Cherimoya hand pollination. When to stop.

[Longranger]

My cherimoyas are on their third season. Most we’re planted in ground as average 5 gallon specimens and have grown well. Last season without hand pollination my 15 trees held an average of 8 fruit each, range of 0 to 20. This season I started hand pollinating 3 weeks ago, 2 days a week. A high percentage of the flowers have set. So many that I wonder when I should stop. How many fruit can a vigorous 10’ cherimoya bring to maturity? Will too many fruits on a tree thin out naturally? Will higher fruit numbers stress the trees or hurt fruit quality? Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[seng]

Don't stop. Some fruits will fall after a few weeks. When the fruits are about the size of an apricot, remove the mishaped ones.  On the remaining, you decide how much the tree can carry.  Remember, less is more because they will be better quality and big in size.

[spaugh]

I over did it one year and had to do a lot of thinning besides the time I wasted over doing it.

Once you have plenty of good sets on large limbs that are not going to be in direct sun then go ahead and stop IMO.  And wait a bit like seng said and remove the ones with funny shape. 

The less fruit definitely will imprive the size and sweetness.  You want to just keep the ones on the biggest branches down low on the tree, they will get the biggest.

[seng]

When the tree is stressed, it will drop the fruits.  It will do self thinning.  Fruits ripe from late fall to early spring.  A cold night can drop the less quality fruits first or the ones farthest from the main trunk.

[Longranger]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.  Guess I will continue pollinating for now knowing that I will thin later for fruit shape and position on the tree. I am highly motivated as cherimoyas have now become a big Christmas gift demand in my extended family. On a side note my trees do seem to self pollinate pretty well. I have noticed a population of small beetles, dark brown, measuring 3 to 4 mm in many of the flowers. I wonder if they may be becoming a natural vector for pollination in my garden.

[CTMIAMI]

Build it and they will Come!

[seng]

For my trees, the fruits that are pollinated by the beetles are mishaped badly.  For my neighter, a house across the street, fruits are perfect shape.

I and the beetles have problem competing with the bees on getting to the pollen first.  The bees show up at almost precise hour each day.  Each year, I have to get the pollen right on time before the bees getting to the pollens a few consecutive days to disrupt the bees timing.  Only then that the bees stop showing up.

[Longranger]

Ha ha ha!! I don,t care who pollinates my flowers as long as they make nice fruits.