Soursop

Quick care

Soursop

Also sold as graviola or guanabana. The most cold-sensitive plant we carry, and the one most worth growing in a container for that reason.

Free soursop reminders, four times a year

Leave your email and at the start of each season, spring, summer, fall and winter, we will send you one short note about this plant: what it is about to do, and what it needs from you. Written for Central Florida, by the people who grew it.

We will never spam you and we will never sell or share your address with anyone. Four emails a year about your plants, nothing else, and one click stops them for good. We do not pass your details to any other company, ever.

Right now: Fall

Fruit fills and ripens, and growth slows as nights cool. The season starts closing.

What to do

  • Harvest when the skin pales and the spines flatten, then ripen indoors.
  • Make September the last feed of the year.
  • Ease off the water as growth slows.
  • Work out now where the tree is going to spend a cold night, and make sure a frost cloth or a dolly is to hand.

The quick care card

The same three columns as the sign on your plant.

Planting and the first 30 days

Sun
Full sun in a warm, protected spot.
Soil
Rich, well-drained soil is best.
Planting
Plant at the same depth as the pot in a frost-protected area.
Mulch
Add 3 to 4 inches of mulch, but keep it a few inches away from the trunk.
Water
Daily for the first week, then 2 to 3 times weekly for the rest of the first month. Keep soil evenly moist.
Feed
Feed lightly after planting, then regularly in warm weather.

Ongoing care

Water
Water during dry spells; do not let it dry out.
Feed
Feed during the warm growing season.
Prune
Prune lightly to shape and control size.
Protect
Protect from cold and frost.

What to expect

Growth after 1 year
Often 3 to 5+ feet in warm conditions.
Fruiting
Usually in 2 to 3 years or more.
Pollination
Can self-pollinate, but hand pollination may improve fruit set.
Key tip
Soursop is tropical and needs freeze protection.

Full care

Annona muricata

Cold is the entire conversation

A soursop is a genuinely tropical tree and Central Florida is not the tropics. It is unhappy below about 40 degrees, damaged in the thirties, and a hard freeze will kill an unprotected young one outright. Everything else about growing it is straightforward; this one point decides whether you succeed.

Which leads to the honest recommendation: grow it in a large container for its first several years, and move it. A 20 or 25 gallon pot on a dolly, kept in full sun from March to November and wheeled into a garage or against a warm south wall for the handful of cold nights, is the arrangement that actually works here. It also keeps the tree at a size you can reach.

If you do plant it in the ground, pick the warmest, most sheltered corner you have: south or south-east facing, against a wall or under high canopy, out of the wind, and away from any low spot where cold air settles. Mulch thickly and be ready with a frost cloth.

After a cold snap, leave the damage alone until spring. An Annona often resprouts from wood that looks finished, and cutting in January removes tissue that was going to be the new growth.

Hand pollination, and why the fruit is lopsided

Soursop flowers are poorly designed for the insects we have. The female parts are receptive before the pollen is shed, and the thick petals barely open, so natural fruit set here is low and the fruit that does set is often misshapen because only part of it was pollinated.

Hand pollination fixes it and takes a minute. Collect pollen from a flower whose inner petals have just parted, in the late afternoon, with a small brush, keep it overnight in a closed container, and brush it onto a flower in the receptive stage the next morning. The difference between a hand-pollinated soursop and a chance-pollinated one is the difference between a proper four-pound fruit and a small bent one.

Feeding and water

It grows hard in warmth and wants feeding through the warm season, then nothing from October. Keep the soil evenly moist and never let it dry right out; a soursop in a container in a Florida summer may need water daily.

The fruit is ready when the green skin lightens slightly and the soft spines flatten and spread. Pick it firm, let it soften indoors for a few days, and eat it the moment it yields to a thumb. A soursop left on the tree to ripen will fall and burst.

Through the year

The four notes we email, all in one place.

Spring

Growth restarts as nights warm, and flowering begins. Any cold damage from winter becomes legible now.

  • Wait until new growth shows, then cut back whatever the winter actually killed.
  • Start feeding as warmth returns.
  • Move a container tree back out into full sun once nights are reliably above the fifties.
  • Begin hand pollinating as flowers appear, which is what decides whether you get fruit at all.

Summer

The main growing season and the main fruit set. This is the half of the year a soursop lives for.

  • Feed through the season, little and often rather than heavily.
  • Water generously and never let it dry out. A potted soursop may need water every day.
  • Keep hand pollinating. Fruit set without it is poor and misshapen.
  • Support any developing fruit; they get heavy and the wood is brittle.

Fall

Fruit fills and ripens, and growth slows as nights cool. The season starts closing.

  • Harvest when the skin pales and the spines flatten, then ripen indoors.
  • Make September the last feed of the year.
  • Ease off the water as growth slows.
  • Work out now where the tree is going to spend a cold night, and make sure a frost cloth or a dolly is to hand.

Winter

The dangerous season. Nothing grows, and one bad night can undo three years.

  • Move containers into a garage or against a warm wall whenever a night below the forties is forecast.
  • Cover a planted tree completely, to the ground, and mulch thickly over the roots.
  • Do not feed, and keep it on the dry side.
  • Do not cut any cold damage off until spring. An Annona resprouts from wood that looks dead, and you cannot tell which until it does.
We are not listing soursop online at the moment. What goes to the booth and what is on the website are not always the same thing. Come and see us at the booth, or reply to any reminder email and ask, and we will tell you what we have.

All care guides

This page is the one printed on your sign as usatree.com/soursop. It will stay at that address.