Quote from: Luisport on July 22, 2013, 10:06:48 AM

Quote from: siafu on July 22, 2013, 10:01:22 AM

Olá Luís,

My experience is similar to what's already been said.
It's just a curiosity and not worth the space if you have little to spare.

I have very shallow, heavy alkaline soil and Glycosmis pentaphylla is not too thrilled about it;
it shows some mineral deficiencies and grows slowly.

In the winter, after a bad cold spell, the leaves turn rather ugly.
It does recover when the weather warms up, but due to the inadequate soil I have,
long term survivability is not assured.

You can add acid soil to the plant... my seeds just arrive! This tree has a lot of exelent medicinal properties... i still think it's a good try! What trees do you have in Algarve?

I could, but I won't. Not worth it. That's really the point.

If the best that can be raved about a fruit is its medicinal properties, then just recall how good medicine usually tastes...

I can tell I have too many medicinal trees and fewer proper fruits than I would like ;-)

Hi Luis,

White sapote handles cold and freezing much better than B. sapote, but -4C is already a stretch...

Unless you protect it well, black sapote will surely be killed by below freezing temperatures.
I'm pretty sure -3ºC will be fatal. The leaves will show some damage even before freezing.

The photo below was taken January 2009, when these black sapotes turned chocolate for the last time...

Actually, your weather is very much like ours.  We get winter rains (about 16 inches) , none in the summer. Deeply rooted white sapotes require little water in the summer.  Regularly we are 25-28 F in the winter, 75-80 F in the summer, fog in mornings and evenings.  My oldest white sapote is 38 years old (Pike, Vernon) and has taken 19-20 F with very little damage.  I am currently growing Pike, Vernon, Walton, Nies, McDill, Malibu #1, Malibu #3, Selck, Edgehill, ROA, Fourney, Chestnut, Cate, Bravo, Cuccio, Rainbow, Ortega, Snyder, Nettie, Clytia, and probably a few I forgot. Many are full trees, some only grafted limbs on larger trees. Flavors of the fruit vary from very sweet like vanilla custard to a caramel flavor.  Here in California, the white sapote was carried up north from Mexico and planted in the mission gardens as it does so well.  Wild trees can be encountered growing with no water or care on vacant properties. Pretty tough tree with a great abundance of fruit (don't plant it where you regularly walk)

The fruit is sweet and creamy. Are your plants named  vairties or grafted . They do not come true to seed you can grow a plant for years and get a bad tasting fruit if they are not.

'ACT' ('Avocado Cocktail Tree'): As explained previously, this is an avocado tree with different avocado varieties grafted onto it. The idea is to have about two 'ACT's' in the yard, which would then produce avocados year round. Having only about two 'ACTs,' would then free more space to plant other trees in the yard, or at least that's the idea. This is one of the goals of this thread, to have avocados year round (24/7) in the home yard.

Olá Luís,


No need to buy seeds, I can send you some.
Just send me a private message with your address.

Hard to believe that no one has suggested a grafted sapodilla. This is next on my list so I can't comment on it for instant gratification. My plan has been to plant more strawberries while I wait on my tropical trees to fruit.

Maybe a mulberry or fig tree would produce faster? Coffee is also only 2 years to fruit from seed in some cases.

Some Forum members have mentioned that they are running out of space to plant fruit trees. A solution might be to plant 'cocktail' trees. For example, one of my goals in this thread, is to be able to come up with 'One - Avocado Cocktail Tree' ('ACT-1'), which will give me avocados for the first six months ('SFL-WAV') of the year. And, a 'Second - Avocado Cocktail Tree' ('ACT-2'), which would give me avocados for the last six months of the year. Whether this is doable or not, I guess we'll find out, but I think that it is doable.

'ACT-2:' It's a given that this is doable. If no one has done this yet, it's just a matter of time. In my S. Florida Temperature Zone 10b, I get avocados from trees in my yard from June to December.

'ACT-1:' For this to be accomplished, we need to fill in the months of March, April and May of the 'SFL-WAV,' preferably with a/some quality avocado cultivar(s).
With the help of Forum members, which has some awesome avocado experts, I'm confident we'll get this done in a relatively quick amount of time.