Jay,

They say that you shouldn't have to hand pollinate but after having the same problem you are having, I decided to help just in case.

I tried two different methods:

1. I used my Cherimoya pollinating brush to transfer the pollen between flowers. All I did was insert the brush inside the flower to attach as much pollen as possible to the brush and go on to next flower and so on. As what the bees may do.

2. I cut off one the flowers and rubbed it on a few others making sure that the Stigma of the recipient flowers come into contact with the pollen from the flower that I am passing around. I did about 3 or 4 of them at a time with the donor flower. Hope this makes sence, its kind of hard to explain. For what I have read, the long wand in the center of the flower is the Stigma and when pollen comes into contact with this Stigma, fertilization starts. Hope this made sence.

These methods seemed to worked for someone else I contacted so I gave it a try.

I have about a dosen little fruits growing right now. I have not had time to count to see which method gave me the best result. I will try to check it out today and take a picture of the little fruits.

That's pretty cool though that you are now getting fruits. I figured that since the plant was outside during the first flowering, the insects should do the trick. Unfortunately, I do not recall seeing any bees or such attracted to the flowers. I will try the brush trick on any open flowers today.

By the way...do your flowers open up all the way? Mine did not seem to open up like a normal bloom would. Sort of stayed in a "cone" configuration. Does this make sense? Any flower picks??

Jay,

I know for sure that I a couple of flowers got pollinated by ants. I had seened them going in and out of some of the flowers. No bees were seen.

Some of the flowers open all the way and some partially. I think I was able to open some of them up a bit and insert the brush. I don't think I took pictures of the flowers up close.

Jay, the second method where I used the the donor flower to rub pollen off on the other flowers, produced twice as many fruit in comparison to the brush method. I did get about 3 with self pollination.

Overall, I think the success rate with hand pollination was about 65%.

Have tried this racor with no success so far. However my adult tree is a oxcadcaz, and I believe they take a while to mature.

When my hasya has a couple years on it I will try with that one.

ronald

Ronald,

From reading another post, I gather you live in Jamaica. There should be plenty of insects there to pollinate your Sapodilla not needing to hand pollinate. You may just have to be a little patient. A lot of trees flower for a while first before fruiting. It should be just a matter of time. When your other Sapodilla stard flowering, it will cross pollinate the other tree.

I know all will be well in time, just can't help but try to get fruit early if at all possible. Thanks.

I have 2 sappodilla's and have noticed that Bees dont seem to be around much but the ants really pollinated one tree real well. The other tree has a few ants around but not very many. This tree blooms like the other one but seemly not enough ant to set fruit cause it hasnt fruited yet. I have noticed the blooms do not open much, but in the greenhouse when they bloom they are much more open. My "Makok" has 30 fruits and seems to bear heavily at a small size. Lyndle

lyndle,

On my Sapodilla, the ants pollinated a couple of flowers. The bees did not light the size of the flowers I suppose.

Racor,
Have you ever noticed when you cut into the fruit and take out the seeds that there are very small underdeveloped seed material that is like small pieces that resemble fish bones? When I am eating this fruit I carefully look for these cause they are very hard and you wouldnt want to swallow them. Lyndle

Lyndle,

This is the first year my Sapodilla fruits so I don't know if this is going to be the case here. I have eaten lots of them from different sources and never ran across these undeveloped seeds. I have seen them on White Sapote though a few times and they do seem like undeveloped seeds. I will watch for these when my fruits ripen.

When is a good time to do hand polination sapodilla flowers ?

pwr_wrx

It looks like there's something forming there. It could be due to your hand pollination perhaps?

Mine is also flowering now. In the past couple of years, it bloomed and then dropped all of its blooms without fruiting. This year, when it blooms, I'm not terribly excited ... because I'm not sure if the blooms are going to stay or form fruit. However, I'm thinking of hand pollination after reading your post.

I'll post some pictures of mine later when I get chance to. I do hope the fruit will grow well for you ... do update any progress along the way.

I guess on the ones you hand pollinate, place a rope or ribbon or something there so later on when you do get fruit you can see whether it was the result of hand pollination or not

I had 7 fruits two years ago. This year only 3. I'll try your methods to the rest of the flowers.