The Tropical Fruit Forum

If it’s the common guava then I use 37°f as the lowest I allow it to be exposed. Any lower and the mature leaves turn red or defoliate.  At this time of year, I don’t bother with sheltering them at all since all new growth aids in production of flowers. You can even blast them with full sun all summer long and they take it like a champ as long as there is adequate drainage and no root rot going on.

The last one looks to be Crescentia species. In El Salvador, the seeds are used to make a drink called horchata.

 In my opinion, I don’t see anything wrong with using low analysis organic fertilizer low in nitrogen for example worm castings to keep the plant happy and minimize nutrient deficiencies during the winter. Once it warms up more consistently you could probably use your normal fertilizing regimen.

If possible, I would experiment with fabric pots in the future. Only issue with 1 gallon fabric pots is that you have to water consistently, but if your consistent with the watering, then you will have a smaller taproot with more fibrous root system that you can decide if you want uppot into a larger conventional pot or continue with a larger fabric pot in the future or directly plant inground with little to no transplant shock.

They are one of my favorite fruits. Taste is subjective and I’m not very good at describing, but to me they have a more complex taste unlike sugar apples. They have a berry taste with some acidity but not to the level of a guanábana. Depending on the region and genetics, the ones with white pulp can be just sweet but still better tasting then sugar apples or berry flavored like the pink ones. If properly ripened I believe you would like it as well. So if it those don’t taste quite right, I would give it another shot on one’s that have cracked. Plus the seeds on the ones you have are probably to a point where you can plant them next year and graft on to them if you desired for better compatibility.

This is my second attempt at growing an ilama. Not the best looking sapling, but so far this second attempt is working in my favor. It’s currently going through it’s second year of growth from seed. In my opinion, I would strongly recommend against defoliating it anytime during the winter in your climate. The leaves that have matured are unaffected unlike fresh new leaves. Believe it or not, those mature leaves are what are keeping the tree alive. Ilamas don’t go dormant in the same sense as maple or oak tree. In its native habitat, drought is what keeps a tree semi dormant. In our climate, low temperatures are what keep a tree semi dormant. But their are still proceses in its semi dormancy occurring that are not visible to us. So please let the leaves drop naturally until it warms up for you to see it actively growing again. In my second attempt I chose to use fabric pots. I did this to prolong the life of the leaves and roots. Rotting roots cause premature leaf drop which causes ilamas to flush sometimes in the winter in warm enough weather and I can’t help watering In the winter. I was still able to keep the trees old leaves through most of the winter even with watering. I read somewhere that someone was able to keep ilama alive without watering in the winter in regular plastic pots but I can’t vouch for that. One added benefit of fabric pots is it will help with the Sun and heat not cooking your roots in the summer and keep premature flushing in the winter if it warms up to early before the last frost. I considered investing in lights, but most of what I see in stores nowadays are led based which emit no UV rays. The older bulbs like incandescents and fluorescents emit some but I am not sure if they are worth it. And Most uv lights sold online aren’t meant to be used an entire season or they will roast your plants or be bad for you if exposed too much. Personally, I feel that if you can prolong the health of the mature leaves, then it’s possible to keep the tree alive and healthy an entire winter season.

Yea dense soils can get compacted easily with rain depriving roots of oxygen over time. One of the things that I like about fabric pots is if you set them on the ground the fabric does a better job of draining the excess water more no matter soil density. The ground behaves like a dry paper towel that you set the corner in water and absorbs it. Drilling holes is ok only if the base with the hole and soil somehow has intimate contact with the ground because the bottom of the pot is where most of the water is saturated. But if there is no intimate contact then you still have the same issue as if you didn’t make the holes and the soil remains saturated until it naturally dries out. So in the end the soil in your conventional pots needs to either be further modified or the material of the pot needs to change where it’s porous and allow you to continue to use soil that has given you issues in the conventional pots. In my opinion and not as important, I feel fabric pots handle root temperatures better. If you think about it, trees in the ground have their roots under the canopy and temperatures for those roots are usually lower then air temp. In my opinion I feel like conventional pots cook those roots in when air temps are soaring. I wish you the best!

Is your soil dry or soggy? If it’s soggy and it doesn’t dry out enough in between waterings or rain then you might have root rot. Damaged roots can’t absorb nutrients effectively even if you fertilize them. As for your longans, maybe the roots are better adapted at handling the current conditions.

Sent pm! Thanks so much!

Quote from: kh0110 on August 05, 2022, 02:28:16 PM

Hey Bob, looks like Ilama trees do well under island climate. Have you tried to cross them with Sugar Apple?

I use ilama pollens on different squamosas I have. I’m waiting to see how the fruits develop this season or if they will drop off.

That sounds interesting. I have yet to come across any naturally occurring hybrids in El Salvador and I’ve seen them growing together. It doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Maybe someone on here has successfully produced a hybrid or read reports on verified hybrid of the two? Hope you have something on the flowers to prevent cross pollination if you have pollinators. Keep us updated!

The ones I’ve had in that color had an amazing flavor! I’ll take that one over the white fleshed or light pink varieties any day. I’m not sure if it’s a regional name where I’ve had those but they would call those in particular anona Caribe or something like that. The skin also has a purple tone like the flesh, at least the ones I’ve seen.

@Faldon, You are correct, intumescence and edema are reported to happen mostly in the greenhouse and indoor growing environments which makes it challenging for those who try to grow or overwinter ilamas in pots or containers.  I find it interesting that you mention that an older tree shows less issues with this. I wonder why that is and if it’s true for most older ilamas in containers.

@Guanabanus, no problem, Glad I could share what I’ve learned from my own experiences with this wonderful and tasty anonna species!

I’ve had those issues with my seedlings and Ilama grafts on cherimoya. It’s either intumescence or edema or a mixture. It’s a physiological response and not one caused by disease or nutrient deficiencies. Unfortunately there isn’t any definitive solutions to the problem and there are still studies to find out what causes it for other plants such as in some cultivars of tomatoes and sweet potato. In my experience I’ve had happen mostly on cloudy, gloomy and rainy weather. Edema and intumescence are different by the way but because they look similar they are sometimes used interchangeably. Intumescence is light quality specifically lack of enough ultraviolet light while edema is related to too much water uptake through the roots and the leaves aren’t able to output it fast enough and results in the blisters, high humidity and  low temperatures may tie in as well. Grow lights with just the visible light spectrum do not help btw. Currently I’m testing one in a fabric pot to see if it a problem with the water uptake, but i see one spot so far on that seedling but no leaf loss as of yet. I may test it with pondapple rootstock and see if that solves it. If it doesn’t, then I may consider it a lost cause since if it is light quality then that is beyond my control. Sad because I do enjoy eating the fruit in my families country and really wanted to grow it in Texas.

Just want to add that oddly enough, it only occurs during the development of the leaf, not before when you have a tiny leaf bud, and not after the leaf has fully grown and hardened. And I manage to get those leaves to harden off when there is no overcast and rainy, or chilly weather.