Can you grow Soursop/Guanabana in California

[AnnonaMangoLord45]

Is this a good Soursop Tree?

[gozp]

It depends where you are in California.
And yes your guanabana/ soursop tree looks awesome.

[miracle]

AnnonaMangoLord45, you can grow them. It will have flowers but will have fruits or not ...nobody knows yet in Southern California... try it... you might be the first one.
Most people I asked, their trees are small... around three or four years ....have some flowers

[BrianL]

I doubt it except in the most absolutely warmest locations.  Probably slightly interior Orange County and maybe some of LA county might be worth trying, but keep in mind min temperature during a century freeze, etc. . .

[JF]

I doubt it except in the most absolutely warmest locations.  Probably slightly interior Orange County and maybe some of LA county might be worth trying, but keep in mind min temperature during a century freeze, etc. . .

I agree with Brian. Coastal Orange County, San Diego and interior Orange County with coastal influence. Guanabanas take 50's- low 40's temps well but can not handle much lower for the duration of winter months. 

[AnnonaMangoLord45]

I am in north Orange County and it has been planted into the ground! My local nursery owner said it was possible to get fruit on it

[HMelendez]

Your Soursop (Guanabana) tree looks vey good!....Good luck!.....

[gozp]

I am in north Orange County and it has been planted into the ground! My local nursery owner said it was possible to get fruit on it

You just have to protect your tree when temps go down to 45 f and below.

[mark4ord]

Hello from Ensenada
I have had for years a Guanabana tree. This year has been fabulous for it produced approx 40 fruit.
I normally hand pollinate the blossoms for most insects cannot reach far enough in the blossom. I severely cut back my tree in January- February each year. People tell me it can’t survive here but mine does quite well. I’m near the ocean and like my avocado tree it is so what intolerant to near freezing s weather. I just started harvesting the fruit and letting ripen in the window sill.

[9B in Brazil]

I have a 30-foot tall Soursop at my farm in zone 9B in Brazil.  Yearly winter temperatures always drop to at least 32F.  My tree shows no distress with near-freezing temperatures.  Coastal SF Bay Area or further south should be warm enough to support a Soursop's needs, though irrigation will be needed.

[sapote]

I have a 30-foot tall Soursop at my farm in zone 9B in Brazil.  Yearly winter temperatures always drop to at least 32F.  My tree shows no distress with near-freezing temperatures.  Coastal SF Bay Area or further south should be warm enough to support a Soursop's needs, though irrigation will be needed.

Then why we haven't heard or seen more Soursop in LA and Orange county? This is great and I will try to grow one tree. I visited Bahama some years back and a nice guy took me to his farm and sold me one tree ripen fruit -- it was so good with strong taste.

[Bush2Beach]

Comparing Brazil 9B and Coastal Bay Area is just a bad generalization of climate.
Same as 9b Florida and 9b California. They have no similarity or commonalities and confuse people with improper generalizations on what they can and cannot grow.
Some Cherimoya cultivars don’t get enough heat here to ripen properly .

I have a 30-foot tall Soursop at my farm in zone 9B in Brazil.  Yearly winter temperatures always drop to at least 32F.  My tree shows no distress with near-freezing temperatures.  Coastal SF Bay Area or further south should be warm enough to support a Soursop's needs, though irrigation will be needed.

[Tony714]

Sorry to bring this old thread.  I bought it pass spring and it's doing great pushing out branches so far.  I'm curious anyone success fruiting it?

[sc4001992]

Tony,

I'm in SoCal (Fullerton area) and I got one plant that a friend had grown from seed for 4 years. He had to keep it inside at night so it would not get stressed when it got cold. He ended up keeping his plant in his shower (haha) for 2 years, the tree grew well, about 4 ft when he got tired of it in the shower so he gave it to me to try to grow outside. I did keep it in the pot outside for 2 years, it grew fine but would drop all the leaves in winter. Then in spring it would start to slowly get its leaves back and grow a little. But it does get some branch die back every winter from the cold. I got tire of babying the tree and one day it dried up and died.

Now I have another rare guanabana plant from a forum friend and this time, I know it needs to be in a greenhouse during the colder months when temps get in the mid 40's. I'm making a cheap DIY greenhouse from some Home Depot clearance glass patio tables to protect the plant.

[Tony714]

I totally picture it in shower 2 yrs .  I hope your project goes well and it's doing great this year.   
I got mine in spring from local group fundsraising.  It was a piece of stick 7ft tall, no leave and dying toothpick branches.  I forgot to take a picture of it.   About 3 weeks or month later, I decided it to cut down to 18 inches and used cuttings to graft .  I grafted 6 pieces on cherimoya, atemoya and only 1 success.  Here they are still pushing new growths and 4ft now.   I  leave 1 close to neighbors brick fence and other under my patio facing West.  Couple places that I read, it could handle low 40°.  My brother lives in Garden Grove and left his seedling under patio during last winter.

[roblack]

Cherimoya tastes better, with more palatable texture. We who grow guanabana wish we could grow and fruit cherimoya. If you live in CA, messing with guanabana for fun makes sense, but you have way better options for fruit.   

[greenerpasteur]

Cherimoya tastes better, with more palatable texture. We who grow guanabana wish we could grow and fruit cherimoya. If you live in CA, messing with guanabana for fun makes sense, but you have way better options for fruit.

I agree. Cherimoya/atemoya is way better. It also grow like weed in SoCal. So many Hispanic family with 2 story tree.

Soursop for me is good as smoothie with sugar and ice. It's too sour to eat it fresh.

[sc4001992]

I got mine as a gift, it is the golden colored fruit so it's special, need to keep it alive.

[Tony714]

I agree to everything Greenerpasteur said.  I love all of them atemoya, cherimoya and guanabana.   They bring back my childhood memories and remembering my grandparents & orchard.  I left my country over 30yrs.  I wasnt allow to go back after they passed away already.

[greenerpasteur]

I agree to everything Greenerpasteur said.  I love all of them atemoya, cherimoya and guanabana.   They bring back my childhood memories and remembering my grandparents & orchard.  I left my country over 30yrs.  I wasnt allow to go back after they passed away already.

There is a ạ new variety of atemoya that taste like soursop - milky atemoya. I'd graft that variety since atemoya do really well in SoCal. I haven't try the fruit so I can't confirm.

Atemoya is my favorite fruit to grow in SoCal. I have 14 trees and I want more!

[Tony714]

Great to know there is variety similar to guanabana taste.  I have very limited space and will keep my eye on it.  Please let me know when you're fruited.   

[SDPirate]

Milky atemoya sounds interesting, I will have to keep an eye out for that one especially if it leans toward soursop in taste. 

I have been growing a handful of whitman's fiberless soursop from seed since February or so and haven't really had any issue with them, they grow rapidly even under the 50% shade.  That being said I moved my fastest growing one indoors under the growlights just to be safe since we are starting to dip into mid 40s territory at night.  The others I am keeping in the outdoor unheated greenhouse for science to see how they fare.

I have heard of other select few cases of people getting them to fruit here but is probably not that productive I would imagine.

[Seanny]

Some people have Soursop fruits from their trees, here in SoCal.

I have a small grafted tree in 7g pot, with 5 flowers right now.
I leave it outdoor, under eaves.

Soursop is easy to graft.
I graft them in late summer and early fall.
I haven’t have a failure.

This is a 9/16 cleft graft with all leaves attached to scion.
Cherimoya rootstock, cherilata interstock, soursop at top.

[Epiphyte]

soursop has been fruited in north san diego.  *pats self on back for saving that video in a playlist*

coincidentally, today a guy doing some work on my house showed me a pic of his soursop tree here in the los angeles area.  it had a bunch of fruits on it last year but they didn't survive the long winter.  he said that he grew it from seed from nayarit.  i gave him a 5 gallon nanche as down-payment for future seeds/scions from his soursop.

how much variation in temp tolerance is there among soursops from different locations?  i have small seedlings from florida, costa rica and oaxaca mexico.  so far i haven't tested any outside over the winter.

it's surprising that i haven't heard of anyone crossing soursop with mountain soursop. 

[K-Rimes]

There is a local grower in SB who has a really nice potted one. They've had it for 8 years or something from when they lived in RI, and then trucked it over when they moved, cool story. I donated a 25g pot to them / it.