The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: gnappi on December 02, 2022, 02:34:12 AM
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I planted a Rollinia three years ago as a healthy tree bought in a recently re-potted 7 gallon. It has thrived, and unlike some I've seen mine has a canopy that is dense, and dark green with a 4-5" thick trunk and is between 12 and 15 feet tall. It has bloomed since the first full year in ground and every year since going in the ground, and set a few fruits which turned black and fell off. I have a well and it gets sufficient water, and fertilized with Excalibur's stuff.
Is this fruit drop a matter of the tree still being immature and my expecting fruit sooner? Or, an I missing something in its care.
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Sounds like you are on the right track. Ours took several years (4 - 5) after planting in ground to start producing decent crops. Planted as a 7 gallon. I think you are on the verge. Fert seemed to help ours (+had a compost bin leaking onto the roots), but think it was also maturity.
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Mine flowered for the first time this year but the flowers dropped off. Only a handful of flowers, hopefully more next year.
My rollinia is an absolute magnet for spider mites so it looks terrible right now from all the mite damage. The waxier-leafed annonas such as soursop don't seem as susceptable.
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Recent fruits have dried up when small on ours for some reason. Not sure if it is holding anything or not.
It's been really dry here, with periodic spells of heaving rain. For example, weeks of little to no rain, then 5.55 inches in one day, and another 2 inches overnight (a few weeks ago). Dryness might help with flowering, but think it needs more water to develop and hold fruits.
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Rollinia loves water. 200” a year is not too much.
Peter
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Yeah, I read the Univ of Hawaiic pdf on rollinia when I got the tree and with a well it doesn't get thirsty. It explodes in blooms, I'll bet that I have over 100 flowers on it whenever I check it!
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Has to be a maturity issue. Your tree has some growing up and learning to do. Either this summer or next, you should have some fruits coming in. Probably will get 2 crops per year when she starts rollinia-ing.
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Well, I inspected the tree closely and there are now three fruit hiding in the fairly dense canopy. Unfortunately I'm plagued with all sorts of tree rats (possum, squirrels, raccoons and occasionally rats) so in an attempt to thwart their destructive nibbling, I bagged all three fruits with nylon bags. I'm thinking I may double bag them.
At this point they're a bit larger than the size of a hardball, growing fast and aside from color change I have no idea when to pick them so I'll be up in the ladder checking them frequently :-)
I wonder if many growers in So. Flo have success with rollinia here? I wonder because there's not a whole lot of online chatter about them.
Anyway, thanks Roblack, your assessment was spot on.
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Very welcome Gnappi!
Still learning about rollnia myself. Fruits will start to yellow when ripening. If you pick with some green, let them sit for a while till fully yellow. I've tried them a little greener to try and get a firmer fleshed fruit, but the flavor was best when fully ripened.
Enjoy =)
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New to Rollinia. Planted seed last year, they have started well but will be waiting many years before I can join the conversation on fruiting.
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I believe- like other annona, the stem should turn brown and dry when the fruit is ripe-
one of the best Annona out there
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New to Rollinia. Planted seed last year, they have started well but will be waiting many years before I can join the conversation on fruiting.
I didn't want to wait it was hard enough finding fruit but I found a seller with several fair sized seedlings. Mine was not cheap but it was worth it. Oh, I STILL haven't found fruit!
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A guy in Puna told me his rollinia trees would only survive for 12 to 15 years then they slowly start to die. Seems so strange for a tree to only last that long. At least they are pretty quick to fruit.
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12 to 15 years? At 71 if "I" live that long I will be happy to watch it die before me :-)
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Rollinia are like a weed tree that produces a nice fruit. Very fast grower that will get away from you easily if you don’t control it. As Ben said they won’t last long. They’re kind of invasive on my farm. Birds get to the fruit easily and I get lots of volunteers.
Peter
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Rollinia are like a weed tree that produces a nice fruit. Very fast grower that will get away from you easily if you don’t control it. As Ben said they won’t last long. They’re kind of invasive on my farm. Birds get to the fruit easily and I get lots of volunteers.
Peter
Peter, get away in what way?
Grow super big and wild or the invasive angle, start growing in other parts of your yard.
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By get away I mean get too tall to be able to easily enough to harvest the fruit. In that case we get a lot of bird damage to the fruits as well. We feel these trees need to be kept under control, 5m/16’.
I started planting rollinia more than 30 years ago. Most fruit trees that I planted then we still have but as far as Biriba is concerned we’re on the 3rd generation or so.
Peter
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Finca La Isla,
Thanks for your additional perspective, I thought mine was growing vertically unusually fast, I'll have to keep a closer watch on it.
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gnappi, did you ever get fruit to maturity?
My rollinia is finally setting some fruits and has a ton of flowers now. I'm still fighting spider mites constantly on it, though.
(https://i.imgur.com/1gZM5jU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MSnPypR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/T9vsHoP.jpg)
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You really do fantastic with your greenhouse!
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gnappi, did you ever get fruit to maturity?
My rollinia is finally setting some fruits and has a ton of flowers now. I'm still fighting spider mites constantly on it, though.
(https://i.imgur.com/1gZM5jU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MSnPypR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/T9vsHoP.jpg)
the hits keep coming!
Love this fruit- how many years old?
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Thanks.
I've never had rollinia fruit, looking forward to trying it. Hopefully I get some full sized fruit, my atemoya has only made small fruits so far.
I think this tree I got three years ago from hawaiiantropical, but when it arrived it was five feet tall in a huge box! I imagine the seller took a hit on shipping such a thing all the way from Hawaii. So I figure it was around a year or two old then and so 4-5 total now. It has had some dieback and I've pruned it a bit, but its vigor seems to overcome all that and the mites.
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I’ve seen rollinia in Florida, São Paulo, and southern Bahia so it’s a very flexible tree. That said it’s night and day with the rollinia in an equatorial rainforest climate versus subtropics. Here there’s commercial plantations and it does fantastic. The specimens I’ve seen elsewhere produce and are healthy but look less vigorous I guess. All this just to say I think it likes consistent warmth and rain (my region has 2000-2500mm avg annually, temps basically 18-32c).
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I’ve seen rollinia in Florida, São Paulo, and southern Bahia so it’s a very flexible tree. That said it’s night and day with the rollinia in an equatorial rainforest climate versus subtropics. Here there’s commercial plantations and it does fantastic. The specimens I’ve seen elsewhere produce and are healthy but look less vigorous I guess. All this just to say I think it likes consistent warmth and rain (my region has 2000-2500mm avg annually, temps basically 18-32c).
Yes its adaptable I have a tree still flushing out growth outdoors in Los Angeles. Wide variance of genetics in Rollinia.
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I noticed yesterday that the fruiting half of my rollinia has a severe armored scale infestation. I hate this scale as it blends in so well with the bark it can go on unchecked for a long time. The tree has such vigorous yet weak growth I am thinking it makes sense to just remove that whole third of the tree once the fruit (hopefully) matures. I broke a few branches just inspecting it.
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They are pretty common around here and range from smoother mucosa style to the sputniks. The taste varies just a bit between forms but there are smaller, far more productive selections. I did get seeds from a very poor small fruited type from Panama that really only deserves the axe. Anyway I don't see how people prefer the really ripe soft fruit over the greener and lemony tasting fruit at an earlier stage of ripening. I personally am not a fan of mucous.
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Har might suggest it's time you start hand pollinating.
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Never heard of anyone hand pollinating them before
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Aren't there those same little brown beetles that like the sugar apple flowers and pollinate them?
Couldn't these same little brown beetles be lured to a blooming biribá with a rotten piece of citrus fruit laid at the base of the tree –like we can do with a sugar apple?
Otherwise I can't figure out how one would go about hand-pollinating a Rollinia flower, as oddly shaped as their flowers are.
Paul M.
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