Great shots, did you have to hand pollinate to get those?

thanks, yep each flower was hand pollinated for fruit set.

lets see, I take highway 5-south to the 605 west then hop on the 705 north taking the slausen cutoff.....over to the 22 which merges with the.....

You are lucky you're protected by such a thick layer of freeways, I'd hate to see a large bearded/balding "squirrel" run off with any of those lovely fruit. ;0)

congrats,
-Ethan

fortunately no one in the neigborhood knows what they are. And neither squirrels, possums, or birds know what to do with them. =)

Eggo, do you think i could get a few of those seeds? This year my seedling cherimoyas took off, and now I am looking for more seeds.

definitely plummy. they won't be ripe till late Nov/Dec though.

OMG! They look so good. I wish I have a tree that bear so many fruits. Is your sweet? I ate this a few times and still not much taste...not sweet at all. Got them from the supermarket. Is this suppose to be a sweet fruit? The fruit is huge!

todostom- What are you going to do with those seedlings? You got so many of them. I still think atemoya is the best. Did you plant any atemoya?

Eggo, thanks for sharing those inspiring photographs. Todostom, when I started seedlings in my greenhouse they did grow superbig superfast, and yours look great whereas mine weren't moved to bigger housing as soon as they should have been as yours clearly have, so I had alot of trouble with various scale insects which disappeered after better planting in yard.

Ch3rri, I plant 200 each time and only save 20 of the hardiest due to lack of room. The seeds come from a diverse gene pool of Cherimoyas in Vista. A few in the 1st picture came from a Honeyheart. Since they transplant easily I flood the substrate and separate them individually until they get big enough to graft. I do have a Giant Taiwanese Atemoya grafted to a White Cherimoya Rootstock trying to fruit in a container right now.

Eggo, Nice Pics, those moyas are going off! I can only pray someday mine will do that. Have you had much luck with seedlings as far as fruit quality and flavor? If so, How long did it take for your seedlings to bear? I have been getting a wide range of estimates, but nothing definitive. I'm sure getting them out of a container and into the ground can help speed the process.

Eggo, I also have five seedlings that clearly do not thrive in the heat of summer or direct sunlight, would they be worth saving to test for cold hardiness? They have had the same treatment, soil, and conditions as the others, just turn yellow in the sun, and slow to grow in summer heat.

Tomatozilla, Most bugs I see just take a bite of Cherimoya leaf and bail. I don't use insecticides because I don't want to kill a potential pollinator. The Goji Plants attract a small bee I have never seen before, it's the right size and shape to pollinate a Cherimoya so we'll see.

Beautiful! Wish we could grow cherimoyas in Jamaica.

atemoya picture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanku123/2771707405/

some more pictures of my atemoyas.

Yummy! You're so lucky! I wish I have a tree that bear big fruit like that. Is this the gefner variety? Is this the best? I think I will have to purchase another tree since I want different variety but will be hard to get cuttings from other. I will get it next year when spring come around. which variety is best?

Of those I have tried I like gefner the best.
97-1 is nice (picture of smaller cracked fruit) but doesn't get as big.

whats the key to taking care of the Cherimoya Honey Heart? the pictures are so beautiful above. mine is droopy.
i live a mile from the coast in san diego. what do i need to do for winter care? what fertilizer/or nutrients works best? will it always be limp? what is the dormant season on this tree? thanks

I too am looking for a time range from seed to fruit.

Hey eggo, of the named cultivars of cherimoyas you have, which is your favorite? How does your Honeyheart taste? Also, how do Atemoyas taste compared to Cherimoyas? I have heard several people say that Cherimoyas are much better and people usually plant Atemoyas if they are marginal for Cherimoyas.

OMG that brought a tear to my eye. Oh why did my parents have to move to Canada. Eggo Congrats they look just lovely.

I just bought a honey heart cherimoya tree and would like advice on hand pollinating and general care. I live in North San Diego County a few miles from the coast.

By the way, the pictures above look great.

Hand pollinating is very easy, there are lots of articles on the internet that have excellent pics on the different flower stages. Basically, you want to collect the males pollen when the flowers are fully open and use this pollen to pollinated the just barely open females. I forgot what type of brush I used but I believe it was either a #1,2, or 10 brush.

If you live close to the PQ or RB area, I can demonstrate how to pollinate the flowers.

Simon Grow,

That would be wonderful. I'm near the CSUSM campus in SEH. My tree is just a little charlie brown tree but I'm getting new leaf growth. I'm not even sure if I'll get flowers this year.

Hey Theresa, I'm not familiar with those abbreviations but I'll try and look it up. The Cherimoyas in San Diego are starting to bloom. They usually start putting out flowers the same time new growth appears. I'm going to start pollinating all my friends and neighbors trees this weekend. I will email you and give you my contact info or if you don't have an email, you can click on my name and that will link you to my email. If your tree is too small, I would not recommend letting it set fruit. Each fruit will need approximately 30-40 leaves and the plant should have been planted in the ground for at least one year, 2 years in the ground is even better. If your tree is established, you should get fruit with hand pollination.

Hey Theresa, I guess the forum names don't connect to personal emails. you can reach me at simon12445@gmail.com.

I just sent you a pm. Theresa

I have some seeds soaking right now kind worried about it in zone 9b. Smuggled them in with my luggage coming back from Peru. Cherymoya seeds can be used as an insecticide so no real worry about petsts plus it came from Lima :)

Hello Eggo and Simon and all!

I've recently planted a young tree, and it's not looking great. The leaves are yellowing and it's drooping and looking miserable. I wonder how I can make it happier?!

We're in the Santa Monica mountains, located up in Topanga near Malibu, CA. My citrus trees are happy, it gets hot and is very sunny most of the time. My Fuji and Anna apples are also happy, there's enough of a marine layer rolling in to keep them content.

I'm not expecting cherimoya fruit for a couple of years, but wondered if I've located it right (full sun) and if I need to water it a lot of fertilize it specially.

I've given it a good amount of Dr Earth organic fruit tree fertilizer and planted it in great soil with added alpaca manure. The mulch is fine wood shavings from a stables, so lots of horse pee and some manure in there. It should be so happy, and yet it's not!

I appreciate any advice, thank you!

Full sun, marine layer. it sounds ideal.

Do you have any pictures?

It would be a bit hard for me to say because of the timing. Since cherimoyas leaves tend to yellow, brown, and drop when the weather warms up And for us it's usually this time of the year. This is when the old leaves fall and new growths/blooms occur. My tree is in full bloom right now but for some strange reason my area is usually a month or two ahead of schedule. I believe for the most part this is the time when leaves drop occur.

Eggo - How many cherimoya trees do you have? What variety? Are you in Long Beach, CA? What advice or suggestions do you have for us crazy folks that are trying to grow a potted cherimoya in cooler and rainier climates? Also, I'd love to see updated pics (if you have any).

Thanks,

Bo

Hello Bo,
I forgot to mention to you that I found this site(forgive me I didn't write the name of the site down.), I think it was California cherimoya growers society? I went there because they were supposed to have a list of most of the varieties that are grown in California. I went there and did some reading but then I checked out the variety page and it was all in spanish. I just wanted to get some info on the Sabor hybrid. All I have found so far is that it is a commercial variety grown in California and pretty populare because of the great flavor. I got that information from roger Meyer. I would like to get a list of the cherimoya and atemoya varieties he sells but I am afraid once I see it, I will want to buy more and I cannot buy more!!
Andrew

The most beautiful photos of Cherimoyas ever! My favorite fruit. I live in Massachusetts and I planted a seed in a vase which is a 9 ft tall tree. Its full of flowers but I am wondering if I will have fruits. I have for about 4 years, last year I had flowers but no fruits. Due to the cold weather I have to plant in vases, and I have a good variety of tropical fruits in my sun room. During the Winter it stays inside and on Spring and Summer outside.

Gina, you can get fruit however you have to hand pollinate it.

I have two Cherimoya trees that are about 20 years old. I live in San Marcos. A couple big cherimoyas dropped off the tree maybe ten days ago, they got ripe so I put them in the fridge. I sliced them open 2 days ago and the seeds had begun SPROUTING in the fruit!!. I have never seen this happen before. Could it be because of the very hot weather we had? Has anyone else seen this? We eat cherimoyas into February usually. Very odd.

Its not fun to eat because you are crunching down on the sprouts which do NOT taste like the fruit. Thanks