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cocobananas

Buying a cherimoya - which variety would you recommend?

cocobananas
13 years ago

I've been scouring the usual suspects for cherimoya for months but haven't found anyone currently carrying them. Then I stumbled on this guy on ebay, who has cherimoya coming out of the wazoo.

He's expensive, but I'm at the point where I'll pay it now just to finally have one. And I bought a nice makrut lime from him a couple years ago, so I'm confident his plants are of a good quality.

But suddenly I'm confronted with more varieties than I knew were out there, and I'm having trouble finding any info on which are preferred.

I'm only going to own one so I'm looking for something especially tasty, but also if possible, somewhat representative of the tree in general.

I'd appreciate any opinions you might have drawn from your cherimoya experiences.

thanks,

- steve

Comments (20)

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I should have mentioned what he has to choose from:

    helmut
    nata
    big sister
    orton
    pierce
    bays
    el bumpo
    honeyhart
    sabor
    fino de jete
    booth
    la conchita

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Just saw that shipping is free. Not such a bad price when you consider that.

    Having a fine little conversation with myself here...

  • rodneys
    13 years ago

    Cherimoya.com has some good info on different cultivars, as well as growing cherimoya, grafting etc.

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Been there. But they scare me with their sign-up requirement. I did find some good info on the CRFG cherimoya infosheet. From that, it looks like el bumpo and sabor are supper tasty.

  • brettay
    13 years ago

    They do have an impressive selection, but be a bit wary. I have bought several trees from them, including a Bays Cherimoya. The plants are grown in a very heavy, water-retentive soil. When watered it resembles mud, so you will probably have to repot right away. Their grafting practices are very strange. I have gotten a couple of trees from them where the scion was much smaller than the rootstock. Also, their rootstocks appear to sucker much more than others. That being said, it is very difficult to find most of these trees anywhere else. The cloudforest website has some great information on Cherimoya varieties so check it out.

    -Brett

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    thanks for the info Brett. I do remember the mud my makrut came in.

    I'll check out cloudforest too.

    steve

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    After chewing on the great cherimoya conversations over at cloudforest, I decided on the el bumpo & honeyhart. Did I say I was going to just get one?

    I went ahead and ordered those two at socalnursery on ebay. Hopefully, the trees I get aren't funkily grafted.

    Thanks all for your help & advice.

    steve

  • rodneys
    13 years ago

    Hello Steve,
    Did you get your trees yet? And, if so, how do they look?

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    They came today Rodney.

    They look...decent. Not gorgeous, not horrible. Soil was pretty dry by the time they came (via UPS ground). A few leaves at the bottom of the box. Not a ton of leaves on the trees, a little leggy in form. The graft looks decent. They did come in that muddy soil he must dig up from his yard out there in, I assume, socal.

    It'll take some good lovin', good staking, and better soil, but they'll do just fine I think.

    Would I socalnursery760 again? Meh. Only under duress.

  • jsvand5
    13 years ago

    Now you just have to hope they sent you the correct varieties. I have 2 cherimoya's from them and have some question if they are correct from the way the fruit looks.

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    ai, jsvand5, you're killing me with this post-purchase-posting!

    El bumpo is pretty unmistakable, though honeyhart less so. The honeyhart came with fruit already set, and both came with multiple buds. Time will tell, unless they drop from the stress. In which case, time will tell.

    thanks all for the insight and feedback.

    -steve

  • jsvand5
    13 years ago

    Good luck. Mine may just look different due to my climate so I would not worry too much. I ordered a pierce and a honeyheart. Can you take a pic of the honeyheart? It would be interesting to see if it looks the same as mine.

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    One honeyhart fruit is smaller than my thumbnail. The other even smaller -- you most likely won't be able to tell anything about the eventual fruit from what I've got now.

    Here's a pic of the trees after unpacking for any other hard-up northerners considering paying $108/tree for cherimoyas from socalnursery:

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    el bumpo on the left, honeyhart on the right.

  • hmhausman
    13 years ago

    El skimpo on both sides. Oh well.....may they flush and fruit for you in record time!

    Harry

  • rodneys
    13 years ago

    If that was your only option, then you had to do what you had to do. However, those are very "anorexic", especially for $108 per tree. On the bright side, cherimoyas have rapid growth so, hopefully in no time, your trees will have lots of branches & leaves. Good luck, Man.

    BTW, apply steady amounts of nitrogen to encourage more growth, just not too much

  • simon_grow
    13 years ago

    Wow thats pretty expensive, I hope the 108/tree includes shipping. Your trees do look leggy but so does my Honeyhart and Dr. White. In fact, my grafted trees I picked up at the farmers market looks almost identical to yours and even came in the same type of container.

    Cherimoyas do grow very fast and you can easily shape it into a beautiful tree. Be sure to shape the tree properly or else it will be very difficult to hand pollinate the flowers when your tree gets larger. Keep us updated.

  • cocobananas
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for the luck Rodney.

    I read somewhere Cherimoyas are prolific in SoCal, and run about $20 for a 4-5' tree. $108 - now that's markup!

    PapapyaTree Nursery has a great cherimoya pruning how-to video that will come in handy.

    updates forthcoming for sure - stay tuned til next year. heh.

    Here is a link that might be useful: prune dem 'moyas

  • Dan8fruit
    12 years ago

    Great choices you bought there steve. I hope they grow fast and lush. I really enjoy Honeyhart. They fruit is really juicy and flavorful :)

    Daniel

  • Kevin Reilly
    12 years ago

    any new pics? update?

    nice bump btw...

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