Update:
This year 2017; my African pride tree produces about 25 fruits. But the splitting of fruits continue. This morning I was surprised to notice that 1 was badly cracked (the first one so far this year: bottom photo); so I picked that and 2 more that are already showing some splitting.



My watering: constant with auto timer, no rainfall all Summer, no additional hand watering given. So, sudden increase of watering may not be the culprit in my case.

Cold night: Well, I notice the lows were 42, 41 on Dec 21, 22 (the lowest this winter for my area) while the previous week's lows were in high 40s. (Wunderground.com).

So, those 2 nights' season lows may have been enough to cause the fruits to crack??
If so, then we better keep an eye on those night's low for your area annona growers; start picking them earlier might be a good advice...Thanks to Rob, Frank and Gozp for all the inputs!

Rain and cold night causes Anonas to crack. My crop has been devastated by birds and squirrels. The atemoyas have been splitting in the last two weeks

Cant tell from the picture but is it possi le it was ripe and just left on the tree too long?

I have only seen sugar apples split when left on the tree too long.  They should be picked when the sections separate and show a lighter color between the sections.  They will tben soften up when ready to eat.  Ilamas should be left on the tree until they split...sugar apples,  atemoya and custard apples (and 'Moyas from all I have seen) should be picked firm ripe and let them finish off the tree.

You want clean lengthwise cuts. Just like sharpening pencil, you will do better than these tools.

Agreed!. Just watch a few youtube's video, then practice a dozen or so times, you'll get
the hang of it pretty quick...

Indeed!  Though I'm not personally a durian fan, I know growing durian is a must.  The asian food stores here sell frozen durians for about $25-$30 each; it's a no brainer to have at least one tree when you have such a large greenhouse space.  Just hope the ventilation system would prevent the smell from getting too bad, given that it's an enclosed space 

I am wondering if durian's smell is prominent or even detectable while the fruits are still hanging on the tree, someone who's been near the durian trees or grow them can tell you this for sure. If so, well, that may call for special enclosure, a large one I suppose...

I think what you need to observe is whether it has a "graft line", usually about few inches above the soil surface. If that's positive, then you know it's grafted tree, and with the seed showing, this is what you want, because you'll have s tap root growing under that seed; resulting in generally faster and stronger growing tree.  (As compared to air layered tree without a tap root).

I am surprise if Home Depot is selling seedling avocado or cherimoya. But on mango, I read that they sell Manila seedlings from Lavern's nursery...

Don't know about air layering or cutting as a propagation method for Sapodilla. But last June I grafted one Silas wood scion unto a 1 foot seedling (seed from store bought fruit)  and it's now planted in the ground:



By the way, "Makok" is another common variety of Sapodilla...

Wow, you Spaugh and Mark got very desirable collection of Avocado varieties!
Congratulations on successfully growing and nursing them;
I see lots of guacamole there...
Meanwhile, my Sir prize fruit is also darkening maybe about 70%
as of last week, so you guys will be ahead of me...

I don't think the young tree was dead when they shipped it, but possibly unhealthy
when it arrived due to heat (Summer time) inside the box..., and I wasn't able to
rejuvenate the tree to recover from it...

Quote from: spaugh on November 22, 2017, 05:18:29 PM

Check this video out.
https://youtu.be/BY6CNEkXYGE

Oh boy, if it aint Chris from Growquest, hah!  That video was shot in 2013.  I wonder if he's out of jail yet, or still living considering how many he's ripped off?

Also, it's Hass aka H-ASS, not Hoz!

I was one of his victims, $75 for a Holiday avocado tree he promoted in Youtube but that he never deliver, only promises...! Glad to know he was jailed, he deserved it!

Spend some time to read and learn how to grow mango in Southern California
post by Simon, here:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=23124.0

Lots of useful info there...

Thanks for the compliments guys, and for the heads up Bob, never been to any tasting event, I'll see if I am up to it in January!

You're right Simon, my Dr. White branches are still small, the biggest maybe about the size of my thumb (grafted from your pencil size scion in Spring 2015), it only has 3 fruits on it, the second one just dropped yesterday, thus reminding me to write up this thread.
So, yeah, this would be even better in years ahead if they can reach 2 lb! 

Hey its never to late to pug it and start over.  I know at some point it becomes too painful to do that. 

Spaugh is absolutely correct. You can chop it down to knee level around April/May and it will sprout many new branches as long as the tree is healthy.
Simon

Hey, since I got 5 grown up cherimoya trees now, I might just do that on 1 or 2!
Got to preserve (transplant) a couple of the favorite scions ahead of time, though...
Never thought of being able to "redesign" a tree before!
Thanks to a lot of you in this forum...

Hi, thanks for that chart, Mark! Your scribbling on it actually made that an even more valuable one!    Looks like Reed and Pinkerton are good choices for us home growers, huh? Okay, I'll be hunting for some more cado scions come Jan/Feb !

Spaugh, yeah, I read somewhere that one can attempt to "guide" the tree so that it won't go to the alternate bearing mode, but I forgot how or what the successful rate would be; so I will try your suggested thinning method and see what happens...

Hi Raiders, yes., it's fast upright growers,  -as Mark's chart and my tree indicates- .
On fruiting "year", you  may want to do lots of thinning and/or give extra limb support, as I recall Frank's large tree limb broke due to abundant of fruits weight about 2 years ago.

So, if this is ok, along with alternate bearing tendency of this Sir prize, then that's fine. But, I prefer to have a consistent yearly fruiting one, so I'll probably do a partial top worked on mine, keeping just a couple of Sir prize's at the lower branches...