>Anyone own a santol or have any experience with santol tree before

Wooooboy a little late to ask D:

Despite the icy fear induced by the quoted statement, I must say that's quite a healthy specimen!

....zone 6? Wait...

How does this work? Fruiting Sapodillas in zone 6?

Erict...growing and fruiting trees in our zones is called blind determination and hard headedness...mixed in with a lot of madness!

Nice tree! Very nice. I've not dealt with this company. I also know nothing about santol. It may only need a second plant if grown from seed. You'll have to research that. The fruit is very tasty but just way too much work to get it for me! I've never eaten anything with flesh that clings to the seeds quite like this does!!! Still good. Good luck with it and keep us informed of the progress. Good job with the sapodilla.

Mine was a seedling last May. Now,about 3'. I heard they need two to tango also. Their is always a chance somebody might have a graft out there. The usual way of getting around the two tree restriction. Are you a Filipina/o, ch3?

Thanks guys. I'm not Filipino. I'm Chinese. I never taste this a santol before but read that it's good. And the picture looks good. I really hope they don't need two to fruit. The seller say it was grafted, but then I see no sign of grafting marks. I sure hope it doesn't need two.

Your tree looks really nice. Some of the leaves on my santol is turning reddish orange. It looks pretty nice with the color changed. How old is your tree?

If I may chime in.
I've been growing Santol for the past few years and the first I ordered from ebay and it was the yellow "sweet" variety with roundish leaves, but it didn't make it through the winter. It got about 2 feet, then the same summer (2006) my mother's coworker brought some fruit from the PI (Philippine Islands) and I planted the seeds - this was the red "sour" variety, and by Fall of last year got to about 3-4 feet. They don't need much attention but do water frequently in easy-draining soil with light fertilizing and partial shade and they should really take off.
Fortunately, I've satisfied my tastebuds on this fruit a bit ago on a trip to the PI, it was mega-Santol season! The outer fruit is textured like an apple and about as sour as a granny smith but the interior meat surrounding the seed is sweet - suck on it and spit it out, unless you want to do as the local children do and have seed swallowing contests, but you'll feel it later!!
p.s. by the shape of the leaves and the description of "reddish orange", I'm afraid you got the red "sour" variety, not the yellow variety you originally mentioned, but that isn't to say that it won't produce sweet fruit only that it's generally more tart.

I'm afraid I might received the red variety. But the seller very firmly say that it's a yellow sweet variety. He also offer it on ebay. I have researched everywhere but there is not documentation that say it need two trees to fruit. Anyhow, I hope it tastes like mangosteen. I think the leaves changes color due to stress.

Please keep us updated as when your tree start to flower and fruit.

Any information on this tree is very much appreciated.

Thanks

Here is the pic of the santol with the reddish orange leave. Still hard to tell if this is a yellow or red variety.

I'm not sure if i have seen a Santol pic of a plant with roundish leaves.Photos of smaller leaves on big trees in full sun yes.
My wife is from the Phillipines and is also surprised by the large leafs. I take it, it's in the youth and indoor/shade leaf stage.
And ch,i agree that yours might not be a grafted plant as they claimed.Looks to have a trunk with perfect taper. Or,it was a great grafting job!

It's the red variety, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!! If you've ever had it then you know it's got a similar anatomy of a mangosteen fruit - meaning, it has a rind that you peel (like a potato), and unlike the purple rind of a mangosteen, you can eat it, and in the PI it's dipped in flaky sea salt, like unripe mangoes or sineguelas (purple mombin); inside of the rind are the seeds surrounded by sweet white flesh. Your fruits just won't be the sugary sweet "yellow" Santol.
By the way your leaves seem to be drooping, I think you might need to increase watering.

stan: The "round" leaves aren't exactly a circular shape - more curvaceous than the type that comes to a sharper point such as the leaves above.

My santol got really stressed from shipping. A lot of the leaves changed color and some dried up and dropped. Very interesting that some parts of the leaves turned crispy making little holes on the leaves. The tree is now better after lots of watering and rain. Hopefully the tree will bear fruit next year. Do you think it is too small? The seller say this is a 3 year old tree. thanks

have large santol tree here in jamaica. was lucky enough to have just tasted a single fruit. I think it is the red variety. here is a picture from a couple years back.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanku123/325440721/

Ronald- Thanks for sharing your pics. I hope my tree will not need to grow that big to have fruit. I will continue to plant it in pot. I might have to prune it down next year...don't want it to get too big. How was the taste? I never try this fruit before but heard that it's good. How long did it take your tree to fruit?

Also, I saw the atemoya tree and fruits. How did you graft your atemoya? I have one atemoya tree but would like to have different variety grafted on to it.

Thanks

My tree is at least 6 or 7 years old, have not kept proper track of age.
Fruit was tiny with only one segment, but at least I was able to see how it tastes. Taste was good, tangy with the flavour coming out easilly as I sucked on it.
I had tried some air layers on it and it is one of these limbs that flowered and held the fruit. (blossomed otherwise but none held)
will try girdling and see if it has any effect.
For the atemoya, I have had succes with budding, cleft, veneer and aproach grafting. Usually I will do a cleft graft. and cover with parafilm tape.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanku123/2847778779/sizes/o/

when i was young (8 y,o) We have one santol tree back in the Philippines only one santol tree but it bear fruit like crazy and i used to climb then give fruits to our neighbors. But i dont know here in the States. Our house in the City center and we have only one tree each of mango, cacao, santol, atis, guava, avocado and guyabano and if its there season they have lots of fruit even though its near to each other so all this fruit trees dont need two trees to bear fruits. but i remember my mom always water it with fish water emulsion and decayed garbage as fertilizer since its hard to find fetilizer back in the 60”s.