William,
My Cherimoya is quite healthy.
Early in the summer , I topped it at 7 ft . It bushed out as it is suposed to do.

Based on the temps that you posted earlier this year, I wouldn't even consider growing a cherimoya in Delhi. Mine showed damage at 28f.
It didn't cause major damage, but this seems to be your average winter low! I'd hate to se what a March temp of 23f will do?

Jeff

The above followup was added by Jeff on November 17, 2002 at 4:05 am PST.

I've got 1 fruit set (self pollinated) that is starting to enlarge on my 'El Bumpo' tree. It's about 4 feet tall and 8 feet wide. The only problem is that the skin is not bumpy or hairy like reported. It's smooth and slightly indented, so it's most likely not an 'El Bumpo'. Looks like it will weigh about a pound.

This may be a 'Honeyheart' as the nursery that was propagating only had this and 'El Bumpo'.

I already have a 'Honeyheart' and they are excellent. These two I have in the ground. I will hand pollinate when the trees get a little bigger.

In pots I have another either 'El Bumpo' or 'Honetheart', an 'M&N', 'Fino De Jete' and a seedling of 'Honeyheart'.

The 'Fino De Jete' has struggled. I bought it from Emerich and he or his son had the rootstock buried too deep and it started to rot half way around the stem. It recovered well after I raised up the root crown, but my summer heat wave fried it back pretty good. These trees are pretty tough outside of freezing temps though. If it looks bad next spring I may try to graft onto another tree.

I have eaten 'Pierce' and it is very sweet, almost too sweet. The 'Nata' is also good, named after Emerichs wife. You can eat the skin it's so thin. Sweet but very mild in flavor.

The above followup was added by Tom on November 17, 2002 at 8:05 am PST.

Jeff

It sounds like you did everything correct in the maintenence of your cherimoya tree. If you look at the commercial groves, you wont see many that are over 8 to 10 feet in height. This would give us here in the valley the advantage of easy protection if needed. And an easier time with the hand pollination not to mention easier harvest. George was telling me that he knows of some mature cherimoya trees that actually survived 19f for a short period. I was amazed by that, didn't think it could survive that kind of cold but I guess it goes to show that the lengh of exposure is the key. He says the first few years are the most imprtant for protectin from frost as there very cold tender when young, I'm sure that your aware of tha though.

Tom

It sounds like your El Bumpo is a honeyhart just as you said. Every El Bumpo that I have seen is very bumpy. I had what I thought was
" Spain " but george says that there was some confusion over the spain cultivar. It is believed that the real " Spain " was lost from recognized collections. He said that the UCLA collection was moved from Westwood to South Coast in the mid fifties and a number of errors in identification resulted.What was labeled Spain was later identified as Mc Pherson. He said there were also a number of " Spain" trees in San Diego County which have been identified as Peirce. So it is possible at least from collective sources that it has been lost. Perhaps somewhere out there is a real " Spain" in someones backyard. Tom how old do you think the trees need to be before you start pollinating and expecting fruit? I was thinking atleast 3 to 4 but was hoping sooner for a grafted tree. How has the M&N performed for you? Is there anything about it that makes it stand out from other cultivars? One last thing, I was wondering if anyone on this board knows how to get scion wood from the UC collection? I asked George but never got a real clear answer. I guess its off limits. George was telling me that by growing the right combination of cultivars he has fruit from Nov. to June. Thats what I want to do is strech the harvest season as long as possible.

William

The above followup was added by William on November 17, 2002 at 2:24 pm PST.

William

I hope I'm over reacting and just worrying too much. Remember that Jason's seedlings were selected to ripen fruit in Sep-Nov time table.

David

The above followup was added by David, Waterford CA, zone9 on November 18, 2002 at 3:35 am PST.

William,

The 19F surviving Cherimoya Emerich is referring to is called 'Deliciosa'.

I don't know long you need to let the tree grow before self pollinating. For me, when the tree is at a point where I'm on a ladder cutting branches down, I'll let loose and self pollinate.

There is nothing special about the 'M&N' other than I have seen it set fuit in near 100 degree weather (and humid) in May and September.

The foliage does not take excessive heat or cold as claimed, in my opinion.

The above followup was added by Tom on November 18, 2002 at 7:13 am PST.

David

The cherimoya seedlings I started from jasons seed collecting in mexico are all doing fine. I will be planting them out in the yard hopefully this spring. As soon as they get large enough to cut some scion wood off them, I will graft onto a more mature producing tree to see what the fruit is like. Im keeping my fingers crossed tat they will be good varieties but according to George the probability of a seedling being as good as the parent is slim however not impossible.

How is your batch of Jason seedlings doing?

Tom

Thanks for the info on Misi Luki and M&N cherimoya. I was considering at one time buying one but really dont know if I will or not, maybe just graft a limb to it or something.

William

The above followup was added by William on November 18, 2002 at 2:18 pm PST.

I still have all of the ones I got to sprout, but some varience in size; do to how soon they sprouted. I can see now , after the fact, I lost growth, allowing them to remain in too much sun during the summer; allowing the pots to get too hot. a few are only like 9 iches, but half are like 12 inches tall and the other half are like 16 inches tall. They should really take off this spring, and as you say, have some scion wood to bud on to another tree.

I wish I had a planted nice size cherimoya in the ground growing, to facitate a good bud take. I do have a couple seedlings from commerical fruit, but have found that budding potted plants is often not too successful, at least with apples. I kept getting die back on the limbs I budded to, do to poor roots and sap flow to the limbs.

I would nope we get better then just a few of Jason Cherimoya seedlings to have nice fruit..

If Jason's seedlings hold true to the fruiting habits of its parent, having a fruit that matures in fall or early winter, is going to be advantages, even if the taste is not quite as good as some commercial vars.

Jason said when winter was coming on this year, his other vars lost their leaves, while his Puebla seedlings stiil had nice green leaves, not affected by the cold yet.

David

The above followup was added by David, Waterford CA, zone9 on November 19, 2002 at 5:08 am PST.

David

It sounds like your seedlings are responding growthwise as mine are. Thats the thing with growing seedlings, you never know what the characteristics are going to be until you try it.
I have been told that seeds of the " Selma " are not always pink but some are. With this variety it is best to buy a grafted plant.

I am interested in seeing how cold tolerant these seedlings will be.It would be nice if they had some good tolerance to cold like Axels high altitude seedlings. I guess time will tell. I started a bunch of seed this summer for rootstock purposes but they need to get a little bigger before their grafting size.

David, George told me that he did not think that budding was too practical on cherimoya but that whip grafting was almost a sure take everytime. I guess you could try budding and see how it goes.

I am going to innocculate my rootstock root system with Mycorrhizae and fish fertilizer as I have discovered over the summer that this combination gives real good growth results on all the annonas I have tried it on. Perhaps this will allow Jasons seedlings to grow enough to take some scionwod next year and try it on my " White " .

David keep me up to date on how your grafting experiment goes.

William

The above followup was added by William on November 19, 2002 at 1:58 pm PST.

Hi,
Well with the seedlings from Mexico that I grew. I left some outside over winter in pots and they survived quite well but as the spring arrived they decided not to grow very fast at all, they are in very bright sunlight and I've realised small Cherimoyas wont grow in bright sunny conditions at all David I don't think it's the heat in the soil so much as the bright light because I can have a Cherimoya pot behind glass that's really cooking and still grow fast because the light is filtered. I had a 4 very tiny (10cm) seedlings planted out in the paddock over winter to see if they would survive but we had an unusually cold winter with temps to -2c and all but one died. Also I've just recently given the largest seedling I have still in a pot a strong dose of cheap fertilizer pellets that disolve straight away, the leaf sizes quadrupled almost overnight and it's grown 4 big leaves in the last 2 weeks it's about 10 months old and about 50 cm tall as of today. I will plant that one in about a months time under shadecloth and I'll remember to fertilize the plants I have in the ground too and hope they will respond the same.

My Cherimoya 'White' has started to grow again and has quite a few flowers comming this year, the tree is about 5 feet tall with a trunk about 2 inches thick so I might see if I can get a fruit this year I was too sneaky for the parrots this year a left this tree covered with a net all summer and winter so it's the first year its ever had where the new buds and flowers havn't been eaten off. Anyway I still have alot of Cherimoya seeds because a couple of month ago I finally go the rest of my seeds from Mexico through Australian customs, they ended up charging me $30 for the identification of them which took a month and the final identification from head office was Black Sapote :p well that's ok with me as long it turned out to be something legal to import and I got the seeds

Jason

The above followup was added by Jason on November 20, 2002 at 1:28 am PST.

Jason

Glad to see you finally got your seeds, who cares if they miss labeled them.

I know my seedlings sure did respond to living under a tree, after the heated pots,and only getting partial sun. You could be right on the bright light as well. Luen has shown that Pawpaws, a close cousin, is as well, sensitive to bright direct sun, until older and more securely rooted deeply in the soil. Luen has Pawpaws which are producing, and he had repeatedly made this remark to me. I guess you may know this, but pawpaws too, need to be established for a couple or more years, to take full light well.

We are having a mild winter so far, having temps between 7 to 19 C most days, except for a little cold spell some time ago. The Cherimoya seedlings are growing and loving the weather; foggy mornings and hazy warm days, with only a slight breeze.

A question, with the Cherimoya seeds, I know you collected only certain ones, that met your standard, but what of the other trees near by. These are going to affect the fruit quality if they crossed. What is you opinion of other fruits near your collection points and what are your hopes for percent of at least decent edible fruit?

David

The above followup was added by David, Waterford CA, zone9 on November 21, 2002 at 8:49 pm PST.

HI :)
I think the no bright sunlight rule for Cherimoyas up to two years old would be a good rule to adopt from what I see, at least here with our full on radiation sunlight. They don't seem to want to grow fast for me in the ground in the sun untill they are past 2 years old. I was looking at my grafted "white" again today and it is loaded with flower buds, stacks of them I want to pollinate a few and see if I can get a fruit for next winter/spring..

As for the Cherimoyas tasting good, who knows! : ) but really seeing how the Mexicans love to use Cherimoya trees for firewood (they really are a serious weed in the 1500 meter altitude areas of south Mexico there are more Cherimoyas growing there than any other tree) you would assume they burned all the bad tasting genetics years ago, I read somewhere on here of somewhere on the net someone describing Cherimoyas as tasting like Sprite Flavoured ice cream and that is the most perfect description of the flavour of Cherimoya that I choose to keep seeds from. The only commercial variety I've ever tasted was from a supermarket in the states and it was the absolute worst Cherimoya I've ever eaten, I know that one should taste better straight from a tree but it's hard to imagine it ever tasting better than a mango most if not all the ones I kept seeds from did taste that good so I rekon in the worst case they will be pretty good best case they will be excellent. There wasn't all that much variation in taste of the good ones, very different shapes but taste nup, they all tasted a little acid and little sugar kinda like sherbet ice cream smooth fizzy creamy fizzy juicey fizzy pinapple lychee strawberry bit of everything tasting stuff.

Just like that :)

Also most of my Avocados will be pushing past 6 feet in height this summer so I should be getting a few fruit to hold on this year shouldn't I? I got tons of pollinated fruits on all the 3 year old grafted trees this year, the bees were really getting stuck into my rows of avocados just a matter if the fruits will stick or fall off

Jason

The above followup was added by Jason on November 22, 2002 at 2:17 pm PST.

lately there's a big male kangaroo that lives in my garden most afternoons that is over 6 feet tall and has wooly brown fur like a wooly mamoth, never seen a kangaroo like it in my life it's got a butt on it like a cow, and shoulders and chest like Arnie Schwartzananannniger really it's almost that thick :) I think it's a genetic freak the normal grey coloured female it hangs around with isn't even half it's height I havn't seen it standing up next to something to get a accurate idea of the wooly mamoths height but bending down it stands around 5 feet or just below 5 feet so it's got to be waaaaaay over 6 foot standing up, my father reakons because there is a drought further north all the big red kangaroos will be arrive here where it's wetter over the summer month

Jason

The above followup was added by Jason on November 22, 2002 at 2:27 pm PST.

Jason

Thanks for the input. No, seriously, but the Roo must be a site to behold, it would be nice if most of the seedling cherimoya where interesting and edible. I had never thought about people needing fire wood and elimiating the poor ones; selective breeding.

When you where in the USA and asked a pecan question, it seems I discovered that the pecans had the same problem, but they figure thosands of good vars may of been lost to people cutting trees for many purposes.

I think it would be cool to have a fruit which tastes like sprite flavored Ice Cream. From what I have heard, the commercial cherimoyas in the USA, seem sicky sweet, if fresh.

David

The above followup was added by David, Waterford CA, zone9 on November 22, 2002 at 9:11 pm PST.

I see you're experts in growing Chirimoya from the seeds. Can you please give an advise how to best plant my seeds?

Thanks
Hugo

The above followup was added by Hugo on August 24, 2003 at 10:15 am PST.