the ground for 6 or 7 years. Now it pupes out boatloads of fruit.

I happen to be talking to Gary Zill about this recently within a conversation about the Gigantea variety.   He feels both will never have the production of an Alano or a Silas Woods.   He could in general make one factor due to the large size of the fruits of both.

[Cookie Monster]

Yep, this tends to apply to fruit trees across the board. Large fruited specimens produce smaller crops than their smaller fruited counterparts.

Silas Woods is fairly ridiculous in the quantity of fruit that it holds. Nearly every single flower turns into a fruit that is held to maturity. And the flavor is outstanding.

Wonder if the hasya just needs to put on some size? My tikal was a stingy producer until it had been in the ground for 6 or 7 years. Now it pupes out boatloads of fruit.

I happen to be talking to Gary Zill about this recently within a conversation about the Gigantea variety.   He feels both will never have the production of an Alano or a Silas Woods.   He could in general make one factor due to the large size of the fruits of both.

[Cookie Monster]

I think saps like some nitrogen. The 8-3-9 would probably be good. Though saps are very drought tolerant, I think you'll want to keep it watered (2x per week) for top production. But I'm not 100% sure if that's the cause of low production on the Haysa. Worth a shot though.

My Hasya has hundreds of flowers on it right now, but no fruit. What  can I do to get the tree to produce? What is the best fertilizer for sapodillas?  I had 8-3-9 and  Har's 0-3-12.

[savemejebus]

I think saps like some nitrogen. The 8-3-9 would probably be good. Though saps are very drought tolerant, I think you'll want to keep it watered (2x per week) for top production. But I'm not 100% sure if that's the cause of low production on the Haysa. Worth a shot though.

My Hasya has hundreds of flowers on it right now, but no fruit. What  can I do to get the tree to produce? What is the best fertilizer for sapodillas?  I had 8-3-9 and  Har's 0-3-12.

My hasya is treated better than me. It gets water, fertilizer (foliar and granular), bedtime stories, etc., and I can't get a fruit unless a branch half-snaps under the weight of a squirrel.

[Cookie Monster]

OK. I wonder if it's a juvenility issue. My tikal didn't really start barfing out the fruit until it had been in the ground for 8 or 10 years. During the first few years, it only produced a handful of fruit. Now it pupes out gobs of fairly large fruits.

I think saps like some nitrogen. The 8-3-9 would probably be good. Though saps are very drought tolerant, I think you'll want to keep it watered (2x per week) for top production. But I'm not 100% sure if that's the cause of low production on the Haysa. Worth a shot though.

My Hasya has hundreds of flowers on it right now, but no fruit. What  can I do to get the tree to produce? What is the best fertilizer for sapodillas?  I had 8-3-9 and  Har's 0-3-12.

My hasya is treated better than me. It gets water, fertilizer (foliar and granular), bedtime stories, etc., and I can't get a fruit unless a branch half-snaps under the weight of a squirrel.

[TonyinCC]

  I planted out a 3 gallon size Hasya a couple months ago that was apparently recently potted up,the roots only filled half the pot. It has been heavily mulched but underwatered through the drought, but already set acorn sized fruit and is still blooming. I gave it powdered kelp and Scotts Mor-Bloom and a chelated iron drench and mulched heavily around the tree. I have a much larger 30 gal? Tikal nearby that was also planted about the same time and has been blooming along with Hasya. They seem to like the Cape Coral canal fill spoil that passes for soil here.  Maybe your soil has been amended too much and the tree feels no stress to make it bloom?

[bsbullie]

I sure wouldn't want a 3 gal Hasya with under developed root system to be blooming.  First, it needs to develop a good root system and just grow and develop; and second, it couldnt hold the fruit's  weight anyway.   The flowering and fruiting will just take away from a tree that needs to grow.  I wonder if it is acting like this, as some trees do, to, as a last gasp to reproduce before its demise...

[TonyinCC]

It has surprised me that my small tree is not looking one bit stressed though. Powdered kelp is wonderful stuff. I will probably pull the fruit off so I don't get branch breakage but juvenility doesn't seem to be an issue with it wanting to set fruit. (assuming my tree wasn't mislabeled...)

[ofdsurfer]

Wonder if the hasya just needs to put on some size? My tikal was a stingy producer until it had been in the ground for 6 or 7 years. Now it pupes out boatloads of fruit.

I happen to be talking to Gary Zill about this recently within a conversation about the Gigantea variety.   He feels both will never have the production of an Alano or a Silas Woods.   He could in general make one factor due to the large size of the fruits of both.

Rob have you had the Gigantea variety?  How does it compare?

[bsbullie]

Wonder if the hasya just needs to put on some size? My tikal was a stingy producer until it had been in the ground for 6 or 7 years. Now it pupes out boatloads of fruit.

I happen to be talking to Gary Zill about this recently within a conversation about the Gigantea variety.   He feels both will never have the production of an Alano or a Silas Woods.   He could in general make one factor due to the large size of the fruits of both.

Rob have you had the Gigantea variety?  How does it compare?

It is a very good sap.  Fruit flesh color has a reddish tinge and tree itself looks really good with new growth coming out red.  If you dont mind it not being Alano or SW in terms of productivity, its well worth growing.

[Guanabanus]

Are those Cape Coral canal scrapings rich in Calcium?

[TonyinCC]

The Cape Coral canal fill soil in my neighborhood (Burnt Store area near Matlacha) is sandy with up to about 10% made of little bits of fossil shells and coral. There has to lots of Calcium, but I don't know how available it is to the plants.
While digging holes I find some larger chunks of coral up to a foot in diameter. When the ground gets dry, water just beads off and doesn't want to soak in. I had the exact same soil type near Charleston,SC and hated it there too. I had bad blossom rot on tomatoes there and Calcium nitrate cured it, but it doesn't seem to be available in SW Florida. In any event,the sapodillas seem very happy so far in the soil but I have struggled with a lot of other plants, especially avocados.Pretty much anything I plant has to be mulched or as soon as the soil surface dries out,water just beads off and won't soak in.

[Guanabanus]

Try sulfuring, with Tiger-90 Sulfur, or other prilled sulfur.  This will form readily available Calcium Sulfate from the shell in the soil.   Will also improve water retention, a little, like clay.

[Cookie Monster]

I just checked on my little 6 foot hasya (2.5 years in ground from 3 gal) and found that it has about a dozen little fruits. For the folks on this thread who have had production issues, do your trees set fruit and then jettison them early on?

[mangokothiyan]

My tree had one fruit on it, a little less than golf-ball sized, and jettisoned it. It is covered with flowers, but they  just dry and fall off. The tree looks very healthy.

[raimeiken]

same with mine, but mine is an Alano. Second year in ground. Flowers profusely but all just dry up

[Samu]

I just checked on my little 6 foot hasya (2.5 years in ground from 3 gal) and found that it has about a dozen little fruits. For the folks on this thread who have had production issues, do your trees set fruit and then jettison them early on?

Me too, have disappointing experience with this Hasya, as I already wrote a few times in some other threads. I took home (after "gambling" and paying big bucs) a 15G Hasya about 7-8ft tall  in Nov. 2014, already has some flowers on it, thinking I'll be enjoying the fruits the following Summer.

Well, almost 3 years later in the ground, only a single fruit is still growing so slowly and hanging on since Sept. 2016! Even this single fruit now on the tree I think was the result of my own hand pollination attempt. (This is actually the 2nd fruit formed, the very first one only hung for about 2 weeks then dropped off).
My tree looks healthy, no pest issue, watered and fertilized regularly and under thick mulch. I even installed a mister inside the canopy now, just in case lack of humidity is the issue...

Like many posters' experience here, mine produces lots of flowers in its season (as is currently) but they almost all opened up, dried up then fell off...It now has grafted Alano and Makok branches on it, also I am nursing a 1G seedling (likely grown from store bought seed that I spit out on the ground) that i intend to plant very close to this Hasya. It is the most frustrating/challenging fruit tree for me...

[savemejebus]

I just checked on my little 6 foot hasya (2.5 years in ground from 3 gal) and found that it has about a dozen little fruits. For the folks on this thread who have had production issues, do your trees set fruit and then jettison them early on?

mine flowers profusely but they don't set fruit. no idea why (other than possibly sri lankan weevils or other beetles developing a taste for flowers).

[michsu]

Maybe it needs to hand pollinate like cherimoya or need super humid weather.. our weather is not humid enough?