I live in Central FL, zone 9a. I have two white sapote trees. One Redland and the other is Wooly Leaf. They are only a couple of years old. When we had the 2 hard freezes at 24 degrees this past winter, they got damaged more than I had expected but they are recovering now. Some varieties taste not so good. The Redland is excellent---I've tasted it, that's why I bought it.

Yes. They need water to carry all that foliage and sweet fruit. And lots of fertilizers for young tree's...you'res Jalilu not so much- it looks healthy,but still, it would help. The shedding leaves means they need more water. I have an old 'Suebell' and years ago,every summer it was going too dry- a long story- but,now that's its getting some water and better care- its one of the nicest looking tree's around. Dark green. Heck,I prune it 2-3 times a year all around to give me a nice canopy and room for Mangoes,Avocado's and more.

Linda... No it's not the same as which has a bumpy skin and black seeds. Both those fruits grow here. Our cleaning girl's father has a sapote tree so she brings us a bagful when they are in season. To be truthful, we don't care for them too much but manage to eat one or two each. They're sweet and mushy. Perhaps if I had an interesting recipe I might make them into something that we would like better than the raw fruit. SharonCb

Pike is mind bendingly good in a cold climate (they say it's bitter but it's not for me, so I guess the cooler climate helps with that) but it's probably the worst tasting variety and it only flowers once a year and it doesn't grow very fast as far as White Sapotes go or fruit quickly. Vernon is the one I would recommend anyone to start with. It will fruit in two years grows fast, flowers at least twice a year even in Southern Victoria and tastes better than Pike. There are more Varieties that taste better than Vernon but for now try and get a Vernon. Lemon Gold and Golden globe are perhaps the same Variety in Australia or at least mixed up and only one grows properly in the cooler areas. Many white sapotes have alot of wolly leaf sapotes genes in them and they are more tropical=bad for Victoria/Tasmania. Pepino with heat a sapote seed will be up and out of the ground in about 10 days, Ive never had one not germinate but you could wait 7-????????? years for fruit, they say 50% of seedlings will be good eating, 25% not so good and 25% somewhat infertile (I think that's about right). They are also easy to graft. Seedlings grow very fast and straight up, I have one about 15? 18? feet tall and with a trunk about 3 inches thick at the base, at the moemnt it looks like a truffula tree from Dr Suess's the Lorax :p I expect it will thicken up and branch out a bit one day. Vernon can take -5c without damage. Most of them are about that hardy some a little more some a little less. My garden saw -2.5c this Winter while the Pike was loaded with ripe and almost ripe fruit and I had no damage to the leaves or fruit. Rainbow is about the best variety you can get in Australia or anywhere, I don't think you will ever see one for sale in Australia and I don't have it, yet...... but it is in Australia. Reinecke Commercial is also one of the best and easy to get hold of, it has an almost orange fruit but takes looooooooong to fruit (4 or 5 years from graft on the South coast of Vic). They grow in the mountains in Mexico in and around the Pine tree line up high on the slopes (1000-2500 meters or so), you can also find them down a bit lower but not in the actual tropics, The biggest one I saw in Mexico was 60x60 feet with a trunk over a meter thick adn was growing ontop of a grave that was 50 something years old, so I'm guessing the tree was 50 years old. In Mexico on day of the dead relatives place your favorite food/fruits on your grave so you get alot of fruit trees growing in cemetaries (mostly White Sapotes and Cherimoyas since they are the best two fruits going for cool mountain climates)