The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Tips on sapote trees, erosion control, more
Antonio Izumi emailed his concern for an exotic fruit tree:
“I wanted to ask you about my white sapote tree, purchased about two years ago. As recommended, I planted it in full sun, yet it nearly died there. Then I transplanted it to a pot in semishade, where it leafed out and thrived. Now it has also been producing flowers. However, the tiny fruit is not maturing or getting bigger. Do you have any tips for me?”
In Southern California white sapote blooms in winter or early spring but fruit grows slowly, ripening up to nine months later in mid-fall. So patience may be all that’s required of you to enjoy a tasty harvest.
White sapote (Casimiroa edulis) will grow wherever orange trees feel at home. This species, which is in the same botanical family (Rutaceae) as citrus, is a prolific bearer, producing up to a ton of fruit per year when it is fully mature. It has the potential to reach 50 feet in height, tolerates wetter soil than most fruit trees, and produces in less than full sun exposures. Although indigenous to the tropics, white sapote is native to high elevations and can withstand a light frost. It can live on winter rain alone once mature, but it will produce more fruit when regularly watered. You will want to give its roots plenty of room to grow because they will push up hardscape and pavement in their vicinity.
Much experimentation has been done with white sapote, but the unpredictability of fruit quality has kept it from being more widely grown on a commercial scale.
Resembling a small green apple, the fruit has inedible skin and toxic seeds, so steer clear of these. Its flesh is custardlike and tastes something like a cross between vanilla pudding and pumpkin pie. When overripe, a sapote tastes more like a sweet banana. When picking a fruit, make sure a small piece of stem remains attached. You will know fruit is ripe and ready to eat when the stem falls off. You can view a robust white sapote tree at the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden in Thousand Oaks. White sapote trees are available for purchase at Papaya Tree Nursery (papayatreenursery.com) in Granada Hills.
Don’t confuse white sapote with black sapote (Diospyros nigra), which is a relative of the persimmon (Diospyros kaki). The reason they are both called sapote probably has to do with their common South African habitat and the fact that they look similar when green, although the black sapote darkens in color as it ripens. “Sapote” is a Nahuatl (Aztec) word for fruit that is small and sweet.
••• Regarding the recent rains, Georgine Archer, who gardens in Burbank, emailed with a suggestion for erosion control:
“I read your article about slope erosion and recommend you research the elephant bush (Portulacaria afra). I have experienced it surviving all summer in full sun without any water and I am now planting it to be a hedge around the border of my garden. It will take another year before it grows big enough to form a hedge, but it will be sufficiently drought-tolerant to survive the summer. It is easy to start branches on a slope that has good drainage.”
You are entirely correct about this succulent plant’s suitability for erosion control as it does precisely that in its native habitat on the eastern slopes of the South African Cape. The climate there has a strong resemblance to that of Los Angeles. Annual rainfall is virtually identical to ours, between 10 and 15 inches. Minimal winter temperatures, too, are similar, occasionally reaching 25 degrees or less, but not often. Where elephant bush, aka elephant food, establishes itself as a thicket, it can withstand colder temperatures since one plant protects the next from frost exposure.
I also like your idea of using elephant food — with tiny, light green, circular leaves and red stems — as a waterless hedge, and I have seen it thriving in that capacity on several occasions. It grows over 10 feet tall with an equal spread but may be kept much lower. Although it does not typically flower, it just might do that after a drought. Around six years ago, Don Peyer, who gardens in Carson, sent me a photo of an 8-foot-tall elephant food specimen that was covered with pink flowers after two successive dry winters.
True to its name, elephant food comprises 80 percent of the diet of elephants that inhabit Addo National Park in South Africa. Elephants assist in the proliferation of this bushy source of nourishment by munching it down to ground level, eliminating vertical growth but causing it to spread out horizontally. Elephant food is known for its remarkable vitality. Two to three weeks after large plants have been chewed down to the earth, the remaining stems suddenly cover themselves, practically overnight, with new foliage. Thus, the elephants’ favorite snack quickly bounces back, an ever-present pachydermal munchie.
Moreover, there is a symbiotic aspect to the relationship between elephants and elephant food shrubs. In the process of being broken apart by elephants and having their stems and foliage ingested, elephant food pieces are scattered at a distance from the mother plants. These pieces, in the manner of succulents generally, will eventually take root where they lie, expanding the plant’s area of growth. ••• Ronald Levondoski emailed the following: “Would you recommend ivy or any other plant for a backyard hillside to control weed growth?”
If the exposure is eastern or northern, I would definitely recommend ivy for erosion control, as long as you do not plan to grow anything else on the slope. Southern and western exposures would be too hot for ivy to handle unless you live near the coast, where the milder summer temperatures might allow ivy to grow with a western exposure. I would, however, cut down all the weeds presently growing on the slope and then plant as many flats of ivy as I could afford so it would quickly provide the coverage that you seek. There are two types of ivy grown on slopes. English ivy (Hedera helix) — the more cold-tolerant of the two — has small, symmetrical leaves, while Algerian ivy (Hedera canariensis) has large, floppy leaves.
Aside from weed control, where erosion control is concerned the beauty of ivy is that once its roots have taken hold, it is virtually indestructible. As an alternative, you might want to consider planting dwarf pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana pumila). Unlike with ordinary pampas grass, its seeds are sterile, so your neighbors won’t have to worry about it spreading into their yards. Individual plants grow up to 5 feet tall and will spread out with their clumping growth habit to a wide diameter due to their rhizomes. Attractive white floral plumes develop from summer into fall in full sun to partial sun exposures.
Please send suggestions for plants that control weeds to joshua@perfectplants. com. Your questions, comments and gardening problems or tips are always welcome, too.