SOURSOP
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Annona muricata
FAMILY: Annonaceae
Many delicious fruit like the soursop are relatively unknown amongst Australian gardeners. This tree is ideal for a small garden: it is very decorative in appearance, grows to a maximum of 6 metres and is usually slender in habit.
The leaves are leathery, glossy dark green on the upper side and rusty beneath. The large flowers are fragrant with fleshy outer petals, green outside and yellow-spotted within. The fruit is the largest of the Annonas; specimens 5 lbs. in weight are not uncommon and larger ones have been reported. The soursop is heart-shaped and green with rows of soft spines running down the skin. The skin has a rank bitter flavour. The flesh is white, somewhat cottony in texture, juicy and highly aromatic.
The best way to pick the fruit from the tree is while it is still firm when mature. Keep it at room temperature, and when it is slightly soft to touch, it is ready to eat. It tastes in fact something like strawberry and cream and pineapple and cream. The best way to eat it is to push the flesh through a colander, and it can then be used for the preparation of sherbets and other refreshing drinks; whipped with ice cream, soursop is unrivalled.
The soursop is generally grown from seed and comes into bearing when the tree is three to five years old. It is more tolerant of moisture than the sugar apple and can be grown in moist tropical regions with greater success. Temperatures below freezing point are likely to injure the soursop.
The soil best suited for the soursop is probably a loose, fairly rich, deep loam. Planted in a sunny position, a liberal amount of fertilizer and mulch will greatly increase the number of fruit produced. Often numerous small, malformed fruit are produced. These are due to insufficient pollination.
Seedling trees differ in the amount of fruit they yield. By improved cultural methods such as grafting good bearing stock onto pond apple or bullock's heart, the soursop could be made profitable and of considerable commercial value.
Zinc deficiency symptoms are frequently seen in the form of stunted shoot growth with small mottled leaves. Zinc deficiency can normally be corrected fairly easily by spraying the trees in spring with a mixture of 10 grams of zinc sulphate in 10 litres of water. Sometimes a follow-up spray will be required again the following spring.
This fruit should be re-named, as 'soursop' puts people off eating this tasty fruit - and the tree is very attractive to have in one's garden.
DATE: March 1981
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