Great find! I should check the local home depot for some Cherimoya. Here is some info from the http://www.crfg.org;

"White (syn. Dr.White)
Origin J. H. MacPherson, Lemon Grove, Calif., 1928. Tree open, unkempt; to 35 feet, needs forming. A commercial favorite at Carpinteria. Best near coast. Fruit large, to 4 pounds, conical, with superficial small lumps (umbonate). Flesh juicy, flavor weak, suggesting mango-papaya."

Excellent find. I ordered from Cherimoya.com this year and White was one of the fruit sent. Well worth growing...it was delicious.

Harry

Will Cherimoya's grow in South Florida? or is it limited to sugar apples and atemoya's.

It will, but it is difficult to fruit. I have tried several times and without much luck. I did see a fruting Cherimoya up at Excalibur Nursery years ago, but I think you are much better off with sticking with atemoya and sugar apples.

Harry

It's only my first year with them, but my cherimoyas are doing great down here in FL. I have a honeyheart in the ground that looks to be holding 5 fruit, and a pierce in a pot that is holding 3. I think they will all make it to maturity. With as expensive as these fruit are I definitely wanted to try a few trees. I am going to be getting a "Selma" soon which is my favorite of the ones that I have tried.

Jsvand5,

I have a Selma I purchased from Roger Meyer. No fruits yet on my Selma (waiting patiently for the day!). I hear Selma has a pinkish flesh.

Was it from LaVerne nuseries? And which Home Depot was it in? I remember 4 years ago, my local HD carried Chaffey and El Bumpo cherimoya trees from LaVerne. I was fool enough to not get them while they lasted. This year, I am waiting for the Cherimoyas to show up in any of the local nurseries. Dr White has a good fruit from what I have read.
And you can't beat that price for a grafted tree. I would grab it if I were you :)

I'll grab that tree in a heart beat. That's pretty cheap for a 5' grafted cherimoya. And no shipping cost. I wish my Home Depot sell tropical fruit trees. Tried Dr. White from cherimoya.com and it was sweet with some chewiness. I think Fino was the sweetest out of the other varieties sent from cherimoya.com.

I've seen "El Bumpo" and "Honeyheart" from La Verne Nurseries sold at Home Depot in San Diego. Dr. White is one of my favorites although many of the descriptions I have read on line (when you google Dr. White)have noted it as being kind of bland and overly sweet. I'm asian and I like sweet things but Dr. White IMO has a very nice balance between sweetness and acidity, not only that but it has a velvety smooth, super juicy texture and very few seeds compared to the flesh ratio.

Nullzero, yep the selma is the one that is pinkish inside. It's a really small fruit, but the flavor is the best IMO.

Jsvand5,

Did you hear anywhere about the yields of Selma? I would assume since its smaller fruit, there should be more fruiting on the tree. I am currently have Selma and Elixir grafted varieties. I am also working on sprouting some Cherimoya seeds collected from Peru.

-Stephen

Hello All,

I just wanted to let everyone know that the Home Depot that had the "White" Cherimoya is in Santa Barbara, CA.

I say had, because I purchaed the Tree and it is actually really nice. It is about 5.5' Feet tall, not super bushey, but nicely branched and growing new leaves and branches nicely. Also, after further inspection, the tree has a Fruit developing and several flowers as well.

I will post some pictures in the near future of the tree so that you can all see.

Thanks to all who gave me their opinions and information.

Jacob

Hello Friends,

I thought I would post pics of the Grafted White's Cherimoys tree that I just picked up at Home Depot for $21.00.

Picture of the Cherimoya Tree

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Cherimoya Flowers

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Cherimoya Flowers

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There is actually a small Cherimoya on the tree that is just starting, Im not sure if you can see it in the pictures. Does anyone else have any Cherimoyas, Fruit or Flowers, this late in the year? Is this rare or fairly typical.

Thanks,

Jacob

Jacob, Cherimoyas actually flower mid to late summer and into fall. They then produce fruit during the winter season. This is why it is so hard to get fruit if you live in an area where you are prone to freezing temperatures.

In Tampa where I live it starts to set fruit in the fall only to have the fruit killed when the freezing temperatures arrive in January. Add to that scenario the fact that the tree will start to go dormant in November to December. By the end of December when the leaves have mostly dropped you have a twig with hanging fruit. In my area only during a delayed or relatively mild winter season will the fruit get a chance to fully develop.

The other problem with the Cherimoya is that it hates hot and humid summers, that is why in my area it will not set fruit during the summer time. I was informed by a member of the Tampa RFCI who I consider an authority on Annonas that the Cherimoya may flower in the spring but will seldom set fruit because the pollen is sterile during those cycles.

I don't know enduser, Both of my trees put out a good amount of flowers and I got a pretty good pollination rate. I actually stopped pollinating flowers because I didn't want the tree to hold too much fruit. I am in Ocala FL. My tree seems to be growing great even with the hot weather.

Here is one of the honeyheart

and here is a pierce

These pics are a pretty recent. They are both about the size of a tennis ball now.

Jacob, looks like you may have found a secret to getting Cherimoyas to fruit in this area if that is really what those fruit are. Since you are growing California varieties their fruiting cycle appears to be different.

All the Cherimoyas that I have attempted to grow came from fruit and seeds that were brought in from Miami. The Pierce and Honey Heart varieties sure look like Atemoyas to me though. Perhaps they are a hybrid and not a true Cherimoya. The Cherimoyas that I've seen and grown are smooth with no protuberance on the skin like the one below.
-

@jsvand5 sorry confused you with jacob. Where did you get your trees from? How do you protect them in the winter?

Does cherimoya like ocala better than south florida? I've read that they like cool winters.

enduser,

I ordered both from a california nursery. I think it is called So Cal nursery. I think the fruit will smooth out some as they get bigger, but a lot of varieties stay pretty bumpy. These are definitely not atemoya.

I never have fruited any of the cherimoyas. And atemoyas can certainly have varying degrees of protuberance prominance (if there is such a thing) even among fruits on the same tree. I have never had Honeyheart but did have what was represented to be Pierce when I ordered from Cherimoya.com. Pierce is the top right fruit. The protuberances are non-existant. It will be interesting to see your's flatten out, John. I really enjoyed this fruit. Of course, I enjoyed all of the five I received.

@jsvand5 I hate to be the bearer of bad news but both the cherimoyas that you have are not the varieties that you are stating. Those varieties may be what you ordered but not what you received.

The "HoneyHeart" cherimoya is called such because the flavor tastes like honey and it is shaped like a heart. Once a fruit establishes protuberances it will not loose them, they just get more pronounced. The cherimoya with the bumps appears to look like the "EL BUMPO" variety.

The other cherimoya that you have called Pierce is actually the "ROUGH PIERCE". The Pierce cherimoya is smooth like the ones shown above by Harry and myself. The picture of the actual Pierce cherimoya is shown below.

I included the link to the encanto farms website in California where these pictures came from. He shows pictures of all the fruits that he grows on his farm including the pictures of the named cherimoya varieties shown below. He also has pictures of the leaves for further verification purposes.

EL BUMPO

HONEYHEART Cherimoya

PIERCE Cherimoya

ROUGH PIERCE Cherimoya

Here is a link that might be useful: Encanto Farms

I do see that they look different, and you may be right that I was sold the wrong varieties, but I wonder if it is possible that the fruit looks different due to the vastly different climate I am growing them in compared to CA. Pollination affects the shape of the fruit quite a bit. Even the different fruit on the same trees in my yard vary quite a bit.
I think flatten may have been the wrong word that I used earlier. Maybe spread out would be a better word. The first link is of a small developing fruit from Encanto's site. It does not specify which type it is though.

http://encantofarms.com/gpix/GP922-39.jpg

A little larger fruit

http://encantofarms.com/gpix/GP921-10.jpg

Variation of fruit of the same tree:

http://encantofarms.com/gpix/GP921-09.jpg

Here are a couple more pics of the different fruit on the pierce tree. These two seem a little more evenly pollinated but the are still pretty bumpy aside from towards the bottom which seems pretty smooth. Sorry about the foggy pics, the humidity is nuts.

jsvand5, you got two great cherimoya trees but it appears that they may not be the varieties that you thought you purchased. I see deception on the part of nursery that sold them to you. They misrepresented the product or gave you a substitute just to make a sale. This practice appears to be common in the nursery trade.

This has happened to me several times. On one such incident the guy at the nursery told me that the Hak Ip lychee is one in the same as the Sweetheart, but the name was different because of a "marketing thing". Coincidentally he did not have any Sweetheart lychees on hand but he had plenty of Hak Ip.

Are both the trees grafted? If grown from seed it may explain some of the variation specially if they are hybrids, but if grafted they should be representative of their respective varieties regardless of were they are grown. When you grow a plant outside of its region it usually affects flavor and the size of the fruit, but not the variety of the fruit produced.

How do you protect them in the winter?

I bought Brook cherimoya from Home Depot in Corona, CA for $21 last year. I have 5 fruits now. They are rather small. I bought a Dr. White cherimoya from same store in Sept 2011. It costs me $30 now in a 5 gallon container. You can special order cherimoyas at Lowe's.

How do I post a picture of my cherimoyas? Thanks

Here in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties in CA, cherimoyas grow like weeds. They sprout in the ground from fallen fruit, flower profusely this time of year, and produce excellent fruit in the spring. Still, they need manual pollination to have well shaped fruit. Bumpiness varies with the variety and smoothness and bumpiness is common. They prefer our cool summers.

The "Honeyheart" is actually HONEYHART, named by an old time member of the California Rare Fruit Growers. ORTON is another of his selections of cherimoya as his name was Orton Englehart. If you see ..."hart" in a fruit name it was selected by Orton Englehart, for example the Creamhart avocado. Google his name as he was a generous contributor to the CRFG (in the early days) and, in fact, invented the Rainbird sprinkler. His efforts deserve proper credit.

Jvsand5,

If I were a betting man, I would say that you have a beautiful producing Atemoya. Good for you the fruit looks great! I hope to have a few next year.

All the best!

Vince

Annonalover,

I agree but let's compare:

Booth Cherimoya

Pierce Cherimoya

Does the Annona cross pollinate? I have 4 varieties, and the trees are young (under 3). So I didn't know if the flowers/ fruit/seeds might show the same attributes..