| General Description | A woody evergreen from Central and South America from the Annonaceae family which has about 75 genus and 600 species. However only 4 genera produce fruit: Annona, Rolinia, Uvaria and Asimina. Annona has approximately 60 species been Annona muricate L the most economic important due to its fruit. |
| ID Characteristic | A tree growing 4 to 6 meters high, with brilliant green foliage, large isolated green/yellow flowers growing directly from the trunk or along the branches. The fruit is a large, heavy syncarp of up to 10,000 grams, with a green skin. |
| Shape | Annona muricata is rangy and straight, has a thin canopy, and with few small side branches. When mature, it can range from 4 to 6 m tall and sometimes can reach 9 m, its trunk varies from 15 to 30 cm in length. |
| Propagation | The most common method of propagations is seed propagation, it is due because there are no nurseries specialized in Annona muricata L cuttings.
Seedlings origins – Must come from selected seeds from plants with excellent vegetative and bloom stages, and must obey the following steps:
The mucilage around the seed must be taken off, then washing it on flowing water, after that let it sit and dry out on a dark place for 3 days. When well prepared, the seed should last up to 7 years.
Sowing the seeds – The following measures are recommended: 1.20 m width and 0,20 to 0,25 cm depth on the potting media. The potting media should be vegetal soil, sand and ash, following a 2:1:1 proportion.
The seed takes up to 10 days to germinate.
Even though seed is the most common propagation method, grafting can also be done on Annona muircata.
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| Cultivation | For a good plant development, cultural techniques are essential.
Weeding and cleaning off the planting site is a must in order to take off all the undesirable weeds, avoid pound area formation; those can create water spots underground.
Mulching is also required, especially before the drought season. It avoids soil drought, invasive plants, avoids humidity loss, soil heating. Thus, avoiding further work.
A characteristic of Graviola is to grow straight upwards; therefore, pruning is only necessary on the side branches up till it is 1 to 1,50 m. Thinning is sometimes necessary.
Graviola is known to be drought resistant; however, when the drought season is too intense, it is convenient to abundantly water the plant, mainly on the flowering stage (every 10 days), from the first fruit stage until its cropped. Graviola trees are likely to need phosphorus and potassium fertilization due to its fruit production, its recommendation rate is 10:15:15. Fertilization should be applied early on the raining season and at the end of the same.
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| Pests | Annona muricata L is likely to have pest issues which can decrease the fruit crop quality and, sometimes, lead the plant to death.One type of moth called Cerconota anonella spp feeds on both early fruit and mature ones. It eats the fruit and can reach the center of it. The best way to contain it is by mechanical management and spraying; take off the infected fruits and burn them down, then, pulverize pesticides with fention or tricloform chemical compound based.
Another problem are the trunk holes caused by the caterpillar of Cratosomus dulis, which can make the entrance of diseases and fungi easier, as well as kill branches. Pesticide applications inside the holes are recommended.
There are also beneficial insects that can be used as IPM, highlighting Aphidius testaceipes, cresson spp., chisopa spp., and curinus spp., attacking aphids.
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| Habitat | Tropical forest and Amazon forest. Can be found from the south of Mexico all the way to Northern Brazil, and all the countries on the way. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Nothing special, straight plant, has a thin canopy, and few side branches. |
| Leaf Description | The leaves are role oval, obovate, acute or bluntly acuminated. Hard, with small petiole, with a bright dark-green colour on the upper blades and yellow green on the lower blades. Measuring around 5 to 8 cm height and 2 to 7 length. Blades are thinly coriaceous, pellucid, punctate, lateral nerves about 12 pairs |
| Flower Description | The flower has a sub globous or pyramidal shape, they are hermaphrodite, dark green colour and growing and bright green/yellow some times white and pink when close to drop off, distributed on tiny peduncles or directly on the bark, lonely or on clusters of 2 to 4. |
| Fruit Description | The fruit is a large, heavy syncarp of up to 10,000 grams, with green skin even when ripe, with thorny, fleshy curved aureoles in the centre. The edible pulp is white, watery, aromatic and with a sweet-sour flavour. |
| Colour Description | Bark’s colour is bright silver yellow, its foliage is bright dark green on the top blades and yellow green on the lower blades, flower colour can vary; it is usually yellow/green but can be whitely pink. |
| Texture Description | Fast growing tree, therefore the bark is very soft. It has a bright silver yellow colour with soft texture. |