Southern California cold damage black sapote suggestions?

[Pouteria_fan]

Hi all, zone 9b, Southern California here.

Last week, temperatures dropped briefly into near freezing, around 33 to 34° f. There was also quite a bit of wind.

Immediately after this, my grafted black sapote, approximately 3ft tall, had its leaves turn black, shrivel up, and many of them fall off. The underlying trunk and many of the larger branches look okay. I'm rather discouraged by this as a tree has been a champ and didn't seem phased at all by cooler weather, and I also have protected it with a bag during the cold front, but alas to no avail.

Any suggestions on what I should do with what remains? Throw it out? Wait and see if it grows back? Bail on the black sapote in future and plant something else? It handled the summer heat without any issue, put on a ton of new growth... But this cold was only near freezing for a couple of hours and seems to have done it in.

Thank you!

[achetadomestica]

I am in 9b Florida and last year my yard was under 32F for 5+ hours.
Both of my black sapotes lost allot of branches and all their leaves but both came back strong.
One is around 8' and one is closer to 6'.
We had frost this year two nights in a row and it burned a few leaves but they
look like they will flower this year. Last years freezing night was the end of January.
I waited until mid March and trimmed everything off that was dead which was most
of the smaller branches and all the leaves were dead.

[SDPirate]

I think 9B is teetering on its habitable zone so there is that.  I would just wait and see if it bounces back when Spring warms up.

[Pouteria_fan]

Thank you! I will wait and prune it down after this cold front passes.

[sapote]

Lost my black sapote after one cold night years ago. It was so full of leaves and near ripe fruits, but Bam - one night and it gone. It was about 5ft talk. Never have tasted BS fruit yet.

[CeeJey]

Agreed on giving it some time. They tend to take cold damage out here but can bounce back.

Fwiw if it does expire and you decide to replace it, the variety may be a factor. I've got two of them, one of a variety I am not sure of (I think it is an air-layer of a variety originally from Cali by way of the CRFG) and one a grafted  Bernicker from Everglades Farm. The Bernicker is way more cold tolerant than the other, I've kept both out of frost but even in the low 40s the random variety is showing signs of stress while the Bernicker is fine.