The Tropical Fruit Forum

Early flowers allowed me to gather pollen and hand pollinate ate the same time. My 3 year old tree now has around 30 fruit set and growing. I did another round of hand pollination but did need to gather the pollen and store it for a day or two. I’ll know soon if it was successful.

I gathered the pollen in a plastic lid for a mason jar then put it in a ziplock bag and stored it in my wine fridge as my regular fridge is below 40 degrees and I don’t know if that’s too cold for the pollen.

Here’s the fruit from the initial set.

Your pics shared hope and got me motivated!

Much appreciation for the desiccant tip Har. Going to try that for sure. If pollen can last a week, hand pollination gets a lot easier.

Was looking at the tree today and had trouble counting all the tiny fruit. Wondering, how much fruit can my tree hold? Probably 10 feet tall; would be taller but chopped the top a couple of times. Trunk has to be 7 inch diameter or more, too relaxed to go check.

I do agree with having mulch and allowing leaves to for a habitat underneath for the lesser known pollinators that do their work at night. I have seen small beetles, flies, and roaches that look very much like a beetle out at night in mango flowers and in tilo flowers hands down the smallest and tightest flower I have ever seen. Roblack do the flowers close at night? 

Got the beetles and some kind of little moth that might be working on the flowers.

No. Flowers do not close at night/ever, once open. Early evening (or later) is actually a good time to gather pollen and/or hand pollinate.

I agree with you Jeff regarding annonas needing fert. Rollinia wasn't even flowering well until fed, and now flowers heavily with periodic feedings. It has held fruit before with no help, just never more than 4 or 5 at a time.

How often do you fertilize your annonas? Eyeballing my Geffner with one measly flower. 

Getting flowers 2 - 3 times a year. Got some medium sized fruit going now. Seems it flowered around the beginning of winter. It will usually flower in the summer, but pretty much whenever.

Definitely one to hand pollinate, as fruit set has been light otherwise. 

Success!





Yeah Ache, I've noticed the beetles as well. Bees cannot pollinate rollinia. The problem is the timing of the male and female flowers. Seems I'm getting more crossover lately, with a couple of male flowers accompanying a bunch of females. Hand pollinating fresh or refrigerated pollen about 3 times a week.

I've heard the beetles like leaves and mulch beneath the tree. 

No idea on fruit spacing. Looking forward to having an overload problem.

Just tasted the first fruit off my tree (Corrongo) and it was a bit insipid. A little sweetness, with a hint of something similar to grape. It was subtly pleasant. 

Being that this is the first time the tree has flowered and fruited, will withhold judgment for the time being. Want to see how it fares over a few seasons.

Think I will clean and freeze the fruit for smoothies.

This sounds awesome!

...and the guy feeding the elephant durian, what a pick! I want to go on a feeding elephants durian tour.

Abiu is about as picky as Jaboticaba when it comes to water/ph. Needs a lot of water and a low ph

This does not fit with my experience. A large jabo in-ground is doing great here. Abiu is much more sensitive to hi ph soil ime.

Went ahead and picked 2 caimitos. About 6 more on the tree. Not too bad for first time fruiting. Hope they taste good.

Thanks JY!

Just checked the caimito, and the ripest fruit is about 70% purple. Going to watch and wait.

The borojoa plants were from 7 heads off eBay. I had 3, lost one, and one of the 2 left is not looking so good. Haven't really given them the attention they need.

We have a lot of flowering plants for butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and whatever else. Not sure what plants would bring in rollinia pollinators though. Any ideas?

Think I found my answer here:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8780.0

Seems pollen can be refrigerated for a up to a day or more. Should solve my problem, and will hopefully lead to a bunch of fruit. Tired of getting only a few fruit off this tree, as it is really good.

Great news! Wonderful fruit that is tasty out of hand, but probably better in smoothies. I like to clean them of seeds and then freeze until needed.