Author Topic: Annona pruning concepts  (Read 6640 times)

Vernmented

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Annona pruning concepts
« on: February 25, 2019, 11:22:58 PM »
I love working with Annonas. You can heavy prune in late winter here in Florida just before they pop and really get into detail work combing over every inch and stripping leaves. During the growing season you can prune and strip multiple times and force flowering and extend fruiting season with hand pollination.

Here are some examples of some trees I have worked with and the troubleshooting and rejuvenation I dealt with when the Manatee Rare Fruit Council hired me to maintain the planting at Palma Sola.

Pruned Dream canopy at my good friends Darryl's place sweetsonggroves.com here in Sarasota. I did this a few weeks back and it is starting to push out new growth now.





These are the Lisa and Gefner at Palma Sola. I don't know how much pruning was done in the past but these had some real gnarly scaffolding architecture.

Lisa a little over a year ago. Planted for years without proper training.



After corrective pruning. This really scared some of the club members. hahaha



Lisa after this year. A little bit of shaping during the growing season.



Lisa after I pruned a couple a few weeks back.



Gefner a little over a year ago. Planted and left untrained.



Initial reset a little over a year ago.



Gefner after the growing season.



Gefner after pruning about 3 weeks ago.



Right now is a good time to prune and strip all the leaves off here in Florida. This will work with the common Annona species like Atemoya, reticulata, macroprophyllata and squamosa.
-Josh

gozp

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2019, 12:05:46 AM »

JF has been teaching me this method since I've known him.

Nice to see u share this so other new members or those that do not know will have an idea.

OCchris1

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2019, 01:03:57 AM »
Agreed. Great work Josh
-Chris

Vernmented

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2019, 10:25:34 AM »
Thanks guys. The visuals always help me.
-Josh

OCchris1

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2019, 12:12:34 AM »
I really love how easy this concept/application works for Annonas. They are so forgiving and will handle your mistakes to make right in the future (once you've gotten more skilled.) I still grapple with what braces to cut and which direction the new growth will likely take. I have some good ones, but I have a mess of a tree that's going to need some work as well.
-Chris

Daintree

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2019, 06:59:35 PM »
So my annonas are in huge pots in my greenhouse, and I am constantly dealing with them hitting the ceiling.  They have a million skinny branches.  I have been pruning them, but nothing as drastic as this.  Is now a good time?  They normally lose some leaves in winter when the days are shorter.
And what is the purpose of stripping the leaves off? So I strip them all off, or just most?
This makes me feel much braver about working with them!
If I want to repot them, should I do that at the same time, or will the stress be too much?  Just wanted to pot them up one size and refresh the soil.

Thanks!
Carolyn

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2019, 08:45:07 PM »
So my annonas are in huge pots in my greenhouse, and I am constantly dealing with them hitting the ceiling.  They have a million skinny branches.  I have been pruning them, but nothing as drastic as this.  Is now a good time?  They normally lose some leaves in winter when the days are shorter.
And what is the purpose of stripping the leaves off? So I strip them all off, or just most?
This makes me feel much braver about working with them!
If I want to repot them, should I do that at the same time, or will the stress be too much?  Just wanted to pot them up one size and refresh the soil.

Thanks!
Carolyn

If you want to wait until you start to see the first bid of budding that may be good. You are in such a marginal climate that I don't know how they react. Annonas don't like their roots messed with but I don't have any experience growing them in traditional pots. I only use root pruning pots. I know a guy that had his large seedling inground soursops blown down in a hurricane and he just cut them off at the blown over trunk s they can grow up from that instead of trying to right them. Do you root prune between potting? How have they responded if you have?

I wouldn't worry about hard pruning as long as they are happy. You can prune part and hard prune later as well. I cut one of my trees waaaayyyyy back just before hurricane Irma in September and it bounced back just fine and even set some late season fruit.

If the trees are happy you can hard prune and strip all of the leaves just before they break dormancy. 
-Josh

Daintree

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2019, 10:37:54 PM »
Thanks Josh,
I haven't potted these up in several years, and I have never root pruned because I haven't tried getting them out of their current pots...  They seem very happy though, so maybe I just won't mess with repotting now. They have just been growing along, minding their own business, getting bushier and bushier.
One problem is that my soursop doesn't start to branch until five feet up (I guess I should have topped it when it was young...), so the top branches don't get very tall before they hit the ceiling.  I have been tempted to whack it off at about 2 feet and see if I can get it to branch lower down, but I am afraid of killing it.

My greenhouse is a steady zone 12. Because I have some really touchy tropicals out there, it never gets below 50. The entire thing is in sun in the winter, and light shade in the summer.
Would they be happier in the orangerie? I let that drop to 40 in the winter, which keeps my citrus feeling good.

Anyway, any suggestions would help.  Thanks!

Carolyn

pineislander

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2019, 07:32:24 AM »
I'm not familiar with northern greenhouse culture of tropicals but do know that Soursop here in Florida will defoliate here below 40F after a windy cold front. If not much below that they bounce right back in warmer weather with a fresh flush of leaves. Thinking about that it could be a strategy to build a canopy according to your will. Not sure how that woud work with other annonas.

Soursop is an incredily tough tree when it comes to regrowth. It also tends towards vertical growth rather than a spreading or bushy form. However, it can be trained into a lower form with weights on branches and pruning more vertical sprouts.

Daintree

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2019, 01:40:41 PM »
Thanks!
Yeah, I sort of fly by the seat of my pants most of time with all my tropical trees! Sometimes I just go "Huh. Well, THAT didn't work!" But I have gotten a lot of things to fruit (oh, and I have kukui nuts set on right now  :) ), so I keep plugging away at it!

I actually have a "branch trainer" that my hubby made for me.  It is just a piece of bamboo with a hook on the end that I can hang from a branch to train it to droop.  I can add weight to the bamboo if I need to, but I try to catch the branches when they are young and pliable. But like you said, that darned soursop just goes straight up.  I think I will whack it off above some little branches that are way down low and see if I can convince it to spread out a bit more.

Carolyn

fisherking73

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2019, 03:19:34 PM »
So if my sugar apple has just a hair of new growth is it too late to take off the leaves? Have a custard apple that could probably use a good stripping. they both browned their leaves a bit over the winter but didn't really drop that many.

Vernmented

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2019, 10:35:52 AM »
Thanks Josh,
I haven't potted these up in several years, and I have never root pruned because I haven't tried getting them out of their current pots...  They seem very happy though, so maybe I just won't mess with repotting now. They have just been growing along, minding their own business, getting bushier and bushier.
One problem is that my soursop doesn't start to branch until five feet up (I guess I should have topped it when it was young...), so the top branches don't get very tall before they hit the ceiling.  I have been tempted to whack it off at about 2 feet and see if I can get it to branch lower down, but I am afraid of killing it.

My greenhouse is a steady zone 12. Because I have some really touchy tropicals out there, it never gets below 50. The entire thing is in sun in the winter, and light shade in the summer.
Would they be happier in the orangerie? I let that drop to 40 in the winter, which keeps my citrus feeling good.

Anyway, any suggestions would help.  Thanks!

Carolyn

No need to strip the soursop. Those are evergreen. They only drop their leaves here as a stress response. I haven't worked with them much as far a fruiting so it may be beneficial to strip certain branches during growing season to force flowering but I haven't tried yet. I believe Rollinia is the same but not certain.

Reticulata, squamosa, Atemoya and macropropyllata are able to be completely stripped of foliage.

Repotting would be a good thing but root pruning or messing with the roots may be risky. I don't have much first hand experience but Annonas are known for sensitive roots.

I wouldn't be afraid to prune soursop at all. It is a tough tree outside of cold winds.
-Josh

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2019, 10:37:11 AM »
So if my sugar apple has just a hair of new growth is it too late to take off the leaves? Have a custard apple that could probably use a good stripping. they both browned their leaves a bit over the winter but didn't really drop that many.

I would go for it. Prune it how you like and strip all the leaves off. Fertilize, mulch and water.

Trees I stripped a few weeks back are starting to push and flower.
-Josh

roblack

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2019, 11:13:33 AM »
Going to chop my Gefner, strip leaves, graft Dream onto it, mulch, and fert; all this weekend. Your pictorial has been inspirational and helpful. And thanks for the scions!

hawkfish007

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2019, 01:07:37 PM »
I need some advice on where would be a good location to prune the Fino de Jete. I was going to prune it at the mark but since it's raining I will have to wait till next weekend. I bought it in 15 gallon with fruits last october and planted the same month. I grafted it last week but I am willing to lose the grafts to shape the tree. Thanks in advance.




fisherking73

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2019, 01:15:34 PM »
Kampong Mauve stripped. I always forget is fruit on annona from new growth or last years branches?


Vernmented

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #16 on: March 03, 2019, 09:12:01 PM »
I need some advice on where would be a good location to prune the Fino de Jete. I was going to prune it at the mark but since it's raining I will have to wait till next weekend. I bought it in 15 gallon with fruits last october and planted the same month. I grafted it last week but I am willing to lose the grafts to shape the tree. Thanks in advance.




That can work. It is hard to tell how tall it is from the picture. How close is it to the wall? You can kind of espalier it.

Kampong Mauve stripped. I always forget is fruit on annona from new growth or last years branches?



Flowers from new growth. Many times the bigger and better fruit fruiting wood will come out of some nice fat scaffolding branches.
-Josh

hawkfish007

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #17 on: March 03, 2019, 09:57:21 PM »
I need some advice on where would be a good location to prune the Fino de Jete. I was going to prune it at the mark but since it's raining I will have to wait till next weekend. I bought it in 15 gallon with fruits last october and planted the same month. I grafted it last week but I am willing to lose the grafts to shape the tree. Thanks in advance.




That can work. It is hard to tell how tall it is from the picture. How close is it to the wall? You can kind of espalier it.


It is about 2’ from the wall and 10’ tall.

simon_grow

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #18 on: March 03, 2019, 10:40:11 PM »
Hawkfish,

I normally chop my trees to knee level or about 18-24 inches from the ground so that the future scaffold branches start low on the tree. Annonas grow like weeds in SoCal and they want to shoot for the sky so low scaffold branches will help by bringing down the fruitful canopy.

You want the branches within easy reach for hand pollination, bagging of fruit and ease of harvesting. You also want a fairly dense canopy on top to act as an umbrella that can shade the fruit to prevent sunburn and dessication during Santa Anna events.

You planted really close to the wall so you may want to take Vernmenteds advice and espalier the scaffold branches so they are not pointing towards the wall. If you do a flat espalier so that the tree is parallel with the wall, the fruit that is not shaded by the canopy can get sun burned. In this case, you would want to selectively hand pollinate the flowers that are on the inside canopy closer to the wall so that the wall can provide shade on one side and the little canopy in front can provide some additional shade.

The biggest mistake I see from Annona growers is the lack or fear of pruning during the early formative years of the trees life.

Simon

Vernmented

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #19 on: March 03, 2019, 10:41:25 PM »
You could try something like this and then you can keep your grafts as well. You can regraft next year from them on new branches if you want them lower or closer to the trunk.

-Josh

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #20 on: March 03, 2019, 11:25:09 PM »
Thanks all for great advice. I need to make some tough decisions. I noticed today that the buds on scions I grafted on 2/23 are swelling and most likely all are successful. Thanks again.

hawkfish007

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #21 on: March 05, 2019, 02:50:24 PM »
I went ahead and pruned my cherimoya  drastically at 36”. Was able to keep 2 grafts of rosada ilama and arka shahan which all took.  Hope I will still get some fruits this year.




Tony714

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #22 on: March 05, 2019, 04:18:53 PM »
You could try something like this and then you can keep your grafts as well. You can regraft next year from them on new branches if you want them lower or closer to the trunk.



awesome and great to know.   
Thank you so much for sharing

Guanabanus

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #23 on: March 06, 2019, 01:18:47 PM »
Nice work, Josh!

BTW, 'Lisa' = '48--26'.
Har

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Re: Annona pruning concepts
« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2019, 10:07:25 PM »
I didn't want to start a new post.  I thought bumping this back to the top was more appropriate.

I have an Atemoya (Birula) that I grafted a couple of years ago.
It is doing well, but I made the rookie mistakes of not pruning it.  The branches that grew this year were easily 3 plus feet long.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I removed the tip and stripped back the next 4 pairs of leaves.  Something I had read was good for inducing branching.

Well, I got branching all right.  I also have some flowering.  This late in the year do I want to cut off the flowers or do I let them be?  Should I pollinate them?  Can I get fruiting this late in South Florida?

By the way, the plant flowered earlier in the year but I didn't pollinate any.  It was the first flowers and I wanted to let the plant mature some more.