SplorKeLZ,
So far, I've tried something like 40 lbs of fruit in total, purchased from growers in Redlands (CA not FL), Somis, and Temecula. I've tried fruit from unidentified seedlings (which ranged from mediocre to excellent), Suebelle, Vernon, and McDill. Fruits from Suebelle were on the smaller side, Vernon's were medium in size, and McDill ranged from large to HUGE in size. I'd say the best ones that I've tried so far were the fruits from Vernon and McDill. The very best of the unidentified seedling fruits were pretty close in overall quality to Vernon and McDill, though.
There are a ton of named selections out here in California - almost too many to name, and many of the best ones are reported as being excellent and even superior to both Vernon and McDill. To name a few, some cultivars said to have excellent flavor include Mary Lane, Delta Gold/B3, Cuccio, Walton, and Lemon Gold. There's also Younghans' Gold, unique in that it's a Floridian selection from Seymour Younghans that stacks up with the best Californian selections according to Kaz (sc4001992). There's another Floridian selection called "Campbell", a seedling planted by Dr. Carl Campbell of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in 1975. There's been some hype around this cultivar, but also some reports that its fruit aren't as mind-blowing as was purported to be.
I have a couple Suebelle trees (which might not even be the real Suebelle, more on that below), a Campbell, a McDill, and a Cuccio. My trees are still small and haven't held on to any fruits yet, so I can't speak on growth habits/characteristics - other than that Suebelle is indeed dwarfing/semi-dwarf, and that McDill loves to set a crap ton of flowers even at just 3 feet in height. I'd suggest asking Bush2Beach or Kaz (sc4001992) about the characteristics of the different cultivars, since they're the forum's resident white sapote aficionados.
Rodney,
I've seen reports on this forum and elsewhere that some folks find Suebelle to be quite tasty. I remember reading that there were actually two distinct cultivars floating around in the nursery trade back in the day that were both being sold as "Suebelle". There's the original, true Suebelle that was selected by Susan Hubbell in the 1931. Then there's "Neysa" AKA "False Suebelle". It could be possible that the "Suebelle" fruit that I had might have been from one of the older mislabeled Neysa trees, since some folks who apparently have the "True Suebelle" claim that it does indeed taste quite good.
I'm not even sure myself if my own Suebelle trees were propagated from genuine Suebelle budwood or with scions taken from the Neysa trees. They have the fuzzy undersides on their leaves that's typical of Suebelle trees, but there's basically zero info on the internet about Neysa so as to confirm whether or it not it's also dwarfing in growth habit and also has the fuzziness on the undersides of its leaves. It might be possible that Neysa does have those qualities, since it was apparently similar enough to the real deal to be incorrectly labeled and sold as Suebelle in the past and (apparently still today).
If the fruit I tried were actually from Neysa, at the very least the fruit themselves were dead ringers for the description of the fruit from the real Suebelle: small-medium fruit, green-to-yellow skin, asymmetrical. The fruit were sweet and had a hint of acidity, but didn't stack up to the better white sapote fruits I've tried. I remember that the possibly Suebelle/possibly Neysa fruit that I tried had a slight bitterness in the skin and turned pretty musky/funky when past optimal ripeness. Both Vernon and McDill were much better in flavor and were much larger in size, had zero funkiness, and basically no detectable bitterness in any part of the fruit.
