The Tropical Fruit Forum

According my experience black sapote becomes dormant, loose leaves like  persimmon during gradually cooling winter and doesn't suffer  even from freezing temperatures ( 26-28°F ) at all. White sapote in contract to this despite of supposed being cold hardy completely loses leaves and has some  dieback on small branches at the same location. Canistel and Ross sapote can't withstand the winter even in my unprotected greenhouse, they died ( interestingly, I have one canistel seedling which grew from seed in 2022. In winter 2022-2023 it died like others in greenhouse, but resprouted in May, is very weak,  I put it indoors, still only 2",  alive, but doesn't want to grow, does anyone see something like that?).
As I understood, green sapote and lucuma are very cold hardy, I'd also be happy if someone could sell me a couple of seeds-)

Thank you for advice, Mike. It's great to hear that this is possible. It means I shouldn't wait for many years until fruiting, have good chances for delicious fruits and even if the seedlings will be frozen to the ground during our cold winter, it could resprout back. So now  I'm going to post a new topic with a request to sell me seeds of mentioned varieties -))

Hi guys. Last year Max ( fruit4me) sent me some lychee scions in June and later in September. They were very thin, but I had no rootstocs to graft on, so was going to root them, treated them with fungicide, rooting hormone, put each scion in plastic glass with vermiculite, put the glasses, in turn, in a big pots and cover them with plastic film. Most of them pushed out new leaves, each 2 weeks I just opened the pots for aeration for a few minutes and add a little bit water. In a couple of months some of the scions died, but mostly survived. Unfortunately, neighbors dog came inside the greenhouse once and damage a lot of seedlings and trees, also knocked over the pots, only a couple of glasses survived. One of them still didn't push out the leaves, but when I scratch the skin, there's green under, so I suppose it's still alive. In November there became very cold outside and I decided to take them inside. The leaves on one that pushed out the leaves, remains green and healthy, I was sure that it rooted and was going to put it to pot, but when took it out of the glass I didn't even see any traces of the roots. Anyway I put it in pot, close in plastic bag and bring inside. After a few months it started to push the new leaves, in Sunday I was in orchard and unwrap it, but after several hours the leaves started to wrinkle, so I closed the bag again. So, what do you think, guys? Could roots have appeared? Any idea?

It's interesting for me too. It seems wood still is transporting  the water.

Quote from: Rauf on January 31, 2024, 01:02:43 PM

I would add Thomson's edible banana ( haven't tried yet, but supposedly hardy to 7b ), Chilean wine palm and hardy jelly palm to list

I grew some (alleged?) M. thomsonii seeds and they melted at the first hard frost, then never even re-grew from the corms. Helen's hybrid at least does that every year for me, but it will never produce fruit because the above-ground portion is killed by even a mild freeze, so you never make it to that second or maybe even third season for it to flower and ripen. I'm not convinced there's any edible banana (including seeded ones with edible flesh) that will take sub-20s without at least losing the current pseudostems and having to grow a new shoot from the corm in spring.

My Chilean wine palm was killed by 16°F, so I'm not sure it'll do well anywhere below 8b. But it was not very large, it's possible it would do better if it can get bigger first. Keep in mind that they typically don't start fruiting for many, many decades, though, so better to think of it as an ornamental palm even if you can keep it alive.

I take your word for it... Despite of having constantly cold winter ( daily mean is about 40°F ) we rarely see temperatures much below freezing, last time we saw as lower as 22°F was 10 years before, this winter we had 3 nights with 30°F in January, my in-ground Viente Kohol banana's pseudostem is still green and alive ( I hope we won't see much freezing in February). I knew  about late maturity of Chilean wine palm but couldn't resist to start growing it ( they are very impressive-)))

Below some temperatures the evergreens stop growing and become almost dormant, comparing with the loquats grafted on loquats I see no difference, at least in my zone 8b-9a, they even start to bloom here at the same time, in November-December, I suppose maybe improved cold hardiness in marginal for them climate.

 Попробуйте улучшить освещение ( поставьте на южное окно или добавьте исскуственное), может поможет.

I would also suggest to remove only vertically orientated rootstock growth and put another shoot more horizontally, cherimoyas are supposed to be quite good from seed, you have a chance to have 2 variety on one tree-) Anyway, you can always remove this branch later or graft something on it

According literature black sapote is not cold tolerant, "young trees are damaged or killed at or below 30°F (-1°C) and mature trees at or below 28°F (-2°C)", BUT if you have winters like mine, mean January and February 40-45°F, lowest some years just a 2-3 days 30°F, but once in 5-7 years drop for a couple of days to 22-23°F, it goes dormant and don't suffer from cold. I noticed this in BS their first winter in greenhouse, knew from literature that they are not hardy, but they are very vigorous, my greenhouse is only 350 feet square meters, so I took a risk and put 3 of 5 in ground in spring, they were happy and last year I moved others outside. This February we had severe frezee down to 22°F ,  my 3 years seedlings behaved like deciduous, lost all the leaves and became dormant like cherries, apples, no damage at all, even for small branches, while my avocados and some citrus were killed to the ground. I can even add, they all flowered this spring, but unfortunately, didn't fruited ( I read first year it's normal). I think this numbers are right for, say, Florida, where they stay evergreen and I suggest, the cold hardy apples, plums would be damaged if cold is applied during summer.
I agree with drymyfolia about loquat ( damage temperature for flower), mine had good crop this year after exposing to 22°F. Would advise you to think about grafting it to quince to improve cold, heat and drought resistance.
I also recently started with most of plants mentioned here,  so still evaluating their hardiness. Have to put my grafted cherimoyas next spring in ground, they are too big now.
Date palm doing fine here, my oldest 5 years seedling ( 3 years outside) flowered this year ( unfortunately male-)), just take it inside first 2 years or cover if outside. I just started with coquito this year but it supposedly  hardy enough for my zone.
 Some photos, if someone is interested:

Received the scions after15 days journey.  Perfectly prepared and look very fresh. Thanks you Max

PM sent

Received the scions yesterday and already grafted. Thanks a lot for the extras!

Today, after 10 days journey, within USA and then overseas to my country,  my guava and avocado scions eventually arrived to me, very fresh, well packed and as always, a lot, lot extras. Thank you very much, Kevin