Na Dai Sugar Apple

[Frog Valley Farm]

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[achetadomestica]

I have fruit on 3 trees right now and will be trying it for the first time soon. My oldest fruit has
turned color but the fruit is still very hard. I thought I should wait until the fruit softens to harvest?
I ate a different unidentified one a couple weeks ago and the owner cut if off the tree and it was soft.
It was really good I am really anxious to try my Na Dai.

[Mugenia]

Nice. Man you guys make me wanna to move to southern Florida.

[achetadomestica]

I went for a walk this morning and all the fruit was on the tree. I wrote the post above and within
an hour I walked outside and my first Na Dai was laying on the ground soft and ready to eat. I swear
it was rock hard yesterday. I ate half and cooled the other half. It's the first time I've tried it cooled and
it definitely changes the texture a bit. I could enjoy it either way but usually eat fruit room temperature.
What a great day I ate more then 10 red jabos, 1 makok sapodilla, 6 peanut butter fruit, and my first Na Dai
sugar apple and a few muntingia. The cardinals beat me to the Barbados cherries.

Just out of curiosity have you tried the Kampong Mauve sugar apple yet? How does it compare?

[Frog Valley Farm]

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[koundog]

Sweet pass your yard quite a bit amazing to see how much it has grown

[FruitFreak]

Nice fruit.  What is your spacing ?

[Mikey]

Can suga apple such as na Dao or big red grow in Southern California without grafting on a root stoke? Can they survive Southern California winter?

[Frog Valley Farm]

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[Mugenia]

From what I heard from a nursery owner in Southern California,  na dai won't survive there. He said he's selling them because there's a big demand for them here. But he won't recommend them to me.

Can suga apple such as na Dao or big red grow in Southern California without grafting on a root stoke? Can they survive Southern California winter?

[bsbullie]

From what I heard from a nursery owner in Southern California,  na dai won't survive there. He said he's selling them because there's a big demand for them here. But he won't recommend them to me.

Can suga apple such as na Dao or big red grow in Southern California without grafting on a root stoke? Can they survive Southern California winter?

What was the nursery owner's reasoning for saying it wouldn't survive in SoCal?

[FruitFreak]

I have alternating rows about 12ft apart with trees spaced every 10 ft. of Sugar Apple and attemoya.  The Attemoya 3 types  were planted this year.  There are also some Custard Apple and Illama interspersed thru ought the attemoya.  All organically grown of course.

Nice.  I have mine spaced 10' apart but 25' between rows for equipment, mulching, etc.  What organic feed are you using?  Keeping those circles free of weeds looks like fun

[Mugenia]

Coldness. He told me to wait until he has na grafted on cherimoya rootstock. 

[Frog Valley Farm]

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[floridays]

Looks great and I'm glad you enjoyed the variety!

Ironically I was on 12th street today and saw several rows of sugar apples, was that your place?

[wayne23]

From what I heard from a nursery owner in Southern California,  na dai won't survive there. He said he's selling them because there's a big demand for them here. But he won't recommend them to me.

Can suga apple such as na Dao or big red grow in Southern California without grafting on a root stoke? Can they survive Southern California winter?

What was the nursery owner's reasoning for saying it wouldn't survive in SoCal?

I had the same experience.  I have purchased several fruit trees from this nursery including El Bumpo, Booth cherimoya, and ilama, so there was no reason to doubt him.  His concern is the tree may not survive the winter without a greenhouse protection.  I think a mature sugar apple can survive Southern Cali weather.  I have 2 other atemoyas.  I will be looking for Na Dai scion 

[achetadomestica]

From what I heard from a nursery owner in Southern California,  na dai won't survive there. He said he's selling them because there's a big demand for them here. But he won't recommend them to me.

Can suga apple such as na Dao or big red grow in Southern California without grafting on a root stoke? Can they survive Southern California winter?

 
What was the nursery owner's reasoning for saying it wouldn't survive in SoCal?

I had the same experience.  I have purchased several fruit trees from this nursery including El Bumpo, Booth cherimoya, and ilama, so there was no reason to doubt him.  His concern is the tree may not survive the winter without a greenhouse protection.  I think a mature sugar apple can survive Southern Cali weather.  I have 2 other atemoyas.  I will be looking for Na Dai scion 

If the winter kills the tree the rootstock may survive and put out a new tree. If the rootstock is cherimoya then you will
have a generic cherimoya, I live in 9b in Florida, what I did was plant 4 seedling Na Dai plugs I bought. I put them in a
3 gallon and they grew nicely the first year and I bumped them into 7 gallon pot and then a 15 gallon pot. They flowered the
first year without fruit set. The winter was mild we had one night that was 37F with a strong wind chill probably around 32F,
I didn't protect the pots and they were fine. The trees were pushing 5 feet, in the spring I put 2 in the ground on the south side
of my house in the most protected spot. Later I planted the other 2 on the south side but not next to the house, Now the trees are
6'-8' and 3 out of 4 are full of fruit. If we have cold weather I mulch heavy and I would water heavy on the cold nights.
If my trees die back the rootstock is still Na Dai and hopefully will grow back. This is an experiment but I can't see the
advantage of planting a grafted sugar apple as apposed to a seedling? My understanding is that a tree grown from a seed
has a better root structure and is more cold tolerant. My sugar apples are full of fruit in 2 years and are pushing 8'. I have seeds
now if you want to try growing one from seed and see?  If you want seeds PM me.

[wayne23]

If the winter kills the tree the rootstock may survive and put out a new tree. If the rootstock is cherimoya then you will
have a generic cherimoya, I live in 9b in Florida, what I did was plant 4 seedling Na Dai plugs I bought. I put them in a
3 gallon and they grew nicely the first year and I bumped them into 7 gallon pot and then a 15 gallon pot. They flowered the
first year without fruit set. The winter was mild we had one night that was 37F with a strong wind chill probably around 32F,
I didn't protect the pots and they were fine. The trees were pushing 5 feet, in the spring I put 2 in the ground on the south side
of my house in the most protected spot. Later I planted the other 2 on the south side but not next to the house, Now the trees are
6'-8' and 3 out of 4 are full of fruit. If we have cold weather I mulch heavy and I would water heavy on the cold nights.
If my trees die back the rootstock is still Na Dai and hopefully will grow back. This is an experiment but I can't see the
advantage of planting a grafted sugar apple as apposed to a seedling? My understanding is that a tree grown from a seed
has a better root structure and is more cold tolerant. My sugar apples are full of fruit in 2 years and are pushing 8'. I have seeds
now if you want to try growing one from seed and see?  If you want seeds PM me.

I am actually growing a sugar apple from seed.  My brother in-law collected 2 seeds from a delicious sugar apple he ate while visiting Vietnam.  Both seeds germinated and he gave me one of the trees.  It's about a year old and nearly 2 feet tall.  His is actually 3x the size.  Hence he gave me the smaller tree.  I'll be damn if my tree end up producing better tasting fruits  .  Meanwhile I will keep it in container and protect it when winter here.  I thought it takes 5 years plus for sugar apple seedling to bear fruit.  Now I am thinking perhaps I should install a small greenhouse to speed up the process.  Cuz my jackfruit tree also suffer from poor California weather.  It grew only like 2 inches thus far this year.  My tropical plants will love me 

[Frog Valley Farm]

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[floridays]

Thanks, yes that would be us.

That's cool, I hope all goes well for you guys. It seems to be a great area for planting.

Scott