Author Topic: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple  (Read 6996 times)

Orkine

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Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« on: October 15, 2016, 03:58:27 PM »
I am thinking about adding a couple of trees and the Soursop and Sugar apple came up.
Does anyone in the West Palm Beach / Jupiter area have any experience with these trees?
Is there a preferred variety?

Orkine

Saltee

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2016, 04:02:52 PM »
My neighbor has a Na Dai sugar apple and it is a very nice looking tree also very aggressive growing

It has a nice lush look, not affected by fungus or disease at all and makes green fruit

His tree makes me want to plant one myself

TheDom

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2016, 09:05:18 PM »
I like sugar apples, I love atemoya and soursop. The only thing sugar apple has going for it that is better than atemoya is that it is a month or so earlier in season, and it sets fruit better without hand pollination. Otherwise atemoya blows sugar apple away in terms of taste, fruit to seed ratio and cold tolerance.
Dom

skhan

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2016, 08:19:15 AM »
I haven't had much success with sugar apple yet.
I agree with Dom in the atemoyas are better(from what I tasted)
As for soursop, my father's tree has fruit for the first time this year, its currently on its second crop. One in July and one starting in September and still going.

tallman

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2016, 08:39:49 AM »
I like sugar apples, I love atemoya and soursop. The only thing sugar apple has going for it that is better than atemoya is that it is a month or so earlier in season, and it sets fruit better without hand pollination. Otherwise atemoya blows sugar apple away in terms of taste, fruit to seed ratio and cold tolerance.

What Atemoya are you working with Dom?

TheDom

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2016, 10:47:06 PM »
I like sugar apples, I love atemoya and soursop. The only thing sugar apple has going for it that is better than atemoya is that it is a month or so earlier in season, and it sets fruit better without hand pollination. Otherwise atemoya blows sugar apple away in terms of taste, fruit to seed ratio and cold tolerance.

What Atemoya are you working with Dom?

The only ones I've got growing that are fruiting size right now are Gefner and Dream. This year I planted Lisa, Calostro, Birula, Randhir EDIT: PPC, and an Australian variety (calling it Tim for now) acquired from Fruitscapes. They've got a second Australian variety at Fruitscapes too that they're not entirely sure what variety it is too that I'll be picking up soon. I've also got a few small cherimoya going that I'll be using to breed my own atemoya varieties, I just need to find land to grow them on, or get really creative with multigrafting my big in ground Gefner. ;-)

I'm propagating all of the above varieties, except for Gefner, because that's something everyone has. EDIT: Not really propagating Tim yet either. Mine is too small.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2016, 09:37:02 AM by TheDom »
Dom

gnappi

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2016, 11:20:08 PM »
My 2 sugar apples did well fruiting this year. One went in ground in 2012 the other in 2014. The older tree was moved once delaying fruiting.

They are both nearly the same size now.

I bag EVERY fruit because I had seed borers in my Geffner last year.

The sugar apples get whitefly. My soursop is prone to scale. Both controllable with horticultural oil.
Regards,

   Gary

Saltee

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2016, 11:29:14 PM »
Describe an atemoyas taste

TheDom

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2016, 11:50:44 PM »
Describe an atemoyas taste

Like a sugar apple crossed with cherimoya?  ;D Think a sugar apple that's firm fleshed yet juicier, with a little acidity to balance out the sweetness, and a great pear/apple/orange flavor, and that's about the best I could do to describe the Gefner we just had. Lisa is more like a soft sugar apple, that sort of reminds me of a strawberry cheesecake.

Compared to atemoya sugar apples are sweet, but really lacking in complexity of flavor.
Dom

johnb51

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2016, 09:14:43 AM »
Speaking of Australian varieties, what about Tropic Sun and Paxton Prolific?  And the Indian variety, Arka Sahan?  The Phet Pakchong I got from Excalibur had only three fruit this year.  The tree has gotten really big, but had very few blossoms.  The flavor was very good, but part of the flesh was sweet and other parts not sweet.  Why would that be?
« Last Edit: October 18, 2016, 10:27:44 AM by johnb51 »
John

skhan

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2017, 08:56:18 AM »
Here an update on my fathers seedling soursop tree.
Its doing really good. So far this he picked 4 this year
Probably another 40 more


Around 2.5 lbs each

\
Here is the tree, about the size of a single story flat.
Second year fruiting

roblack

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2017, 01:56:57 PM »
I'm a little farther south, but am having good preliminary results with Homestead soursop and rollinia. Both were put in-ground Jan 2016 (5 - 7 gals), and are producing fruit now. Gefner atemoya is growing well, but no fruit yet. I agree, sugar apples are good, but other anonna taste better. Too many seeds in sugar apples.

TheDom

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2017, 03:51:12 PM »
Here an update on my fathers seedling soursop tree.
Its doing really good. So far this he picked 4 this year
Probably another 40 more


Around 2.5 lbs each

\
Here is the tree, about the size of a single story flat.
Second year fruiting

Congrats, that's a whole bunch of delicious fruit! Any chance of teaching him to hand pollinate so he can get some real whopper sized soursop?
Dom

sidney

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #13 on: June 19, 2017, 06:12:49 PM »
I am having difficulty finding atemoya sin this area, recommended places would be appreciated. I have one Lisa now about two years old, now has 3 fruits, very whisky tree about 5 feet tall.

bsbullie

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #14 on: June 19, 2017, 10:42:30 PM »
I am having difficulty finding atemoya sin this area, recommended places would be appreciated. I have one Lisa now about two years old, now has 3 fruits, very whisky tree about 5 feet tall.

Excalibur in Lake Worth and Treesnmore in Palm City.
- Rob

skhan

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #15 on: June 20, 2017, 07:31:31 AM »
Here an update on my fathers seedling soursop tree.
Its doing really good. So far this he picked 4 this year
Probably another 40 more


Around 2.5 lbs each

\
Here is the tree, about the size of a single story flat.
Second year fruiting

Congrats, that's a whole bunch of delicious fruit! Any chance of teaching him to hand pollinate so he can get some real whopper sized soursop?

I just started hand pollinating Atemoyas this year so I'll give the soursop a shot too.
BTW, when is the best time to hand pollinate Custard Apple (A. reticulata)?

skhan

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #16 on: June 20, 2017, 07:33:05 AM »
Here is a look of one of the soursops with some other fruits for scale.

johnb51

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #17 on: June 20, 2017, 08:30:02 AM »
Really?  Does anyone hand-pollinate soursop?  Mine seems perfectly capable of producing huge fruit on its own.
John

bsbullie

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #18 on: June 20, 2017, 09:41:32 AM »
Really?  Does anyone hand-pollinate soursop?  Mine seems perfectly capable of producing huge fruit on its own.

All annonas would benefit from hand pollination.   Easier to thin than to "add" after the fact...
- Rob

johnb51

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #19 on: June 20, 2017, 01:10:07 PM »
My question: Does soursop have a short season?  From my tree about a dozen are ripening in the space of a week.  (Going to have to freeze the pulp!)
« Last Edit: June 20, 2017, 08:18:06 PM by johnb51 »
John

skhan

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #20 on: June 21, 2017, 07:18:58 AM »
My question: Does soursop have a short season?  From my tree about a dozen are ripening in the space of a week.  (Going to have to freeze the pulp!)

From what I've seen of this particular tree was a about 2-3 weeks of fruit in June, and another month in October.
However this was the first time the tree was fruiting, we'll see how it goes this year.

TheDom

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #21 on: June 21, 2017, 08:21:19 AM »
Really?  Does anyone hand-pollinate soursop?  Mine seems perfectly capable of producing huge fruit on its own.

Both times Har has come to Fort Myers to talk to our Fruit club he has strongly encouraged folks to hand pollinate soursop to get the comically large fruit one sees pictures of from time to time. He also encouraged using your finger instead of a paint brush to apply pollen, because the sticky stuff tends to bunch up on the brush.

Next time you've got a soursop look at the distribution of the spikes you see that correspond to each segment. Where they're bunched together and the fruit is misshapen is a spot where better pollination would have yielded a larger fruit.

That was the gist of his argument, and it seems sound to me.
Dom

Viking Guy

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #22 on: June 21, 2017, 09:54:48 AM »
I have some soursop seeds available.

Capt Ram

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Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« Reply #23 on: June 22, 2017, 05:30:48 AM »
I've got about a hundred sour sop fruit on 1 tree alone some weigh as much as 6 pounds..In the Lake Worth area
And lots of red and green sugar apples happening also
Been selling the fruit because there's way to much for me
My tree produces year round but now is prime time


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