4yo seedling Ross Sapote flowering at <3ft tall, 1in diam trunk

[brian]

I was surprised to find a bunch of flowers on my seedling Ross Sapote today.  I bought this as as a 9waters starter seedling almost exactly four years ago, and I had neglected it somewhat.  I was thinking it would take 7+ years to fruit and I had already bought a grafted Ross to replace it this year so I paid it little attention.  It was showing some kind of leaf discoloration I never looked into, I had cut off a bunch of limbs to attempt grafting lucuma onto it (no luck), and it was almost girdled by its own plant label I didn't expand with growth.

I really like my Bruce Canistel and everybody says Ross is better than other Canistels. 

[Timbogrow]

Thats exciting man! Hope you get to enjoy the fruit asap! I was given a small ross seedling and it's doing well in the ground starting to branch out. How are the inga pods developing so far?

[elouicious]

Wow that is awesome brian-

can you think of anything special you did to it?

is it rooted through that rootbuilder pot?

[CarolinaZone]

Brian, I hate to tell you man. That tree is not a ross sapote! It's a peruvian stink butter plant. The fruit is actually only good for extracting a solvent for grease. Lucky for you I am a mechanic and I have a real ross sapote I will gladly trade you for it....really

[brian]

I had read that mamey seedlings may take 7-10 years to flower, and I guess I assumed canistelwas similar, but I am at least finding some reports of canistel taking 3-4years in ideal conditions so maybe this is not such a shock, but it was a nice surprise to me.

It has been in rootmaker pots most of this time yet, though I'm not sure if that makes a meaningful difference it could certainly help.  The roots are fully contained within the container, not reaching through into the soil if that is what you are asking.

Inga pods are the size of peapods now, I'm really looking forward to trying them... and I am having a hard time imagining them reaching the 3ft+ length that is expected for a mature tree!  Hopefully they hold to maturity.