Eetbare tuin-edible garden Casimiroa edulis - White zapote

• Article number: CASEDU01

Casimiroa edulis or white zapote also bears good fruit in our climate. From the breeding stage, the first fruits can be harvested after 2 to 3 years. (Our plants are already fruit bearing).
The fruits are green in color and about 10/12 cm in diameter.
The skin tastes bitter, but the flesh is soft and white / yellow and tastes fresh to banana / peach, sweet contains 27% sugar and is rich in vitamin AC.

The Aztecs used these delicious fruits as a food source.
The bark, leaf and the kernel of the fruit were used. This contains the substance glucoside casimirosine which works as a sedative in large doses.
It has been claimed that pulling tea from the leaf causes sleep within an hour.

The blossom starts in early summer and often also a second flowering in autumn.
Fruits can simply be frozen, there is no taste difference compared to a fresh fruit.
After the fruit set and the harvest usually in the summer or late summer, the tree can be pruned back to keep its shape.
The fruits are ripe when they start to soften and the green skin starts to get brown spots.

This is also necessary in order not to make him grow too large, because he has to overwinter above the freezing point, comparable to the citrus tree, + 5ºC is ideal.
Is happy in a sunny place and the ground may be kept slightly damp. Give the plant organic fertilization such as cow manure grain.
Do not water in the winter. The zapote tree is also narrowly related to the citrusses.
Depending on the winter temperature, the Casimiroa edulis green leaves are preserved. Otherwise new leaf from April.
Winter hardiness zone 11 (+ 2ºC).