Need help choosing a cherimoya.
The following thread was started by John Vandegrift on November 03, 2009 at 10:49 pm PST
Check out this site for variety descriptions: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/cherimoya.html
The Booth & White sound weak in flavor. Not sure which variety hits our stores in Ohio that are USA grown, but they are usually very good.
The above followup was added by Jay on November 04, 2009 at 4:09 am PST.
Well after reading Jays link I think booth is off the list, but now I think I may add El bumpo to the list of possibilities.
The above followup was added by John Vandegrift on November 04, 2009 at 6:58 am PST.
I tried cherimoya for the first time last year and it instantly became my favorite fruit. I planted the seeds and they are now 1-2 ft tall. I don't know which cultivar I got the seeds from, but I plan to graft them this summer. I've heard that Pierce is the best tasting & to grow in SoCal. Other good ones are Fino de Jete, El Bumpo & Honeyhart
The above followup was added by Rodney Cerritos, CA on November 04, 2009 at 7:20 am PST.
yep
The above followup was added by Brendan on November 04, 2009 at 9:32 am PST.
Honeyheart all the way.
The above followup was added by pitangadiego on November 04, 2009 at 11:29 am PST.
Brendan and Pitangadiego, have you guys tasted Pierce as well? I think I am down to choosing between those two. I guess in the end I know I'll probably end up getting both eventually anyway, but I would still like some opinions.
The above followup was added by John Vandegrift on November 04, 2009 at 12:56 am PST.
I have, but not recently, and I do not grow it. I do have about 10 different varieties, but if I only had one it would be HH.
Elbumpo is good. Orton is more grainy, but ripens later, so is a good season extender.
The above followup was added by pitangadiego on November 04, 2009 at 4:52 pm PST.
If I were to grow only one cherimoya it would be selma, the pink fleshed cherimoya. I have some 30 varieties growing here.
White: strong flavor, very sweet, most heat tolerant. In my opinion one of the tastiest cherimoyas. It's not bland at all, it has a very tropical pineapply flavor and the fruits get very large.
Fino De Jete: this one has a gentle, pleasing flavor. Mine sets tonns of fruits without any self pollination.
Booth: Excellent, but needs plenty of Winter warmth to do well. It tends to be late. The flavor is nice with goof sweet/acid balance.
El Bumpo and honeyheart are both good all around cherimoyas.
Pierce is closer to white in flavor, but even better tasting, and readily sets fruits on its own in Santa Cruz.
Selma is pink fleshed and delicious, excellent sweet/acid balance, tends to be late. Supposedly the most hardy of all the cherimoyas.
Elixir: I have had bad luck with that one, virtually zero fruit set on its own, they are too early here, and since it's too cold when they ripen, the few fruits I've gotten tasted bland and gritty. I don't recommend this variety.
Bays: delicious all around cherimoya, seems to ripen superior quality fruit in our rather cool climate.
I usually have more cherimoyas than I care to eat, so anyone interested in fruit next Spring, let me know. My Fino De Jete is loaded, literally one fruit in between every leaf node. I may have to thin this year, and this is without one bit of help in terms of pollination.
The above followup was added by Axel on November 04, 2009 at 9:23 pm PST.
i'm thinking of grafting my cherimoya seedlings with scionwood from Pierce, Fino de Jete and El Bumpo/Honeyhart. Do you know approximately the success rate percentage for grafting cherimoya?
The above followup was added by Rodney Cerritos, CA on November 04, 2009 at 11:03 pm PST.
Sucess is best when the rootstock is pushing in late Spring, but the scion wood needs to be dormant. You can place the scions in the fridge at 40-45F for about a week, but not colder than about 38F.
I've had good luck that way.
The above followup was added by Axel on November 05, 2009 at 7:13 am PST.
When do cherimoyas usually go dormant?
The above followup was added by Rodney Cerritos, CA on November 05, 2009 at 7:56 am PST.
I would love to find a Selma, but they seem quite a bit harder to find than most other types. I ended up ordering a Honey heart, and I will get a Pierce once I see how the Honeyheart from this nursery looks. They don't offer combined shipping so I figured I might as well see if they ship nice plants before ordering another from them.
Does anyone know of a nursey that does mail order and stocks Selma? Thanks for all of the help.
The above followup was added by John Vandegrift on November 05, 2009 at 8:56 am PST.
Rodney, cherimoyas are never 100% dormant, but are most dormant around March just before they start to molt, e.g. replace their leaves. Once they molt, it means the buds under the leaves have started to push out, thus pushing out the leaves, so that usually means the rootstock is beginning to push hard.
The best practice is to put the scion wood in the fridge to get it to go dormant.
John, I bought by selma from Jay Rusky, he's a cherimoya grower in Goleta and he doesn't ship. I don't know if he still propagates this variety. Back in 2005 I bought 5 trees from him. I kept two, but only recently planted them.
The above followup was added by Axel on November 05, 2009 at 9:14 am PST.
I favour seedlings over grafts. I don't think there has been enough selection to make grafts superior to most seedlings, and I have many seedlings from my 'white' tree which all taste the same. My trees all set good fruit quantities without hand-pollination.
IN my experience cherimoya seedlings fruit early. I suspect if you grew two seedlings from same tree, grafted one and planted the other as is, they would fruit at the same time. The extra time taken for the graft to set would compensate for the slightly later first-flowering of the seedling.
Maybe grafting is worthwhile if you really prefer one cv. over another, or have only enough space for one tree.
The above followup was added by Ben on November 05, 2009 at 11:07 am PST.
Axel, Do you have any Selma seeds laying around? I would be happy to pay you for them. I have been looking for a Selma tree for a while now, but I think it's time for me to give up on finding a tree and try to find a few seeds instead. Thanks for any help.
The above followup was added by John Vandegrift on November 05, 2009 at 11:25 am PST.
Does anyone know Ong's nursery website address? I have looked around a bit and can't seem to find it for some reason. Axel's review has got me back on the hunt for a "Selma" now.
The above followup was added by John on November 05, 2009 at 12:00 am PST.
Was http://www.geocities.com/quangong2/ but I see it is not working tonight
Try http://web.archive.org/web/20041126102555/http://www.geocities.com/quangong2/ for a old archibed copy
The above followup was added by pitangadiego on November 05, 2009 at 6:48 pm PST.
IMHO, cultivars often do show superior traits, not all cultivars are superior, as often people simply will pick a seedling they like and give it a name.
For example, Fino De Jete is an outstanding cultivar because it's prolific; it sets massive fruits on its own without any hand pollination.
In contrast, Elixir, which is somebody's seedling from the Orange County CRFG turns out to be terrible when it comes to fruit set. It sets ZERO fruits on its own.
Selma seeds do not produce pink fleshed seedlings every time, it's 30% of the seeds that will turn out pink fleshed. So there again, the cultivar is a much better bet.
I have 5 full grown seedlings. Only one is worthy to keep, it's prolific, and tastes amazingly good. The rest so far have not produced, or have produced some but the cold usually makes all the fruit drop.
So my vote favors cultivars over seedlings.
I am happy to provide selma wood.
The above followup was added by Axel on November 06, 2009 at 9:49 am PST.
What would be interesting would be to pollinate Selma with some of the other decent "borderline climate" types because it's possible that a small percentage of the seedlings might even be more cold tolerant with the genetic recombo thing going in.
The above followup was added by Brian on November 06, 2009 at 10:48 am PST.
I would love to try some budwood if you are willing. Is it best to graft now or closer to the spring? My trees down here seem to be still growing. Do you have an email address that I could contact you at? Thanks.
The above followup was added by John Vandegrift on November 06, 2009 at 11:10 am PST.
Axel,
if you have an extra piece of Selma after helping John, my paw paws should be big enough to send you some wood. I have Rebbecas Gold, Wells and maybe some Wilson plus other stuff for trade.
-Ethan
The above followup was added by Ethan-Bakersfield 9/9 on November 06, 2009 at 4:24 pm PST.
In my area Cherimoya trees will have dormant wood even while most of the tree is growing vigorously. This makes it easy for us. Wait until the rootstock is growing wildly and choose a scion piece that is still dormant. In other area with more chill this may not be the case.
BTW, I agree with Ben on the Cherimoya seedlings One method used to find good trees from seedlings is to plant multiple trees in one hole. As they mature remove the trees you do not want until the best one is left. With Cherimoya it will be plenty good and I remember reading somewhere that fraternal Cherimoya seedlings do not engage in root wars.
George
The above followup was added by George on November 08, 2009 at 8:56 pm PST.