| Atemoya | |
| Annona cherimola x squamosa |
One of the best Annona's, often having a fruitier flavor than the cherimoya. Fruits tend to be about the size of a sugar apple, often have knobby, green skin, and a custard-like flesh. Fruits may turn slightly yellow when ripe. Atemoya's are high in vitamin C.
Description: Fairly fast-growing tree closely resembling the cherimoya. Trees often stay small, growing only to 15ft, but may reach up to 30ft. Fruits can be of variable size, but generally range 3-6" long. Fruits may weigh up to several pounds.
Hardiness: Hardy to about 28-30F.
Growing Environment: Trees usually
do not self-pollinate, hand-pollination tends to produce much higher
yields. Flowers open as female approximately at 2-4pm, followed by conversion to the male stage about 26-27 hours later. Atemoya trees like lots of water, but flooding is lethal. Flowering
occurs in fall with fruit ripening 4-6 months later. Atemoya's grow
best in tropical or semitropical environments, being hardier than the
sugar apple, but less than the cherimoya. Trees growing in warmer, humid areas tend to bear fruit quite well.
Propagation: By seed. Named varieties by grafts.
Atemoya tree
Uses: The fruits are usually eaten fresh, out of hand.
Native Range: The atemoya is a man-made hybrid between the cherimoya, native to the Andes mountains, and the sugar apple, a native of the Caribbean. The hybrid was first developed at the Miami USDA lab in 1908.
Local Adaptation
Atemoya's grow extremely well in south Florida. Trees also do well in coastal and moderate-inland areas of southern California.