Congrats!! Very excited for you!! I've never tasted a sapodilla, Good luck!!

Cool. You have a nice camera too--very nice focus.

Your tree looks so healthy and vigorous. I haven't seen any 40-50cm trees bearing fruits. These flowers may fall off until the tree is much bigger. Are you in a tropical (micro) climate?

Thank you sapote, I am in the middle east. It is 40C+ outside normally...
It might have fell, I do not see it under the tree either... Maybe the chickens ate it? I see a mark of white sap where it used to be. :(
They ate lots of flowers but they left the opened one untouched. Maybe when it closed? When they were playing outside maybe. Ahhhh.... I am sad. I have another one opening under a leaf, I hope they do not spot it.

Thanks sf_rhino and puglvr1,
They taste good like fudge with burned sugar and vanilla... ummm some combination like that and it is different in each variety.
My camera is a phone camera Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on Macro mode.

Isn't it a little too hot over there for a plant from a wet tropical area? I know they like low 30s C with high humidity. How do you keep it going through the summer?

Hi Slimy_Okra, I live in the Sultanate of Oman. Here we have Cold dry winters and hot humid summers. It is hot and to top it up it is very humid that you feel it when you breathe. let me check the forecast for today:
They say humidity was 70% and temperature was 30C and I know from looking at my car's thermometer that it was about 39-44C depending on location as I was driving.
I live near the beach so humidity might be more than 70%.
I hope it would help.
Oh also mine is grafted.

Mohammad, you have perfect climate for sapodilla and mango too. Do you grow mango?

Thanks .... I'll know what to look for when my chicozapote gets ready to flower. 2 years old and 3 meters high and no flowers.

Had one Star Fruit last year and tons of flowers now. Surrounded by mango orchards so don't really need to grow my own.

Living on the coast of Jalisco Mexico

Here is a link that might be useful: Sparks Mexico

Wow! A very nice plant to have and I love the taste of the fruit too! I heard they're cold sensitive, but will thrive in a micro climate in the sub tropical areas. Living close to a water body is always a good thing to have when growing tropical plants. It will definitely help bringing in the humidity.

Is it possible for you to place a chicken wire mesh around your plant so your chickens don't get to the blooms/fruit?

Hi sapote,
Yeah our country is known in the Middle East for growing mangoes.
Varieties so different than what you are accustomed to, maybe I will post a review when the season comes - that is if I remembered :D

sparksmex, thanks!
Yeah, by the way they do not open all the way these flowers. They dry out from the outside but the brown ball inside remains the same size... Waiting to see what happens. Oh I took some flowers off when I got frustrated because they are very slow developing and I thought it is too much to handle for a young tree... Guess what, new flowers are emerging now... it just wants to try and fruit XP

Thanks bananafan!
I have tried the chicken net and found it to be a hassle as bell peppers grow in that area now and are larger than the Sapodilla tree already!
Also two flowers were eaten by white flies :( I destroyed the colony before they spread. I have no Idea why everything wants to eat these flowers, even I see ants around them... weird.

puglvr1 said:

"Congrats!! Very excited for you!! I've never tasted a sapodilla, Good luck!!"

WOW! We have lots of them down here in South Fla. I said this on "another" forum and a mango bigot let loose on me saying I haven't tasted a good mango.

I would eat a pair of cold ripe sapodilla over ANY mango ANY day.

I think they are very much like a brown sugar / caramel flavor... VERY exotic. And much less common that a good mango.

I have two Makok that provide fruit when mango are not in season, a huge bonus! I don't know if you can grow them there but I think if you tried it you'd be looking for a cultivar that would grow up there.

I have a mango from Thailand... It hasen't produced flowers yet, it looks like it skipped this season.

Hi Mohammad ,congratulations on your sapodilla,coul'd you tell us what kind and quantity of fertilizer,do you use on your sapodillas? Thank u so much!!and congrats again!!!

Hi Mohammad ,congratulations on your sapodilla,coul'd you tell us what kind and quantity of fertilizer,do you use on your sapodillas? Thank u so much!!and congrats again!!!

Hey, I fertilized it with cow and goat manure. Might have put excess citrus fertilizer but I cant remmembr. Thaks mate.

Thank u so much, I'll try with goat manure ,cause I own 9 goats,thanks again!!!!

Youre welcome, but I have to state that none of the flowers started to fruit. Some dried off. Maybe it is too small to fruit.

Wow MohammadLawati, your trees look so healthy and happy. I can only imagine what they look like now seeing as though those pictures you posted are about three years old now!
I love sapodilla, so much so that I'm attempting to grow one here in Northern California. I moved here from Central Florida not too long ago and brought my sapo with me. I was wondering if someone could please help me figure out why its doing this with its leaves. I have no idea what it could be. Heat stress, water stress, light stress, fertilizer, lack of fertilizer, bug problem, disease? The older, lower leaves are droopy, and some of the leaves are showing a sort of rusting or browning discoloration...any advice? Thanks guys

Hi sorry for replying so late I was very busey these days. Hmmm might be too much water. They love the heat I think you should grow it in the ground if you can. Mine is one year old now not three :)
None of the flowers produced, one of them swollen but fell off later. The tree isnt even 1 meter in hight... so snall and slow growing compared to my custard apple

After 2 years in the ground .... my first fruit.

Central west coast of Mexico

Here is a link that might be useful: First Sapodilla

After 2 years in the ground .... my first fruit.

Central west coast of Mexico

Here is a link that might be useful: First Sapodilla

I have read all your messages with interest and hopefully someone can shed some light on my problem. I am in Sydney and we do have cold winters and hot summer too.
My sapodilla tree is at least 12 years old or more growing in the ground. It flowers every year and to our frustration none of the numerous flowers ever EVER form fruit. The question is: Is there anything that would help it form fruit and hold fruit. We grow a few different mango, bananas, persimmons, guavas, all types of citrus, star fruit etc etc etc....and they flower and form fruit...except the chiko.

" It flowers every year and to our frustration none of the numerous flowers ever EVER form fruit."

Up here in the U.S (Florida) my Sapodilla are self fertile. I have other trees like loquat, green sapote, and canistel that are having problems setting fruit and I put the blame squarely on the lack of local wild bees.

I took matters into my own hands with the loquat last month and played giant bee with a large makeup brush my gf gave me and pollinated by hand. I have a huge crop developing now.

Unfortunately sapote, and canistel flowers are too small I think for this method, but I'm going to try my hand at it the next go around.

Here's the type of brush that worked for me.

I've come across the brush method more than once gnappi, seems like a decent idea. Do you think this would work for avocados? We have a small trees that's apparently flowering for the first time and I'd love to get some fruit this year if I could.