Sapodilla

Sowing: Sapodilla is usually raised from seed, though seedling trees vary greatly and can take six to ten years to bear fruit, so superior selections are propagated instead by veneer-grafting. As a frost-tender species it must be transplanted into a warm, sunny, frost-free site, and young plants need protection whenever cold weather threatens.

Siting: The tree grows best in full sun and tolerates clay, sand, or loam soils across a wide pH range, though it performs better in well-drained ground; established trees show high drought and salt tolerance and withstand wind and hurricanes well, making them suited to seaside plantings. Because the trunk and surface roots grow large with age, trees are best sited well back from sidewalks and curbs.

Watering and feeding: Mulching improves the soil's water-holding capacity and nutrient availability, and young trees benefit from regular watering, while mature trees are usually left unirrigated though watering during dry spells can raise fruit yield; three yearly applications of a fruit-tree fertilizer are recommended.

Pruning: Little pruning is required once a tree develops its natural central trunk and pyramidal crown, but topping or other improper cuts encourage clustered competing leaders; plantings are commonly pruned after harvest to keep the tree to a manageable height.

Sapodilla is generally resistant to pests and diseases, though scales and fruit flies occasionally cause problems, and scale insects, rusts, and other insect pests are known to damage the tree. Seedlings that sprout beneath established trees can also become a minor weed problem in the landscape.

Harvest: Judging ripeness is difficult since the fruit gives few outward clues; growers scratch the skin and look for cinnamon-brown flesh beneath, as unripe fruit remains green. Fruit is picked while still firm rather than left to soften on the tree, then ripened at room temperature for five to ten days until it reaches the texture of a ripe pear; firm-ripe fruit can be held for about a week under refrigeration. In Florida most fruit ripens between spring and September, roughly ten months after flowering.

Culinary: The ripe fruit is eaten raw or made into jams, syrups, sauces, baked goods, and pies, and can be dried or fermented into wine or vinegar; young shoots are eaten raw or steamed. Because unripe fruit and its skin carry a gummy latex, preparation typically removes this latex first.

Ornamental and shade: The tree's dense, symmetrical crown and tolerance of poor soils, salt, and wind have made it a valued shade, street, and specimen tree, and it is also used as a hedge or screen.

Industrial: Tapped from the trunk and branches, the white latex known as chicle was historically the principal base of chewing gum before synthetic substitutes replaced it, and it has also served as birdlime, an adhesive, a material in dentistry, and a substitute for gutta-percha; the Aztecs used it to make figurines. The dense, durable reddish wood has been used in construction, carpentry, and furniture, and has been found intact in Mayan temple beams, while tannin from the bark has been used to dye sails.

Traditional medicine: In traditional use, a decoction of young fruit was taken to stop diarrhea, a decoction of the leaves was used for fever, colds, and diarrhea, and a bark tea served as a febrifuge; ground seeds were traditionally used as a diuretic, a seed extract as a sedative, and a seed paste was applied to the stings of venomous animals.

Sapodilla's exact native range is uncertain because the species has been cultivated since ancient times, but it is thought to have arisen in southern Mexico, including the Yucatan peninsula, and in Belize and Guatemala, where it was domesticated. From this region it was carried in pre-Columbian times to the Caribbean islands and South America, and it later spread to Southeast Asia, where the Philippines and India became leading producers. The tree reached Florida as an agricultural introduction in the nineteenth century.