Anyone here from the Bay Area grows Cherimoyas?

[Bush2Beach]

As with all of the CRFG chapters there are some great and dedicated , very knowledgeable members. Santa Clara CRFG has one of the better Nor Cal Scion exchanges, and has done great with the work parties with different companies and groups on the Temperate fruit orchard. I used to enjoy the Yahoo group emails from them but I think I was removed from the list after defending Cloudforest Axel who was being attacked by one of the "Hybridizer" group person's, in a heated exchange over the "Hybridizer" group wanting to sell tree's to other members to "trial". Comedy.
Anyways, Its all about the rare fruits in the name. I get frustrated seeing that aspect ignored by some of the different chapters that focus solely on uncommon Pome and Stone fruit varieties. Especially when there is a nice sized rare fruit planting right under the nose to focus on.  All the chapters Ive seen have individuals who are super into the rare fruits aspect though.

[barath]

There's a good amount of interest in subtropical and (highland) tropical fruits in the Golden Gate chapter, probably because they're more viable here than in Santa Clara County.  Regarding Cherimoyas, they are pretty widely grown by folks in this chapter. Some of the long-time members here have large Cherimoya trees that they don't maintain much or at all -- some of them don't even water the trees -- and they do fine.  (I think as always fruit production improves with hand pollination.)  As Joe said, we don't really get much frost in the East Bay so I rarely see damage on Cherimoyas here.  Tom recently came across a large old longan tree in Oakland, so the range of options is much bigger than most folks (even CRFG members) often think.

[waxy]

Cherimoya fruits currently holding and some ripe now from El Bumpo, Licia, Spain, HoneyHart, Fino de Jete, .
Have about 17 ,15 Gallon Cherimoya tree's planted out in various locations. Ince Red, Chaffey, White , El Bumpo, Licia, Spain, HoneyHart, Fino de Jete, Boothe,
Atemoya, Dream , Lisa , and Priestley.
Ive yet to see frost damage on Cherimoya.

Barath, Do you know if there is Cherimoya planted out at Prusch Park?

Do you hand pollenate them all, or are they done through pollenators?
It's a struggle for me to get my fertile pollen, only my el bumpo is holding fruit.
The rest of the cherimoyas lost all their blooms, too wet this year with all the rain and flooding.

Waxy, are they any mature cherimoya trees in yr area. I didn't think cherimoyas would survive that far North.,,,,any pix of mature fruiting trees?

I think there are a few people up here that have grown them successfully, maybe they'll chime in.
Mine is still the size of an adult thumb, looks like it'll be next summer before I see a basketball sized fruit LOL

[joehewitt]

Just harvested my first home grown Cherimoya from the M&N tree. It was 9.5oz and extremely delicious. No more fruit on my trees but I'm going to work hard on hand pollinating this year.

[marklee]

Cherimoyas are definitely doable in San Jose - in some areas you might not even need to protect them. I've had Booth, Pierce, and El Bumpo for 2 winters. Booth and Pierce succumbed last year while El Bumpo was unharmed. I didn't protect them in any way. This year I have 15 different varieties planted so I will get more data on which are the best for our climate.

Nice job, could you share what types you are growing?  How large are they?  Pots or ground?

In ground I currently have Bays, Behl, Burton, Ecuador, Spain, El Bumpo, Fino de Jete, Pierce, Booth, M&N, Mark Lee, Honeyheart, Vietnamese. They range from 5' to 8' tall. I also have smaller Dr. White, JA and Santa Rosa in pots.

Joe, here is a photo of one of the Mark Lee seedling fruits that just ripened. I think we need to change the name to describe it better, haha.

[Frog Valley Farm]

🗯

[swapnil.tailor]

We have a bay area tropical fruit grower Facebook group if any one wants to join and share their tropical fruit that are successful in bay area: https://m.facebook.com/groups/157994961507279?ref=bookmarks

[behlgarden]

Just harvested my first home grown Cherimoya from the M&N tree. It was 9.5oz and extremely delicious. No more fruit on my trees but I'm going to work hard on hand pollinating this year.

every summer from June thru Aug my neighbors think I am molesting my trees      Its a lot of work. Collect pollen in AM and PM, continue to pollinate flowers AM and PM, keep overnight in refrigerator for next day use too. Note that if you pollinate between 3-5 PM those female turn to male before sunset, you take pollen out from them.