Atemoya pollination experts please...

[Coach62]

I have a Geffner Atemoya that I ignored for a few days, and now it has a TON of flowers opening up.  It is my understanding that this strain is self pollinating, I just bought the tree a few months ago, it stands a good 8'-9' tall, and I paid a premium for its size and age of course and it appears very healthy. 

Questions:

1, should I attempt hand pollination for a Geffner?  It is surprising to inspect, flowers that are only open about 30% have no visible pollen, I assume they are female??  Flowers that are open much more have a lot of visible pollen, I assume male?  So it goes female day one, then male day 2?? 

2.  There are a LOT, and I mean a lot of flowers on this tree. I am taking good care of it, but it can't have much of a root spread.  It was in a 25 gallon pot and appears very healthy.  I'm assuming the consensus would be that I pinch most of the fruit to allow root development, agreed?? 

I plan on feeding it well, so far I'm impressed with the tree and plan on buying most of my stuff from this nursery in the future, it is located in Bokeelia. 

Thanks!

[Cythompson159@yahoo.com]

Not an expert but can share an experience, I planted a 10 gallon tree in February  that was missing its leaves from the winter. I planted it with the all best stuff  including 30 pounds of worm castings, as sook as all the new leaves broke buds there were flowers with almost every leave cluster. The bad thing was most of the flowers stopped growing before the made their 1" size and died before I could pollinate them. Think a late cold front that come thru in March killed them. I would let the tree do its thing and see what is pollinated first before deciding to do anything.

[achetadomestica]

Why not try and hand pollinate a couple flowers and mark them?
Later on you can see the results. I have some atemoyas and sugar apples that
were flattened by Irma and I had to stake up. All of them survived and are flowering
heavy now. ITS SPRING! Or probably we'll head straight into summer temps who knows.
Some of my trees last year fruited and not every flower produced a fruit. Sort of like an
orange the trees held a reasonable amount of fruit. If you have some time I would defintely
hand pollinate a couple flowers. Like everything else there is a great youtube video available.

Of all the trees effected by Irma Every Annona I had was flattened which may indicate how shallow their
roots really are. If your tree was in a 25 gallon it may not spread out as much as you think. Last year
was the first time I ate sugar apples and atemoyas. What a delight.

[Linh]

You get better yield if you hand polinate. The flower just open is female. it takes one to two days later it becomes male, once it is fully open. I use very small, pin point soft brush to handle the pollens
I usually collect pollens from the male flowers after 5 pm into miniature container with lid. I store the pollens in the fridge. The next day mid afternoon when it is hot afternoon. Do the sniff test you can smell the fragrant. This is good time to pollinate. Female flowers are ready and easy to accept pollens. I don’t pollinate all flowers at once. Only few each day so I will have different sizes of fruit, thus in the future I can harvest fruits slower over several months.
I like to pollinate these guys late in the season, so I can have fruits during this season. Personal preference.
I have been harvesting atemoya fruits since beginning of February and probably will be into May.
I usually don’t pollinate the flowers too high on top. I am concern over winter months, the cold humidity air cause the fruits to crack. Rarely, the fruits under the leaves of canopy get crack.
Good luck, it will be exciting!

[Coach62]

Will do, have a black cup and paintbrush ready, thanks

One more question, I have male and female flowers open simultaneously, everyone says to store the pollen and pollinate the next day.  I assume there is no reason I can't just pollinate the same night, correct?

As to your Irma damaged trees, I lost a lot of trees in the floodwaters of Irma.  2 weeks of standing water over here.  Did anyone have any atemoyas survive several days of standing water?  It killed my peaches, passionfruit, plums, jackfruit, soursop and more.  Oddly enough, all of my cactus, including dragonfruit were unscathed by the flood - go figure!

[Linh]

Yes you can do both at the same time. Pretend that you are an insect going from one flower to the next. The reason I also mentioned the fragrant is what attracts ants to crawl around and also the flowers send out its signal.

[cbss_daviefl]

1) My geffner does not self pollinate. Yes, the 30% are female and the fully open ones are male.  http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=5687.msg194935#msg194935

2) I would not let a tree that has only been in the ground a few months fruit. You spent a lot of money on the tree so why chance it. It should not be impossible for you to find someone selling geffner within driving distance.

[Linh]

Yes the fruits after the first year in the ground not worth eating. By the third year on, it is the best. You can graft any atemoya on to mature cherimoya/atemoya, the fruits first year usually turn out very good. I grafted a Lisa scion to my three yo AP. The fruits turned out better than my original Lisa plant in the ground.

[Coach62]

I agree with what you're saying on allowing the tree to fruit, but it is at least 9' tall and budding like crazy.  I don't think leaving a few fruits on it will hurt it, especially as attentive as I am the first year or two to my trees. 

I did pollinate several flowers tonight.  I'll do a few more in a few weeks.  Then I'll pinch off all but a few fruits once I think we're done with the normal drop.

I've never had an atemoya, really looking forward to it. 

Oddly enough, I have an 8' jackfruit tree that is not blooming, and I have a 3' tree that doesn't look nearly as healthy and has some small blooms on it.  Go figure!  And the small one that is budding, was free!