how's everyone cherimoya coming along?

[knlim000]

how's everyone cherimoya coming along?  Last year, I have about 10 fruits. This year, I think i will have about 200-300 fruits(assuming they are not eaten by critters)  from 12 tress that were planted from seeds 8yrs ago.   Some are the size of golf balls now.   

[simon_grow]

I think many people are reluctant to post about their crop because of the unpredictable heat waves. As soon as you post that you have a nice crop, a heatwave or Santa Anna conditions will come by and drop a lot of fruit. I hope not for you.

Anyways, my crop looks good this year, I’ll post a picture when I get a chance. I recommend thinning the fruit to get larger and better quality fruit. Iveckilled a large tree letting it hold huge crops year after year.

Simon

[Triloba Tracker]

Iveckilled a large tree letting it hold huge crops year after year.

Simon

Just curious - was this with hand-pollinating or no?

[Mark in Texas]

I think many people are reluctant to post about their crop because of the unpredictable heat waves. As soon as you post that you have a nice crop, a heatwave or Santa Anna conditions will come by and drop a lot of fruit. I hope not for you.

Anyways, my crop looks good this year, I’ll post a picture when I get a chance. I recommend thinning the fruit to get larger and better quality fruit. Iveckilled a large tree letting it hold huge crops year after year.

Simon

Took this newly grafted tree photo about a 2 weeks ago.  Is a good 5' tall in a little over 3 mos.  It has Sabor, Campas, Pierce and Behl on it.  I recently snapped off leaves and shared 3-4 budeye sticks with a big Houston scion exchange (and mango tasting event) last weekend of all varieties, free gratis.  Amazing how fast the dormant buds have pushed.

Before:



It's now topped to about 18".  Before cutting up the branches:



July 17 and already leafing out.  Hope to fruit it next year.

[Mark in Texas]

I think many people are reluctant to post about their crop because of the unpredictable heat waves. As soon as you post that you have a nice crop, a heatwave or Santa Anna conditions will come by and drop a lot of fruit. I hope not for you.

Anyways, my crop looks good this year, I’ll post a picture when I get a chance. I recommend thinning the fruit to get larger and better quality fruit. Iveckilled a large tree letting it hold huge crops year after year.

Simon

Good luck with that Simon.  No matter what the fruit learning how to balance fruit load in relation to root and canopy mass is an art.  You can kill or severely stunt fruit trees and grapevines by letting them hold too much fruit.

[behlgarden]

getting heavy fruit set, but like Simon said, I never count my chickens too early. I have never seen 200-300 fruits in last 10 years in my combined 6 trees. they set every year but fruits get fried in temps that exceed 100 degrees.

[JF]

It looks very good but you have to be cautious of our extreme temps cause in a heatwave it could all be wiped out.....so far the crop looks exceptional

[behlgarden]

I have already started grafting green on green, this type of grafting works if you graft the wood same day you harvest. Give it a shot.

[JF]

I have already started grafting green on green, this type of grafting works if you graft the wood same day you harvest. Give it a shot.

I guess you can start early but I prefer to wait until September much better results

[Mark in Texas]

I have already started grafting green on green, this type of grafting works if you graft the wood same day you harvest. Give it a shot.

Thanks to the heater failure I replaced lost stock green on green, against the advise of a few.  Have done at least 50 grafts on citrus, cherimoya, mangos and avocados and now have a greenhouse pretty damn full of choice stock.

Green on green was not by choice but by necessity.   Even the new triangular citrus shoots back in March worked.  I converted some of the branches of a large key lime tree with 4 orange varieties, limequat, & Persian lime.  You can do it but have to be especially careful to get a good cambium match.  I choose between side veneer, cleft, t-bud and bark grafts depending on the situation.  The cherimoya had 2 veneer and 4 cleft.   All took.

[simon_grow]

Iveckilled a large tree letting it hold huge crops year after year.

Simon

Just curious - was this with hand-pollinating or no?

Yes, this was with hand pollination. Where I live, most flowers that get hand pollinated will turn into a fruit. Cherimoyas grow extremely well in my area because it doesn’t get as hot or dry as some other places in SoCal.

Simon

[simon_grow]

I’m sure I’ve posted this before but here’s what happens if you do t thin enough. This is a picture from last year. I only did one or two rounds of thinning so there were too many fruit and the size was much smaller with a higher seed to flesh ratio.


Simon

[simon_grow]

Here’s a picture I took yesterday before thinning. I should have thinned sooner but was busy with life(Fishing). I normally like to thin at about marble size because at this size you can see imperfections and it is still small enough that removing misshaped fruit this early will enable the remaining fruit to grow larger.

Now is also a good time for another application of Calcium, Potassium and micronutrients.








Simon