Rollinia Droppping flowers

[starling1]

My rollinia is dropping flowers and I'm not getting fruit set. Any ideas? Maybe I'm giving it too much water?

[michsu]

Mine is not having flowers.. that's the problem  Sorry I can't be much help until I get some flowers..

[fruitlovers]

My rollinia is dropping flowers and I'm not getting fruit set. Any ideas? Maybe I'm giving it too much water?

If it's a young  plant that's pretty normal. Even once they start setting fruit they drop over 90% of the flowers, sort of like mango. I think rollinia needs high level of humidity for the flowers to set fruit. If you're dry you might want to set up an overhead mister.

[cbss_daviefl]

Have you tried hand pollination?  BMc posted this: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8780.0

Guanabanus (Har) has stated that zinc and boron deficiencies may contribute to reduced fruit set of annonas.  Not sure if it applies to rollinias.

[BMc]

Gotta hand pollinate early season flowers. Late season flowers set at about 1%. I've hand pollinated three times this season and have a few dozen fruits forming, all from the hand pollinated flowers. The days I take off, none of the flowers set. Also, the flowers that set late in the season when there is more moisture often don't ripen until winter and taste far inferior to summer fruit IMO. I've posted a thread on how to do it on here before.

[BMc]

Have you tried hand pollination?  BMc posted this: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8780.0

Guanabanas (Har) has stated that zinc and boron deficiencies may contribute to reduced fruit set of annonas.  Not sure if it applies to rollinias.

Good point, most of the Brisbane area is notoriously low in Boron. Applications will help many fruit trees perform better. A new product called Organibor is touted as the best thing, especially as it is hard to overdose and is supposedly more kind to soil ecology. I've got a half bag I need to throw about this evening hoping for the storm to wash it in tomorrow.

[starling1]

Gotta hand pollinate early season flowers. Late season flowers set at about 1%. I've hand pollinated three times this season and have a few dozen fruits forming, all from the hand pollinated flowers. The days I take off, none of the flowers set. Also, the flowers that set late in the season when there is more moisture often don't ripen until winter and taste far inferior to summer fruit IMO. I've posted a thread on how to do it on here before.

Thanks, looks like I've got another species that requires hand pollination, then. Truthfully I'd hoped this wouldn't be necessary because I barely have time to hand pollinate the dragons, and by the looks of  your post hand pollinating rollinia is a lot more fiddly. I've got a little grove of them, six trees, only one is flowering. They're in long row with canistels, black sapote and sapodilla. Grafted versions bit the dust pretty early in the game and I went back to seedlings.

[fruitlovers]

Never hand pollinated a single rollinia ever, and i get tons of them. More likely it has to do with your dry climate. Possible also you lack natural pollinators.

[BMc]

Yes Oscar, you are obviously in a more humid climate. We have a very dry start to the spring and often summer and by the time the tree self pollinates the fruit usually aren't much good. That's for younger trees though. Once they get bigger usually more flowers start to open at the same time and you get better x-pollination. If you have a grove you should get different trees flowering at complementary times though. There are small beetles which will pollinate flowers. I see them all the time, but they don't seem to be able to keep pollen viable for 24-36 hours, which you need when you have just one tree. Mate had a huge tree down by the bay and his rained fruit, so they should self pollinate eventually.

Rollinia is one of the first words my son said. He loves them so much that I'd feel bad if I didn't hand pollinate them and get a good crop for him.

[fruitlovers]

A member in Canary islands had same problem. I suggested using a mister during flowering time to keep humidity high, and that did the trick. That seems easier to me than hand pollinating, but maybe not if water is really scarce?

[FlyingFoxFruits]

My rollinia is dropping flowers and I'm not getting fruit set. Any ideas? Maybe I'm giving it too much water?

In my experience, some trees just don't set as much fruit...I have had many trees that flowered but weren't productive....but luckily I found a variety that sets a high percentage of fruits.

[BMc]

A member in Canary islands had same problem. I suggested using a mister during flowering time to keep humidity high, and that did the trick. That seems easier to me than hand pollinating, but maybe not if water is really scarce?

Water isn't usually scarce and we usually aren't too dry. Just an average true sub tropical coastal climate. Its just that we have a dry period when rollinia don't like it, but it works pretty well for mangoes. I may put in a mister when I get a better irrigation system put in, but for now I gotta say I actually really enjoy hand pollinating when I can. The smell is amazing and its nice to come home after work and just fiddle with flowers. I usually get out there at 9pm with my miners LED headlight and paintbrush. Its kind of therapeutic. But in time I'll invest more into irrigation in general including misting systems for the anonas and maybe some others (garcinias, artocarpus, star apples?).