Author Topic: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)  (Read 22390 times)

FlyingFoxFruits

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In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« on: January 13, 2013, 08:58:32 AM »
I hear there's some pond apples that are worth eating.

Has anyone encountered such a tree?
 
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Mike T

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2013, 09:16:08 AM »
I tried a terrible one last year but it was the best one I have sampled.Coming off such a low base it would take some breeding wizarday to bing it to the standard of other popular annonas.

mikesid

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2013, 09:38:38 AM »
There has been a large influx of planted A. glabra in City of Boynton...especially at the parks by my house...Part of the revitalization projects of past ear-marked times...I was gonna venture out this year and grab some seed to try to find one that might produce a vigorous rootstock...I'll bite into them first and try to narrow down the bunch for ya!

FlyingFoxFruits

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2013, 09:58:21 AM »
I thought the "golden sugar apple" offered by Toptrop would be the one, but  I've tasted one from a tree bought from them, it was just like a pond apple...but maybe theirs is good, and they sell seedlings of the mother tree, that they should be grafting?

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2013, 10:04:35 AM »
http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=annona_golden

Yes, sounds like in Costa Rica (central/south America), there's some nice selections of Annona glabra....maybe the people at toptrop tasted a good fruit there, and brought back seeds (or had them sent), when they should have brought back budwood.

Now that I have a lead, someone collect the budwood and get them going...I'll take a bakers dozen, if they're grafted, and are worth eating out of hand.

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2013, 10:11:29 AM »
I hope your quest for a good tasting a. glabra isn't an exercise in "tilting at windmills."  The best of the ones I have encountered have been edible but not very eatable.  We have them up and down the canals throughout Davie.  I have sampled many of them over the years.  My advice, look for a different gene pool than what we have here in Davie. Good luck. 
Harry
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2013, 10:23:46 AM »
I hope your quest for a good tasting a. glabra isn't an exercise in "tilting at windmills."  The best of the ones I have encountered have been edible but not very eatable.  We have them up and down the canals throughout Davie.  I have sampled many of them over the years.  My advice, look for a different gene pool than what we have here in Davie. Good luck.

Hahaha!

sounds like you've had quite a few disappointing pond apples...I think your advice is probably valid though.

What is the native range of A. glabra?  FL, Caribbean, and Central/South America, even Africa?

we have lots of geography to cover, and many horrible fruits to spit out...but there does exist some tasty ones!  I know it.

The troublesome part about introducing such a tree, is not only the needle in a haystack search effort, but the transport of budwood, and grafting thereafter.

I think most people are just happy enough to introduce seeds...which in some cases won't suffice, in terms of genetic preservation of a variety.
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2013, 11:22:21 AM »
The pond apples I have planted sure I think taste pretty decent, they aren't sweet, but they they a soury peach taste. Probably if i blended the fruit with some sugar it would be nice
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2013, 12:20:40 PM »
The pond apples I have planted sure I think taste pretty decent, they aren't sweet, but they they a soury peach taste. Probably if i blended the fruit with some sugar it would be nice

the fact that some aren't as offended as others, by the taste of a. glabra, makes it even more difficult to isolate a pond apple with a flavor that's widely accepted.
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2013, 01:22:25 PM »
Some Pond-Apples are tasteless, some have a strong acrid soapy taste, and others are pleasant tasting. 

I have had all the above along canals in Boynton Beach, and a pleasant one by where the Rare Fruit Council of Brevard County meets in Melbourne.

The better ones are still totally hampered by extreme seediness and by the pulp's clinging to the seeds.
Har

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2013, 01:31:00 PM »
Some Pond-Apples are tasteless, some have a strong acrid soapy taste, and others are pleasant tasting. 

I have had all the above along canals in Boynton Beach, and a pleasant one by where the Rare Fruit Council of Brevard County meets in Melbourne.

The better ones are still totally hampered by extreme seediness and by the pulp's clinging to the seeds.

thanks for contributing.

So now it's looking more feasible to find a nice tasting pond apple.  Now if we can just find one thats less seedy,or with arils that release easier from the seed, maybe we can create a perfect pond apple.

for some reason, I see this as a worthwhile effort.

the trees are adaptable, productive and definitely medicinal.
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2013, 02:19:58 PM »
Adam
You have a long and difficult search ahead of you. Walking on hot coals might be easier!     
FloridaGreenMan

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« Last Edit: January 17, 2013, 11:09:08 AM by murahilin »
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siafu

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2013, 04:39:23 PM »
Hi,

 I seem to recall Thurston, (from rarefruit yahoo group), mentioning that A. glabra is appreciated
in Guyana enough to be sold in markets.


EDIT. punctuation.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2013, 07:19:25 PM by siafu »
Sérgio Duarte
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FlyingFoxFruits

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2013, 04:49:57 PM »
Hi,

 I seem to recall, Thurston (rarefruit yahoo group) mentioning that A. glabra is appreciated
in Guyana enough to be sold in markets.

Thanks Siafu,

It's encouraging info.
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Recher

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #15 on: January 13, 2013, 07:42:46 PM »
Some Maldivians told me years ago glabra was popular there. They gave me a plant from provenance Maldives.

Pasted now is the good news extract:
Annona glabra L.     ANNONACEAE
Synonyms: Annona australis, Annona chrysocarpa, Annona peruviana
Common names: Pond apple, bullock’s heart
Dhivehi name: Kalhuthumeyvaa
Status: Common in home gardens. It has also become wild and naturalized
along the border of open wetlands as in Fuvamulah Island.
Description: A semi-deciduous tree about 10 to 15 m tall. Normally with a single trunk
but seedlings can grow in clumps giving the appearance of a multi-stemmed tree. Bark
is grey, thin and fissured with prominent lenticels (involved in gas exchange and
appear as raised spots). Mature trees have slightly buttressed roots. Leaves are leathery,
simple, alternate in arrangement along the branches and oblong-elliptical in shape;
upper surface of the leaf is dark green and underneath is pale. Foliage contains yellow
leaves during the summer. Flowers are single, large, 2 to 5 cm in diameter, pale yellow
to cream-white in colour and attractive with three leathery outer petals and three
smaller inner petals with a red inner base. Fruit is mostly spherical in shape and looks
like smooth-skinned sweetsop and mango in shape; some fruits look like bullock’s
heart. Fruit is green in colour when young but after falling from trees turn yellow and
then black. Pulp is fleshy, pinkish-orange or orange, aromatic and pungent. Each
fruit contains about 100 light brown coloured seeds, which are about 1 cm in length.
Uses: Fruits are delicious and eaten raw. They are also used in the preparation of a
sweet drink. There is heavy demand for ripened fruit during the Ramzan season.
Softwood and roots are used as fish floats. Bark is an excellent home for orchids and
other air plants. Seedling can be used as a rootstock for custard apple and sweetsop

http://www.fao.org/forestry/14635-087ce4f27d7aee9662f6996003709769c.pdf

The bad news is the fruit was only marginally if at all any better than the run of the mill Pond Apple confirming that the Maldives are depauperate naturally of primate fruits so the culture is statistically more likely to be seduced by a second class fruit than cultures with more biodiversity.
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Recher

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #16 on: January 13, 2013, 07:44:36 PM »
maybe i'm wrong.   maybe there are dellcious pond apples in the maldives.... but i'm not betting on it.
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Guanabanus

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #17 on: January 13, 2013, 08:03:01 PM »
Very interesting, Recher!
Har

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #18 on: January 13, 2013, 08:36:24 PM »
maybe i'm wrong.   maybe there are dellcious pond apples in the maldives.... but i'm not betting on it.

I think it's out there, just a needle in a haystack.
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red durian

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #19 on: January 14, 2013, 06:25:33 AM »
The only one I ever tasted was in Belize.  It had a nice flavour, and I was excited to plant the seeds, but it was so difficult to eat that after walking with it and eating as fast as I could for 30 minutes I was still only a third of the way through the fruit and my mouth was tired.  I emptied the seeds out of my pocket, then and decided to wait until I found one that was easier to eat.  Haven't come across another one in the last 9 years of roaming the tropics.

FloridaGreenMan

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #20 on: January 14, 2013, 07:25:49 PM »
My question is....with so many other delicious annonas readily available, why bother with a marginal fruit?
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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #21 on: January 14, 2013, 08:21:32 PM »
I think that's whats great about variability in annonas, there is a chance for a needle in a haytack. Every fruit we have was cultivated for its fruits at some point. Corn has a non-shattering variant, it has now way to reproduce itself without mans help,  and there is no known wild ancestor of corn....shows you the length men have gone to develop good varieties...every fruit is worthy of developing it to its potential..

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2013, 09:25:13 PM »
I think there are some decent A. glabras out there.... but if I picked one I thought was decent I have a feeling a significant percentage of people would find it unpalatable.

I think A. glabra is similar to "surinam cherry" in that it has stuff that some people can't stand and other people can tolerate to varying degrees.

I've had some A. glabra that I thought were worth eating, maybe you will find some too, but I don't think you'll get one that everyone likes- not without some serious breeding work.
What's that got to do with Jose Andres $10 brussel sprouts?

red durian

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2013, 09:53:45 PM »
I think that's whats great about variability in annonas, there is a chance for a needle in a haytack. Every fruit we have was cultivated for its fruits at some point. Corn has a non-shattering variant, it has now way to reproduce itself without mans help,  and there is no known wild ancestor of corn....shows you the length men have gone to develop good varieties...every fruit is worthy of developing it to its potential..

Well said.  I think apples 2000 years ago would have been worse than some of the fruits we consider to have no commercial potential today.

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Re: In search of a tasty Pond Apple (Annona glabra)
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2013, 11:19:43 PM »
Hi,

 I seem to recall Thurston, (from rarefruit yahoo group), mentioning that A. glabra is appreciated
in Guyana enough to be sold in markets.


EDIT. punctuation.

My wife's family is from Guyana and I think they call it "monkey apple" there. I think it's only appreciated there because its what they have available. Last summer I brought a few of Noel's sugar apples for a bunch of her family to try and they were blown away. They described it as tasting like what the "monkey apple" tastes like with sugar and milk, but better.