Successful Graft Soursop onto Cherimoya

[Tustinfruitnerd]

Hi all. I did three grafts of soursop onto Honeyhart cherimoya in mid August.  It seems like all three took. The scions were collected from a small seedling soursop. The cherimoya is in ground. Seems like green on green works well. I am trying to grow soursop in southern California so hopefully the cherimoya will give it a few more degrees of hardiness. Will update after this winter. I have seen pictures of a woman who was able to fruit them in the ground in Orange County with winter protection on very cold nights.

[Mikey]

The real question is will the soursop foliage survive  the winter or will it all fall off and regenerate new foliage in the spring?

[shinzo]

The real question is will the soursop foliage survive  the winter or will it all fall off and regenerate new foliage in the spring?

I don't see where is the problem if the foliage drops and grows back in the spring? as long as the branch is still alive.

[Mikey]

If the foliage die and you have fruit, then the fruit die.  But we won’t know until we see it.  Have anyone in Southern California produce fruit from soursop?  I’ve seen them flower but I have not seen them fruit.   

[Weboh]

How did this go? Did the cherimoya graft make the soursop more cold tolerant? Did you get any fruit off of the soursop part yet?

[Bananaizme]

  There was a individual who lives in Garden Grove who just harvested a large soursop fruit from his tree about a month ago. He's a member of the Facebook group Vietnamese exotic fruit growers. I know of a couple more members in that group who have fruit set on younger trees but haven't harvested them yet so it can be done .

 William

[raimeiken]

At what temps do soursop branch dies back from?

[pineislander]

You might expect them to begin defoliating below 40 degrees. Not sure about die back but preventing wind exposure is said to be critical by folks in marginal climates. There are some threads on frost damage here you can search for.

[Coach62]

Mine defoliate every year, seems like somewhere in the low 40’s but they come back.