White sapotes in a marginal climate

8 years ago

Got some 'Clytia' stock from this at the scion exchange at Sepulveda Garden this year. I don't know who brought it... thanks to whoever it was...

I grafted two seedlings and got two successful grafts. I'd heard white sapote doesn't always graft easily so I was thrilled!

Does anybody know anything about this cultivar? I assume that it's named for Clytia Chambers, and thus was probably developed by Bob and Clytia Chambers, but I can't find any descriptions or history of it. Strangely, it's not even mentioned on the CRFG Fruit Facts page for white sapote!

I'm just a little obsessive about this sort of thing *G* and mine will probably never fruit here (gets just a bit too cold, too hot, and too dry) so I'll likely only ever know what people tell me. (Is it weird that I'm spending so much effort growing and propagating a plant that will probably never thrive here? Challenges are interesting though.)

I lost 'Suebelle' in the late frost this year. The rootstock's sprouting a little though. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll just leave it and see what it does.

'McDill' fared better. It lost its leaves but has now leafed out fully. It was marginal its first couple of years but it has been doing a lot better since I moved it under partial shade from the mulberry tree. It grew much more vigorously last summer and probably as a result it recovered from the late frost much more readily. I think the summer heat is the real problem at least as much as the one nighttime frost per year.

I'll be planting one of the 'Clytia' grafts under shade cloth and giving the other away.

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Comments (4)

socalnolympia
8 years ago
I'm not sure if this helps but if you were in Glendale they could probably fruit.

I don't know how different the climate where you are is from a bit further Southeast.
Steph
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
They fruit a bit west of me too. It’s interesting... they’re said to survive 25F pretty reliably as adult trees, and Mulberry Haven in Ojai has one that they said survived a 17F frost. When Suebelle died back, the forecast said 38F. It was a fairly young tree, but that still makes me think it was already a bit marginal.

one of the three one-year-old seedlings I had outside (under shade cloth but otherwise unprotected) kept its leaves through that frost. The other two lost their leaves but recovered pretty quickly. I grafted the two that dropped their leaves with ‘McDill’ but i’m strongly tempted to keep the one that kept its leaves ungrafted and see how it fares in future winters.
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stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I had Suebelle in a 32 gallon rubbermaid "pot" in 1990 when we hit 24f and for days we were at freezing mornings. Smallest twiggy growth died ,but large branches did not and it never came close to killing the trunk.

Like they say- if you can grow citrus? You can grow Sapote's.

One more..there is a old one at a local park ( from when it was private lands) and it must have taken the 18f in 1972. Its got a huge base that obviously has been frozen back a few i times over the decades. It lives and is still is a tree sized plant.
Steph thanked stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
Steph
Original Author
8 years ago
Wow ... that's good to know. We had a 17F freeze 9 or so years back that killed a lot of our citrus down to rootstock but nowhere near that since then. I feel like the Suebelle must have been in a really bad spot. It hadn't gotten any bigger over the past two summers... just kind of sits there. Hadn't really developed anything you'd call "branches" yet. The leaves started looking healthier in the winter (before the march frost) than they ever did in summer. If it ever does start to come back from above the rootstock maybe I can give it some summer shade and that might help.

Downhill from it there's a lemon tree that didn't take any damage at all.