Rollinia/Biriba (a. mucosa) Hand Pollination

[roblack]

Hey everyone.

I'm having some trouble hand pollinating rollinia/biriba. Female flowers and male flowers are showing up a day or 2 apart from each other. Can I refrigerate or freeze the pollen for the next round of female flowers? Or, is there another way to store viable pollen for a day or 2?

[roblack]

Think I found my answer here:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8780.0

Seems pollen can be refrigerated for a up to a day or more. Should solve my problem, and will hopefully lead to a bunch of fruit. Tired of getting only a few fruit off this tree, as it is really good.

[Canvo]

Yeah Rob, I refrigerate my pollen, usually only lasts a day for me. Sometimes it is not long enough but often it is, I have 40+ fruits due to start ripening in a few weeks, at first I was worried I had over done it, but as it turns out the tree is handling it well. Best of luck

[Jungle Yard]

Yeah Rob, I refrigerate my pollen, usually only lasts a day for me. Sometimes it is not long enough but often it is, I have 40+ fruits due to start ripening in a few weeks, at first I was worried I had over done it, but as it turns out the tree is handling it well. Best of luck

If you won't hand pollinate, will your tree still set fruits? I understand it will be less to harvest.

[fisherking73]

Depends where u are. My Rollinia will not set fruit with out hand pollination. Guess no proper pollinators in my area. As for handpollination I have had success storing pollen and pollinating when flowers change.

[Finca La Isla]

We don’t really need to pollinate any fruit trees, especially rollinia.  But, I’m wondering, don’t you have any of the stingless, melipona bees, in Florida?

[Jungle Yard]

We don’t really need to pollinate any fruit trees, especially rollinia.  But, I’m wondering, don’t you have any of the stingless, melipona bees, in Florida?

Melipona bees are found from Mexico to Argentina. But we have 300+ native bee species in Florida.

[Canvo]

I have a small beetle that helps out for me, but hand pollinating certainly increases production though especially in the fringe months

[roblack]

Found a small beetle in one of the male flowers whilst gathering pollen. Seems like the same problem would exist unless the beetles have little fridges to keep the pollen fresh.

Have harvested a few fruits without hand pollination, but not nearly enough for the tree size. On a mission to get some production out of this tree!

Hopefully will update soon with some nice fruit set. 

[Finca La Isla]

I’m not sure what you would use but traditionally people here will plant bushes and small trees solely for the purpose of supporting native pollinators.

[roblack]

We have a lot of flowering plants for butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and whatever else. Not sure what plants would bring in rollinia pollinators though. Any ideas?

[PurpleAlligator]

Early flowers allowed me to gather pollen and hand pollinate ate the same time. My 3 year old tree now has around 30 fruit set and growing. I did another round of hand pollination but did need to gather the pollen and store it for a day or two. I’ll know soon if it was successful.

I gathered the pollen in a plastic lid for a mason jar then put it in a ziplock bag and stored it in my wine fridge as my regular fridge is below 40 degrees and I don’t know if that’s too cold for the pollen.

Here’s the fruit from the initial set.

[achetadomestica]

Not sure how much help a bee would be? I went out a couple nights
ago to my Lisa atemoya which set a fair amount of fruit last year. The male flowers
were wide open and I tapped them with a paint brush and several of them the wing fell
off and there was a fair amount of pollen that went with it on my blue plate. But when
I brushed the pollen into the female flower I just don't see bees being able to open the
petals??? I did notice allot of black small beetles which are probably doing the trick.
I got fruit last year but I noticed nothing started setting until May when it got more humid?
I have another atemoya that didn't set any fruit last year and I am determined to maximize
production this year including my sugar apples. I guess I am lucky there were so many male
and female flowers I didn't have to worry about storing the pollen. How far apart should the fruit
be?

[roblack]

Success!





Yeah Ache, I've noticed the beetles as well. Bees cannot pollinate rollinia. The problem is the timing of the male and female flowers. Seems I'm getting more crossover lately, with a couple of male flowers accompanying a bunch of females. Hand pollinating fresh or refrigerated pollen about 3 times a week.

I've heard the beetles like leaves and mulch beneath the tree. 

No idea on fruit spacing. Looking forward to having an overload problem.

[Alejandro45]

I do agree with having mulch and allowing leaves to for a habitat underneath for the lesser known pollinators that do their work at night. I have seen small beetles, flies, and roaches that look very much like a beetle out at night in mango flowers and in tilo flowers hands down the smallest and tightest flower I have ever seen. Roblack do the flowers close at night? 

[Cookie Monster]

My rollinia seems to produce gobs of fruit without hand pollination. The trick is generally tree health -- water, fertilization and protection from leafhoppers. For the first several years that I grew annonas, I had terrible luck with them, but I've now come to understand that it was mainly lack of fertilization: boron, zinc, and nitrogen being most influential.

[roblack]

I do agree with having mulch and allowing leaves to for a habitat underneath for the lesser known pollinators that do their work at night. I have seen small beetles, flies, and roaches that look very much like a beetle out at night in mango flowers and in tilo flowers hands down the smallest and tightest flower I have ever seen. Roblack do the flowers close at night? 

Got the beetles and some kind of little moth that might be working on the flowers.

No. Flowers do not close at night/ever, once open. Early evening (or later) is actually a good time to gather pollen and/or hand pollinate.

I agree with you Jeff regarding annonas needing fert. Rollinia wasn't even flowering well until fed, and now flowers heavily with periodic feedings. It has held fruit before with no help, just never more than 4 or 5 at a time.

How often do you fertilize your annonas? Eyeballing my Geffner with one measly flower. 

[Cookie Monster]

Once a quarter with slow release 8-2-12 and minors. Several pounds per tree.

How often do you fertilize your annonas? Eyeballing my Geffner with one measly flower.

[roblack]

Thanks Jeff! That helps.

[mangokothiyan]

Once a quarter with slow release 8-2-12 and minors. Several pounds per tree.

How often do you fertilize your annonas? Eyeballing my Geffner with one measly flower.

How big are your trees, Jeff? Mine is about 3 years old, has a lot of flowers on them, and I've fed it 8-2-12 as well as some 0-3-16.

 

[Cookie Monster]

The biriba is probably getting close to 12 feet? In ground for about 2 years. They fly out of the ground.

Once a quarter with slow release 8-2-12 and minors. Several pounds per tree.

How often do you fertilize your annonas? Eyeballing my Geffner with one measly flower.

How big are your trees, Jeff? Mine is about 3 years old, has a lot of flowers on them, and I've fed it 8-2-12 as well as some 0-3-16.

[skhan]

My rollinia seems to produce gobs of fruit without hand pollination. The trick is generally tree health -- water, fertilization and protection from leafhoppers. For the first several years that I grew annonas, I had terrible luck with them, but I've now come to understand that it was mainly lack of fertilization: boron, zinc, and nitrogen being most influential.

I read Iron as well.

What type of additional Zinc and Boron are you adding?
I've been adding a few tsp of zinc sulfate to my fertigation system.

[Guanabanus]

Atemoya pollen can be refrigerated a week or more, in small containers, provided  other flower parts aren't in the container, and provided Calcium Chloride flakes (dessicant product) are included with the pollen.  I would guess that Rollinia pollen, which appears very similar to atemoya pollen, would also be workable the same way.

[roblack]

Early flowers allowed me to gather pollen and hand pollinate ate the same time. My 3 year old tree now has around 30 fruit set and growing. I did another round of hand pollination but did need to gather the pollen and store it for a day or two. I’ll know soon if it was successful.

I gathered the pollen in a plastic lid for a mason jar then put it in a ziplock bag and stored it in my wine fridge as my regular fridge is below 40 degrees and I don’t know if that’s too cold for the pollen.

Here’s the fruit from the initial set.

Your pics shared hope and got me motivated!

Much appreciation for the desiccant tip Har. Going to try that for sure. If pollen can last a week, hand pollination gets a lot easier.

Was looking at the tree today and had trouble counting all the tiny fruit. Wondering, how much fruit can my tree hold? Probably 10 feet tall; would be taller but chopped the top a couple of times. Trunk has to be 7 inch diameter or more, too relaxed to go check.

[roblack]

This is how it looks all over the underside of the tree.





Can anyone chime in about if this amount of fruit so close to each other is okay? Is thinning needed, or should I go for more? As it stands, still pollinating. Has become a ritual.