Planting Annona squamosa or custard apple
THIS familiar garden fruit of the past is no longer much seen or even grown at the home garden. Why?
The older generations would take it as a medicinal plant even though the fruit has many seeds inside the soggy content much like the Rodentia or durian baledah we now know.
However, I was taken aback that an acquaintance in Taiwan has been a major grower and manufacturer of the frozen Nona, prepared in packet, just like our cup ice cream. The fruit is wellreceived by the public there.
Today, we can hardly see the fruit on sale in town or at Sunday market that is supposed to gather and sell various old goodies from the kampung gardens.
Recently, I visited the Sri Aman new market with many stalls plus ground displays of various local goodies, many of which were jungle products, yet I did not see the Nona.
What is Nona or custard apple then? For beginners, we need to go through the botanical knowledge of this plant.
The most popular sugar apple is the custard apple or sugar apple or sweetsop. It is a member of the family annonaceae that bears the sugar apple.
This fruit is much planted in Central America and tropical islands around the Caribbean Islands. It was taken to the East — the Philippines and Asia — by the Spaniards probably in the 14th Century. It is now found all over the tropical areas — both eastern and western hemispheres.
THE development of cultivars comes with the seedless variety in red, yellow and various twists of colour schemes. The soil is not a particular concern as the three can grow well on sand, politic limestone and heavy loam with good drainage. Nature of Nona tree The tree grows up to a muchbranched shrub 29 feet tall with an open crown.
The fruit is round or heartshaped in greenish yellow colour with a four-inch diameter -- on average. The aggregated fruit forms from loosely united pistils of the flower that become enlarged with many protuberances. The flower is solitary or in a short cluster with many pistils forming the aggregated fruit at a later stage of development.
The fruit is covered in a thin skin with the internal whitish yellow pulp. The flesh has an aromatic speciality of the Annona fruit.
The fruit is considered ripe when soft to touch and can peel or cut open to expose the internal flesh. The flesh is dotted with many black seeds. And it is the seeds that are normally used for planting. How to plant this fruit tree? We can start with the cuttings or seeds although poor germination rate is expected and germination may take over a month because of the tough seed coat. To speed up the germination, we may scarify the seeds with sandpaper and soak them in warm water for 24 hours.
The tree requires a tropical or sub-tropical climate with temperature up to 40-degree C. It tolerates drought but can bear less fruits. Growing seedlings over one-month-old in the open field will require preparation of the mount to plant.
The disadvantages of seedgrown trees are that they will not start fruiting early and will suffer from high genetic variability. They tend to be taller and will have difficulty handling waterpower but grafted trees are recommended as the fruit quality does not differ from genetic identity.
The tree grows best in fertile and well-drained soil. The addition of organic fertilisers will ensure a healthy tree. Increase the flowering by adding in NPK in the ratio 3:10:10 (fertiliser).
Water control is also important as too much water will cause fruit dropping and less fruit setting.
On average, a three-year-old tree will start bearing up to 20 fruits. A five-year-old tree may produce 50 fruits, depending on the pollination by beetles as honey bees cannot reach the inner part of the pistils.
The tree has flowers, known to be bi-sexual. However, the male and female parts are functional at different times of the day or protandry as we know it.
The truth is the female flower opens first during the day. If not pollinated by the male pollen, it will shed the next morning. This makes hand-pollination important for good yield. General maintenance The tree may suffer from various sicknesses. First, we find many branches dying from attack by fungus and lack of pruning.
Some trimming will form better hanging branches for fruiting. The tree can tolerate infertile soil or negligence. Leaf diseases are mainly leaf spots and anthracnose.
Insect infestation causes fruit destruction. It is best to wrap the fruits with paper or plastic bags for the whole duration of the fruiting development process.
The fruit is usually eaten fresh with the seeds spat out. Seeds are toxic and should not be eaten. The fruit is sleeved to remove the seeds and the flesh is used in ice cream or with milk for cool drinks. However, the fruit is too soft for open air storage and is frozen in paper-packing containers to preserve the flesh which, incidentally, cannot be taken without handling the soggy and juicy or creamy soft nature of the fresh fruit.
Happy Gardening!