Where to get pouteria viridis

[brian]

I wish I could find a picture from when I received it, I don't think I took one though.  This one actually has two nursery tags because I had ordered one from TopTropicals around the same time that died almost immediately, so I put its extra tag on this one.

I'll take a closer picture of what I think is the graft line if it is grafted - it is right at the bottom of the flowers in that picture

EDIT - here it is


I'm just going to assume this is grafted, I don't remember where I got it, and I lost track of the seedling I have a record of ordering... rather than having some freak precocious green sapote.

[Squam256]

Hi Julie,

Just FWIW, I got P. viridis because it is supposed to be more cold tolerant than other Pouteria species, in particular P. caimito, the Abiu and P. campechiana, the canistel.

This winter in Tampa I lost several abiu seedlings at 41ºF. while my several green sapote seedings came through unaffected.  (My canistel was fine, too, BTW.)

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

Viridis isn’t more cold tolerant than canistel unfortunately . In fact it has about the same cold tolerance as Mamey.

[Tropical Bay Area]

Hi Julie,

Just FWIW, I got P. viridis because it is supposed to be more cold tolerant than other Pouteria species, in particular P. caimito, the Abiu and P. campechiana, the canistel.

This winter in Tampa I lost several abiu seedlings at 41ºF. while my several green sapote seedings came through unaffected.  (My canistel was fine, too, BTW.)

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

Viridis isn’t more cold tolerant than canistel unfortunately . In fact it has about the same cold tolerance as Mamey.

Hmm I’ve had the impression it is 3 or 4 degreees more cold hardy than mamey... hmmmm....

[BoBiscuit]

I planted my green sapote in 2018 and its about 5 feet tall now, holding onto half a dozen fruits. I got it from Plant O Gram and I believe its grafted onto mamey. Normally it doesn't look this beat up going into spring, but the drought and Santa Ana winds have been completely ludicrous this year, so most of my trees look bad. It does seem to be a hardy tree. The coldest temps it has seen were high 30's and the tree was unaffected.

I'm planning to graft scions from this tree onto some mamey rootstocks once the weather warms up, but I was hoping to get a little more than 28 bucks for it. 

[brian]

Is there a reason that mamey would be a preferred rootstock rather than grafting onto another green sapote seedling?  Assuming you had them handy.

I ask because I have a green sapote but no mamey, and I don't plan to get a mamey nor can I find them locally.  But I might be able to plant green sapote seeds and graft mature scion onto those.

nm, I found an answer to my question:  http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=19763.0

Sounds like green sapote scion on green sapote rootstock should be fine.

[NateTheGreat]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

[K-Rimes]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

As I understand lucuma is more cold hardy than green sapote. Both did fine last year in 9b outdoors down to 26f, but they're in the greenhouse this winter and absolutely flying. A mamey survived in my greenhouse too, but that's not really a feat.

[brian]

 Nate I don't know much about sapotes but in general I think malformed leaves are commonly causes by insects attacking the leaf buds as they begin to open.  I usually spray insecticide on my trees new growth

[Squam256]

Is there a reason that mamey would be a preferred rootstock rather than grafting onto another green sapote seedling?  Assuming you had them handy.

I ask because I have a green sapote but no mamey, and I don't plan to get a mamey nor can I find them locally.  But I might be able to plant green sapote seeds and graft mature scion onto those.

nm, I found an answer to my question:  http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=19763.0

Sounds like green sapote scion on green sapote rootstock should be fine.

No issue with compatibility. In Florida I would say it’s two-fold: One issue is availability of seed stock. No shortage of mamey but not many producing green sapote trees in Florida, and green sapote season is relatively short compared to mamey.

On top of that, green sapotes don’t like a lot of water. They’re native to the highlands of Central America and don’t thrive well in really moist soil conditions even on mamey stock, so I could see this being worse on its own roots.

[K-Rimes]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

My lucuma does exactly the same thing inside the greenhouse where there are practically no pests. I think it's just kinda how they do. I've noticed that as the weather warms up and I have enough fertilizer on them that they form nice leaves again. All my malformed leaves are falling off.

[Squam256]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

The Lucuma has boron deficiency

[K-Rimes]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

The Lucuma has boron deficiency

Makes sense why fertilizer fixed mine then.

[Tropical Bay Area]

Wow! Gives me hope. Not sure if mine really saw 30 degrees, now that I think about it it may have been warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scion next year when mine is big enough to graft. I think I'm going to repot mine today, seeing how fast the two of yours' have grown. Another thing I noticed about this species vs lucuma is the roots on lucuma are much more aggressive, coming out the bottom of the pots on both my plants. I checked the green sapote rootball once last year and it was clearly too early to repot. So if you had access to them, lucuma rootstocks might be good.

Btw do you two know what I can do to prevent malformed leaves like this?

My lucuma does exactly the same thing inside the greenhouse where there are practically no pests. I think it's just kinda how they do. I've noticed that as the weather warms up and I have enough fertilizer on them that they form nice leaves again. All my malformed leaves are falling off.

Do you think even though green sapote is a smaller known species, different variants still have slightly different qualities?

[BoBiscuit]

Is there a reason that mamey would be a preferred rootstock rather than grafting onto another green sapote seedling?  Assuming you had them handy.

I ask because I have a green sapote but no mamey, and I don't plan to get a mamey nor can I find them locally.  But I might be able to plant green sapote seeds and graft mature scion onto those.

nm, I found an answer to my question:  http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=19763.0

Sounds like green sapote scion on green sapote rootstock should be fine.

No issue with compatibility. In Florida I would say it’s two-fold: One issue is availability of seed stock. No shortage of mamey but not many producing green sapote trees in Florida, and green sapote season is relatively short compared to mamey.

On top of that, green sapotes don’t like a lot of water. They’re native to the highlands of Central America and don’t thrive well in really moist soil conditions even on mamey stock, so I could see this being worse on its own roots.

Yep! I'm using mamey for rootstock because I couldn't find any P. Viridis seeds to grow out. The second point I didn't know, but it's good news for growing this in our dry climate!
I'm going to start all the seeds I harvest from this round of fruit, and graft onto those as well. I really think this is worth growing around here. It seems to like the climate, has a delicious fruit, and doesn't take forever to bear.

[Tropical Bay Area]

Is there a reason that mamey would be a preferred rootstock rather than grafting onto another green sapote seedling?  Assuming you had them handy.

I ask because I have a green sapote but no mamey, and I don't plan to get a mamey nor can I find them locally.  But I might be able to plant green sapote seeds and graft mature scion onto those.

nm, I found an answer to my question:  http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=19763.0

Sounds like green sapote scion on green sapote rootstock should be fine.

No issue with compatibility. In Florida I would say it’s two-fold: One issue is availability of seed stock. No shortage of mamey but not many producing green sapote trees in Florida, and green sapote season is relatively short compared to mamey.

On top of that, green sapotes don’t like a lot of water. They’re native to the highlands of Central America and don’t thrive well in really moist soil conditions even on mamey stock, so I could see this being worse on its own roots.

Yep! I'm using mamey for rootstock because I couldn't find any P. Viridis seeds to grow out. The second point I didn't know, but it's good news for growing this in our dry climate!
I'm going to start all the seeds I harvest from this round of fruit, and graft onto those as well. I really think this is worth growing around here. It seems to like the climate, has a delicious fruit, and doesn't take forever to bear.

Are you selling seeds ? O.o

[BoBiscuit]

Not this year....I'll only get 6 seeds if I'm lucky!

[BayAreaMicroClimate]

My 2 green sapotes lost all their leaves this last winter but are both growing back and one with flowers. The year before this they did not loose leaves. 1 has been in the ground through 2 winters and the other is in 15 gallon pot. Both are grafted but I do want to grow a seedling out. All 3 of my lucuma did not defoliate so they are definitely hardier. All are seedlings but I’d love to buy a grafted lucuma!