Annona cherimola

[MattyB]

After some simple hand pollination our Cherimoya set fruit this year. Here's a fatty that we couldn't help but pick.

[MattyB]

Jen will kill me if she knew I posted this "couch photo" of her.

Jen likes to spit the seeds into a bowl. I like to eat them outside and just let the seeds squirt out of my mouth onto the ground. There's plenty of seeds, but they separate easily from the fruit as soon as you put a spoonfull into your mouth. The Cherimoya is an absolutely unique tasting fruit. Nothing like it.

[ariscott]

Yeah... I harvested our first 2 fruit the other month. They were tiny, not as big as yours, as it is their first year fruiting. But tasty though.... Scott's first time to taste it. I have had them when I was little, so it brought back memories...

Regards, Ari

[Perito]

I love Cherimoyas! I've got some seedlings I started from a tree growing in Pismo Beach. Should I top them at some point to get them to Branch? I promise not to tell about the couch photo Matty. Perito

[BS Man about Palms]

You have a picture of Jen here??

[MattyB]

Perry,

Don't worry about topping it, it'll branch on it's own after a couple of years in the ground. Read up on how to pollinate them. It sounds hard at first, but after some observation of the flowers and a few tries you'll figure it out. Let me know if you need any tips.

[Perito]

Perry,

Don't worry about topping it, it'll branch on it's own after a couple of years in the ground. Read up on how to pollinate them. It sounds hard at first, but after some observation of the flowers and a few tries you'll figure it out. Let me know if you need any tips.

Thanks alot Matt. I'll keep my clippers away from them.

[rprimbs]

I love cherimoya's! My parents have a Honeyheart, a Dr White, and an African Pride atemoya -- that I grafted Selma and El Bumpo onto.

Here's a picture of some of Dr Whites.

The Dr Whites are the sweetest, but I think that a good Honeyheart with that little bit of honey flavor is even better. This year I pollinated some of the Selma's for the first time. I'm looking forward to the Selma's. Selma's are pink on the inside and supposedly have a little bit of a raspberry flavor to them.

I'm going to have to get a cherimoya tree, or two, of my own and graft them with different varieties. The perfect time to take grafting wood is when the tree is just coming out of dormancy and starting to push new growth. If anybodies interested in the Selma, or any of the varieties that my parents have send me a PM while the trees are still dormant and I'll send you some grafting wood when it's ready.

I actually mailed some fruit all the way to a girl in Ireland, and they made it in good shape. However she said that they were a bit too sweet for her taste.

Edited December 24, 2010 by rprimbs

[MattyB]

Cool!

[Gonzer]

I never have to pollinate.

[Al in Kona]

Cherimoya is right up there on the top of my list of favorite fruits. Here in Hawaii it is generally considered best if they are grown above 305m (1000 ft.) elevation. Lower elevation areas should instead grow Atemoyas. We currently have 3 small Cherimoya trees planted. The varieties (grafted) are: Selma, Spain, & McPherson.

[aussiearoids]

gonz' what rippers ! a tree at Mums in sub-tropical Childers gave several very large crops but was very inconsistent . They just seem to be called custard apples I really enjoy the sickly sweet fruit . Have tried several seedlings here but none have thrived like related soursop or rollinia .

[MattyB]

holy crap Gonzer, your hands are small

[Gonzer]

holy crap Gonzer, your hands are small

Yeah, they match my IQ. All seriousness aside, like Michael said, the fruit can be sickly sweet to the point where even if you have a bumper crop eating just one will do ya for a while.

[Al in Kona]

As is the case with many different fruits, there is quite a difference in flavor, consistency and even sweetness in the many different cultivars of Cherimoya.

Therefore it would be best to get a grafted tree of a named variety that best suits your tastes. This should not be a problem for those of you in Southern California where many varieties are grown. Any member of the CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) could help you with this.

[rprimbs]

As is the case with many different fruits, there is quite a difference in flavor, consistency and even sweetness in the many different cultivars of Cherimoya.

Therefore it would be best to get a grafted tree of a named variety that best suits your tastes. This should not be a problem for those of you in Southern California where many varieties are grown. Any member of the CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) could help you with this.

I'm a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers society. We've done several taste tests. Honey Heart is one of the favorites. And El Bumpo and Selma are considered very good too. I haven't tried Selma yet but some people say that it's the best. Pierce and Dr White are also very good. Some of the seedling cherimoya's end up with a pineapple-like flavor which is also very good (A lady in Encinitas has a tree that produces funny shaped fruit -- that's delicious! I think she calls it her "Martian" cherimoya.

Another interesting, but rarer Annona relative, is a Rollinia deliciosa. It's supposed to taste something like a very good lemon meringue pie, or lemon sorbet.

I've got a little Rollinia deliciosa and it's doing great. It seems to handle the cold with no problem. I had it shipped from Florida and it showed no transplant shock despite the differences in humidity (Which can cause the leaves of some plants to respond strangely and even look diseased, and fall off -- before the plant acclimates.) I should have cuttings for people in a year or two. You can graft it onto a cherimoya.

[rprimbs]

And another interesting Annona is an Annona diversifolia ("Illama"). My Mexican friends -- from southern mexico -- tell me that the illama is by far the best tasting Annona. But the reason it's not sold commercially is that it spoils very quickly.

It's larger than a cherimoya and pink-red on the inside. It's supposed to have a bit of a raspberry flavor like the Selma cherimoya. Roger Meyer -- up in Valley Center, and Fountain Valley -- sold a number of them a couple of years ago. I'll have to see if he'll graft some more up this year.

Paul Thompson, who co-founded the California Rare Fruit Growers grew these up in Fallbrook. He said that they will grow here but they don't tend to be really productive.

[Gonzer]

Very cool rprimbs!

But the reason it's not sold commercially is that it spoils very quickly.

The very same reason folks don't get to experience Sapote.

[garrin]

Cherimoya -- about the most delicious flavor in a fruit that I have ever experienced. I enjoy the flavor more than that of most of the other annonas which grow well here. Unfortunately where I live in HI I am a bit too low in altitude to grow them really well, although I do get a few decent fruits about every year from my three trees. The trees grow like crazy, but flowering is sparse. Rollinia does well here as well as the atemoyas. The first is a bit slimy in texture for me and the second a bit too sweet. Rollinias I have tasted here are indeed like lemon custard pie. I grew a beautiful 'Spain' cherimoya in the NE part of the San Francisco Bay area while living in CA years ago. Fruit was 'da best'! I also have tried growing the illama here from seed obtained in India. Surprisingly it did poorly here -- perhaps because of no dry season. Luckily the Hilo Farmer's Market usually has good cherimoyas from a bit higher up the slopes. I like Mark Twain's description of the fruit -- "Deliciousness itself!".

[MattyB]

cool stuff! We have a white sapote growing as well but it'll be several years before it fruits. My neighbor has a 40 foot tall sapote so I'll have to get some fruit off of him.

[aussiearoids]

btw Rollinia is now lumped back in with Annona ,

and is again A mucosa .

[ariscott]

Wow... I like that Annona diversifolia. I wonder whether I can find them here.....

[Bennz]

My theory is that cherimoyas have not been selected enough to make named cv.s consistently better than seedlings. Here are some fruit I've grown from seedlings. I don't hand pollinate and always get good fruit set.

[MattyB]

Wow, that's huge!!!!!!

[Central Floridave]

I ate the atemoya this morning. Very good.

[rprimbs]

Wow, I'm impressed by the size of the fruit you guys get when you don't pollinate! Do they have many seeds? If they do than they must be getting pollinated somehow. Here's a picture of one of my parents larger Honey Hearts (I have big hands).

Edited January 8, 2011 by rprimbs

[rprimbs]

My parents get incredible crops when they pollinate. I prune their trees down to about seven - eight feet every year to make it easier to reach the blossoms to pollinate. And I cut the branches back just as severely. When they pruned less the fruit would break the branches off.

Here's a picture of some of the fruit my parents got from a particularly good year. I think that they got about six dozen fruits over the season.

[MattyB]

Awesome!

[Bennz]

Wow, I'm impressed by the size of the fruit you guys get when you don't pollinate! Do they have many seeds? If they do than they must be getting pollinated somehow.

Seed count is about normal on my fruit, and they all germinate ok. I suspect its something to do with our cooler temperatures and higher humidity than is usual in California. I have never seen any insects on the flowers here.

[manoka]

I have yet to taste a cherimoya with much flavor. But they are certainly top as far as texture and sweetness goes. I still prefer a well ripened persimmon of one of their best cultivars.

With cherimoyas the issue is mostly their seediness. Here there is only one no-name cultivar available with a weak flavor, which seems to produce fruits with high and low seed count on the same tree.

I noticed that they have different cultivars in New Zealand, and wonder whether there is much difference in their qualities, and which ones are considered the best.

A. diversifolia sounds very interesting. I suppose that they are more tropical, with similar climatic requirements as the atemoya?

[siafu]

Olá Manoka,

Annona diversifolia is not that fussy regarding cold. I have one planted in my greenhouse (Algarve) that has seen temperatures close to 0C

without any ill effects.

By far, the most tender Annona sp. I've tried is Annona muricata (soursop, graviola in Portuguese). It drops its leaves at around 3C

and below that starts to get damaged. Freezing will kill it to the ground.

--Sérgio

[manoka]

Olá vizinho!

I'm pleased to get to know somebody from the same country.

Actually the climatically limiting factor here is not the cold, but rather the lack of heat.

As I suppose you are familiar with cherimoyas too: Do you find the fruits of A. diversifolia considerably tastier, and if so, in which respect?

Do you have a cherimoya variety which is considerably tastier than the standard variety available here?

Um abraço!

Vital

[MattyB]

Welcome friends from Portugal!