Annona stenophylla

[Polypterus]

I just got some A. senegalensis and A. stenophylla seeds today, and the stenophylla really caught my interest, because I read that they have a rhizome. Based on my reading on bananas, I know that their corms can survive much colder temperatures than the main stem can, so I was thinking that A. stenophylla might be able to aswell. Does anyone here have any experience growing stenophylla in colder climates? I'm planning on doing a couple that I'll bring inside once winter hits, one in a pot, and one or two in the ground with mulch. Our yearly lows are generally around 20-25, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep these outdoors year round, and at least have the rhizome survive.

By the time I get all of them germinated, I'm going to have a few extras aswell, if anyone is interested.

[elouicious]

I also sourced some seeds from Jibril (where I guess you sourced yours) for many of the reasons you mention-

No sprouts yet but like all annona I predict they may take a long time and be variable- some of my senegalensis just sprouted from april-

The rhizome, compact nature, and supposedly good tasting fruit are all appealing for this spp but I think it would be surprising to find it has cold tolerance given its native range-

This is with the huge caveat that many of these things have never been tested- for example I had 4/5 Annonidium manii survive a brief exposure to ~30*f which there is no logic for them to be able to do (these were also yearling seedlings)

I use heavy mulch and biological fertilizers in most of my tropicals that may contribute to keeping the rootball warmer than the surrounding air and provide protection, especially during brief exposures, but these things are hard to reliably quantify

Look forward to seeing your experiment!

[Polypterus]

I also sourced some seeds from Jibril (where I guess you sourced yours) for many of the reasons you mention-

No sprouts yet but like all annona I predict they may take a long time and be variable- some of my senegalensis just sprouted from april-

The rhizome, compact nature, and supposedly good tasting fruit are all appealing for this spp but I think it would be surprising to find it has cold tolerance given its native range-

This is with the huge caveat that many of these things have never been tested- for example I had 4/5 Annonidium manii survive a brief exposure to ~30*f which there is no logic for them to be able to do (these were also yearling seedlings)

I use heavy mulch and biological fertilizers in most of my tropicals that may contribute to keeping the rootball warmer than the surrounding air and provide protection, especially during brief exposures, but these things are hard to reliably quantify

Look forward to seeing your experiment!

I did get my seeds from jibril, and I was really pleased with what I received. I split my 15 seed order between stenophylla and senegalensis, and probably received 20-30 of each. When did you get your seeds? I'm trying to get an idea of how long I should expect it to take for them to sprout.

[Polypterus]

This blurb from http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Annona%20stenophylla seems quite promising... It says the shoots are annual, meaning that, if the rhizome can survive the winters, it can fruit in only 1 year once it grows a new shoot. It would be able to die down to the ground every year, grow a new shoot, and fruit, assuming the rhizome is cold tolerant at least.

"Annona stenophylla is a low-growing perennial plant with spreading, underground woody rhizomes. Annual shoots up to 1 metre tall arise from the rhizome, these stems can be simple or branched and sometimes become woody and persist for more than one year[308, 398].The edible fruit is eagerly collected from the wild for local use."

[elouicious]

Another Shoutout to Ken Fern and the wonderful database maintained by he and his wife-

run solely on donations and the go to resource for many of these plants

I believe I planted mine in July and have not seen sprouts yet-

Yes it sounds very promising- the only potentially negative comment I have about this DB is that the edibility scale seems to vary pretty wildly and not necessarily line up with my own experience

i.e. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Manilkara+bidentata only has 2 edibility bananas but the fruit I tried in Tobago was on par or Superior to Longan https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Dimocarpus+longan with 4 edibility bananas

This is probably the hardest part of the site to do since (i am almost certain) the two of them are based in England and may not have had the chance to try many of the fruits and are thus relying on secondhand reports

[Polypterus]

I'll see if jibril has any input on germination time/cold hardiness/flavor.

[Polypterus]

From Jibril:

Germination procedures:

Germination period of annona senegalese seeds is dynamic, the germination period behave inconsistent. From my own experience and customers feedback confirmed that, germination of this species depends on its pretreatment method, you can get germination within 2-8 weeks after planting, recently one of my customers confirmed that he got germination of some seeds at 14 months after planting.

The germination of annona stenophylla is same as above. They are cold tolerant, they all always found naturally at river side. One of my customer from U.S(Florida) gave a review that he got germination of the annona stenophylla after one and halve month (5 weeks).

Taste of annona senegalese and annona stenophylla:

The edible yellow pulp of the ripe fruit of annona senegalese has a pleasant, pineapple-like aroma with the flavour of apricots. The yellow to orange fruit is around 5cm in diameter.

Annona stenophylla fruits also taste similar to annona senegalese but annona senegalese is quiet sweeter than annona stenophylla.


As always, Jibril was very helpful

[Polypterus]

Another Shoutout to Ken Fern and the wonderful database maintained by he and his wife-

run solely on donations and the go to resource for many of these plants

I believe I planted mine in July and have not seen sprouts yet-

Yes it sounds very promising- the only potentially negative comment I have about this DB is that the edibility scale seems to vary pretty wildly and not necessarily line up with my own experience

i.e. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Manilkara+bidentata only has 2 edibility bananas but the fruit I tried in Tobago was on par or Superior to Longan https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Dimocarpus+longan with 4 edibility bananas

This is probably the hardest part of the site to do since (i am almost certain) the two of them are based in England and may not have had the chance to try many of the fruits and are thus relying on secondhand reports

How did you prepare your seeds? I was planning on scarifying and soaking, but there are far too many to scarify, so I was going to give them a 4 day soak, then germinate half in a moist container and half in pots to see which is more reliable.

[Polypterus]

I soaked all of the seeds for about 3 1/2 days, hoping that was enough to get them started. I planted all of them today because I read that they don't keep well. This seemed a bit odd to me, as in my experience, most annonas do, but I'd rather play it safe than sorry. Jibril was excellent, and sent me probably 20-50 of each seed, rather than 7-8 of each like the listing described. Given that, I'm going to have a lot of extras... I'm hoping there will be enough interest here for me to get rid of them, as I'd hate to have to compost them, especially since they reportedly take so long to germinate.