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hmhausman

Illama 'Genova Red' (anonna diversifolia)

hmhausman
12 years ago

The first of the season Illamas began their ripening by one cracking open and falling to the ground. The flesh was particularly good tasting but more scant than it has been in previous years. Figures.....better tasting flesh but less of it. I wonder why? Maybe the larger fruit pictured, that didn't crack open yet, will have a better flesh to seed ratio. Stay tuned.

From August 8, 2011
From August 8, 2011

Comments (13)

  • jeffhagen
    12 years ago

    ohh boy that looks so delicious! Jealousy detected.

    Jeff

  • VentureTime
    12 years ago

    Looks very nice!! Was it dry or juicy? how was the texture?

  • hmhausman
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Part of the flesh was on the dry side and part more creamy.....especially near the rind. I am not sure if this is a ripeness issue. I have not had extensive experience with this fruit and the picking/ripening issues are still in somewhat of a "try it as you go" mode.

    Harry

  • esco_socal
    12 years ago

    that's a beautiful looking fruit, love the color too

    Tim

  • rayandgwenn
    12 years ago

    That looks delicious!

  • bsbullie
    12 years ago

    Harry - for proper/optimal shouldn't you leave them on the tree till the first signs of "cracking/splitting" ?

  • hmhausman
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Unfortunately, unless you are going to stand by 24 hours a day and watch them crack open, you have to fight very rapid deterioration of the exposed flesh because of the weather/heat/rain and even faster bug infestation. So, it will be interesting to see if the larger fruit, that I picked without it first cracking open, will crack while sitting on the counter. The problem with these is that there is very little "give" to external pressure to judge ripeness by feel (as you would with most other annonas). The larger fruit has seemed to remain the same size for many weeks now, so I am fairly confident that it is mature and will ripen even if not cracked before being picked.

    Harry

  • pepperseed
    12 years ago

    Harry,
    Did you save the seeds of this beautiful fruit? If so, do you have some extra to share? I would love to grow this anona.
    Thanks, Jen

  • newgen
    12 years ago

    Add another one to my "wanted" list!
    Thanks for the inspiration Harry.

  • red_sea_me
    12 years ago

    Wow Harry, that is one beauty of a fruit, reason #2,268,065 for me to come visit you.

    can't wait to hear about the big fruit,
    -Ethan

    ps, send any extra seeds my way too!

  • hmhausman
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Update:

    The bright red fleshed fruit (pictured cut open above) was harvested after it split open. The conventional wisdom (or lack thereof) and my previous understanding was that you had to wait for the split to harvest. Then bugs almost always spoiled, at least in part, your dining experience. In any case, since a smaller fruit had cracked open, I picked the largest fruit at the same time (also pictured above but not cut open). I left it on the counter, room temperature (76F) for 6 days. The fruit seemed to never soften until the last day. Then all of a sudden, it was very soft to the touch (relatively speaking). I cut it open and found:

    From August 16, 2011

    The flesh had whitened to some degree and become more creamy and moist. The flavor was great. So the moral of the story is.....don't wait to have your illamas crack open. Harvest them at maturity and then let them ripen in the same way that you would any other annona. A note....while this fruit was very tasty, it was also very seedy. There were 47 fairly large seeds in half of the larger fruit. In a perfect world, this fruit could do with about a small fraction of those seeds.

    Harry

  • VentureTime
    12 years ago

    Interesting how the color changed......The swirling red in there looks really nice though!!

    How did it taste compared to other Annonas??

  • keiki
    12 years ago

    Looks yummy!

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