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Work with what you have. If you have five feet, use it!But if you plant them six feet apart, they will be safer from the current contagion... Carolyn
Preferably 12-14. I have them 8 apart and I have to prune 2-3 x a year and I still get aphids honeydew, slugs, spiders, caterpillars all the pathogens....after 3-4 years you will run into these issues if you plant them that close.
I'm doing 10' spacing and know going in, it will be tough to keep airflow through the canopies. In the event you're planting even closer, I would recommend just approach grafting the two into a single tree, and having a multi-graft canopy. That should be pretty manageable versus 5' trunk to trunk. Even having a single tree in a space that tight will be a pruning effort, but for annona, it's worth trying.
I rather have many small trees than few big trees.My atemoya are 4-5 apart, around 4 tall5 spacing is perfect for me.Atemoya are easy to control size.Mid March shorten the branches.In July pinch the new tips to stop the tree from getting taller.With 12-15 leaves left its enough to feed the fruits and grow thicker trunk.