Growing a cherimoya tree is easier than you think. However, the plants can only be kept in tubs because they are not hardy. In winter you have to set up the buckets in the house. With a bit of luck and patience, you can even harvest fruit.
Sow cherimoya
Scoop out the large, black seeds from a ripe fruit and remove all of the flesh.
Put the seeds individually about two centimeters deep in pots with potting soil and place them in a warm place. Cherimoya seeds germinate at temperatures of 25 to 30 degrees. The location should not be too sunny.
It can take up to two months for the first seedlings to appear. As soon as leaves appear, keep the pots warm but out of direct sunlight.
A spot on the terrace
- Sunny location
- Water little
- Rarely fertilize
- Overwinter frost-free
When the cherimoya trees have developed well and reached a height of 30 to 70 centimetres, plant them in tubs. Cactus soil has proven itself as soil, because the plants do not like it too damp. If necessary, mix normal garden soil with some sand.
Older trees thrive in full sun.
Cherimoyas do not tolerate sub-zero temperatures. Overwinter them in the bright conservatory at temperatures around ten degrees. Older plants shed their leaves. This is no cause for alarm.
Water only sporadically
You don't have to water a lot. Always let the soil dry out and only then water again.
You should be careful with fertilizing. Add some plant fertilizer to the irrigation water at most every four weeks.
In winter, only a little is poured and not fertilized at all.
harvest fruits
In our latitudes, the usual pollinators are absent. To harvest fruit, you need to pollinate the flowers yourself with a brush. This is complicated because the flowers are female in the morning and male in the evening.
If pollination with a brush has worked, you can harvest ripe cherimoyas from your tree in late autumn or winter.
tips and tricks
Cherimoya seeds are poisonous. They contain alkaloids and should never be eaten. Because of their toxicity, they were even used as an insecticide in the past.
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