Sugar apple pollination experiment

[gnappi]

I figured the day would come when my sugar apples would be too large to hand pollinate, so this year with them both getting rather tall, I stopped doing it by hand. The first two branches I watched closely had 7 flowers on them and as the dead flowers fell two stuck and the two little fruits are developing nicely. Coincidentally this is about the same rate of fruiting as I got with hand pollination over the last few years.

Granted it's only a few flowers, but as I watch them I hope that I see similar results over the next few weeks. Has anyone else left their sugar apples alone and watched them for fruit development?

 

[Jani]

Not a hijack but quick sidenote...i currently have lots of flowers at the same female stage this morning..and very little pollen collected to hand pollinate... there's a row of pond apples with plenty flowers by the canal near me..can  i collect pollen for hand pollinating the sugar apple?

[TheDom]

Not a hijack but quick sidenote...i currently have lots of flowers at the same female stage this morning..and very little pollen collected to hand pollinate... there's a row of pond apples with plenty flowers by the canal near me..can  i collect pollen for hand pollinating the sugar apple?

You can try, but they're not likely to take since pond apple is more closely related to soursop than sugar apple. If they did, there'd be a good chance of your sugar apples tasting less than desirable because of pseudo-xenic effects seen in annonas, which means the pollen source can change the quality of the fruit.

[TheDom]

I figured the day would come when my sugar apples would be too large to hand pollinate, so this year with them both getting rather tall, I stopped doing it by hand. The first two branches I watched closely had 7 flowers on them and as the dead flowers fell two stuck and the two little fruits are developing nicely. Coincidentally this is about the same rate of fruiting as I got with hand pollination over the last few years.

Granted it's only a few flowers, but as I watch them I hope that I see similar results over the next few weeks. Has anyone else left their sugar apples alone and watched them for fruit development?

My money would be on the difference being the % of large symmetrical fruit, not so much the % fruit set overall. I'm interested to see what other folks experience has been. There's a local grower here in SWFL with a few acres of sugar apples. He doesn't do any hand pollination that I know of, and his trees set about as well as mine does with hand pollination. My tree is a seedling from one of his and is pretty well identical in fruit appearance and quality. I definitely got larger fruit on average than I saw at his place.

[cbss_daviefl]

I have left trees to do there own thing when I feel they need a break and the fruit that form are often counted on one hand and smaller.  Hand pollination will get me 10 times the number of fruit.  If your results are not better with hand pollinating, something is wrong in technique or the trees may have nutritional deficiencies preventing fruit set/abortion.  It took me a few seasons to get it right. When Har speaks, I listen.   I typically have to thin the trees after the fruit get to an inch diameter. I still have nutritional deficiencies that cause the fruit to be small or maybe I do not thin enough. I have only hand pollinated custard apples for one season but I had poor results, only 3 fruit on 1 tree, 2 trees no fruit. 

[gnappi]

Ten times? Whoa, that means you get 100% pollination. It's not rocket science, I've seen videos and followed all of the directions I could get my hands on. But as it is I have enough trees to keep me eating sugar apples without the PITA of participating in a sex act with a tree :-)

[cbss_daviefl]

Yes, 10 times. Not a hard multiple when my trees only sets 1 to 5 fruit.  I do not have Annona pollinating insects and I am left to pick up the slack.   

100% pollination, no. Even my sugar apple trees in 7 gal pots produce 50+ flowers.  I have never bothered to scientifically measure my rate of success but I can say based on casual observation it is very high. I only hand pollinate a 1 - 2 flowers per branch. Occasionally, I have to repeat a branch.     

Sugar apples are good but the effort is better spent on atemoyas, rollinias, and soursop, using the same basic principals with adjustments to the time of day.

[TheDom]

I have nitidulid beetles in abundance, and I don't think my multiplier is anywhere close to 10x on my sugar apple. On my Gefner atemoya though, fruit set is easily 6x, possibly as high as 10x with hand pollination.

[Guanabanus]

Pond-Apple pollen up Sugar-Apple flowers--- been there, done that.  Large fruits, disgusting inedible pulp, and just sick liquid inside the seed coats.

[Cookie Monster]

I get strong fruit set on my annonas with natural pollination. The fruit tend to be misshapen though. The key to getting strong fruit set on my trees was:

 - Weekly spraying for leaf hoppers
 - Fertilization with nitrogen
 - Regular irrigation*

*Irrigation seems to be very important for fruit set, retention, and growth. Before I had my irrigation set up, my annonas were tiny and grew ultra slowly. With irrigation, they grow really quickly.

Har taught me how to hand pollinate guanabana. The hand pollinated guanabanas are literally the size of a football, weighing over 5 pounds, and near perfectly cylindrically shaped. Naturally pollinated fruits are misshapen and small.

[cbss_daviefl]

This year, I installed solenoid valves, ran 700' of electrical wire, and installed a rachio controller. My annonas now get watered twice a week.  In Feb, I used Harilizer, March, I put down some 8-10-10 (for my low phosphates), and last Monday I put down some 8-2-12. Some of my page atemoyas, first to flower, are about 3 inches already. Last year, not many got bigger than 3.5 inches.

It is now after 8:30pm so time to go pollinate the soursops.

[Cookie Monster]

haha nice! Your findings have mirrored mine. My atemoyas go from fruit set to 1 inch in a week (vs like 2 months without irrigation)! It's surprising how big of an impact regular watering has. Glad to hear that you're getting good results.

This year, I installed solenoid valves, ran 700' of electrical wire, and installed a rachio controller. My annonas now get watered twice a week.  In Feb, I used Harilizer, March, I put down some 8-10-10 (for my low phosphates), and last Monday I put down some 8-2-12. Some of my page atemoyas, first to flower, are about 3 inches already. Last year, not many got bigger than 3.5 inches.

It is now after 8:30pm so time to go pollinate the soursops.

[gnappi]

Yes, 10 times. Not a hard multiple when my trees only sets 1 to 5 fruit.  I do not have Annona pollinating insects and I am left to pick up the slack.      100% pollination, no.

Sugar apples are good but the effort is better spent on atemoyas, rollinias, and soursop, using the same basic principals with adjustments to the time of day.

Ah, enlightenment, thanks. My past year observations are on a whole of 50+ flowers per tree and I've had ~15-20 fruits from each. This year will tell me if I can expect similar results.

For sure I think Jeff is right about the deformation but considering the trouble to do it, and the fact that most flowers are now higher up in the canopy, I'll take natural pollination and a bit of deformation.

I keep them watered like others do twice a week, but I've never seen leaf hoppers whilst examining the leaves, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

[cbss_daviefl]

This picture is a big red seedling in a 7 gal.  I did not follow my 1 - 3 per branch rule.  18 fruit clearly visible in 1.5 square feet of branches. Hello, my name is Brandon and I have a problem . 

The reason this happened is because this tree is under daily morning irrigation and I thought the flowers being wet might affect the viability of the pollen. I guess wet pollen works just fine. 

[Cookie Monster]

Nice! You check out the Senninger wobblers for your irrigation heads. Those yellow whirly birds require a higher pressure and don't have as nice of a distribution pattern. The plastic also degrades quickly -- I had to replace mine about once every 1 - 2 years, otherwise they would just snap, sending a fountain of water into the air.

This picture is a big red seedling in a 7 gal.  I did not follow my 1 - 3 per branch rule.  18 fruit clearly visible in 1.5 square feet of branches. Hello, my name is Brandon and I have a problem . 

The reason this happened is because this tree is under daily morning irrigation and I thought the flowers being wet might affect the viability of the pollen. I guess wet pollen works just fine.