Sugar Apple

This compound fruit is nearly round. Its thick rind composed of knobby segments, pale-green, gray-green, bluish-green, or, in one form, dull, deep-pink externally (nearly always with a bloom); separating when the fruit is ripe and revealing the mass of conically segmented, creamy-white, glistening, delightfully fragrant, juicy, sweet, luscious, delicious flesh. Many of the segments enclose a single oblong-cylindrical, black or dark-brown seed about 1/2 in long. There may be a total of 20 to 38, or perhaps more, seeds in the average fruit. Some trees, however, bear seedless fruits.

Care of Sugar Apple Trees

Care: This tree must be kept in a pot and protected from all frosts and freezes. It can grow to 6’ to 8’ in the pot and can be pruned smaller for ease in bring inside during a frost. If it does not lose its leaves in winter, strip all the leaves from the plant in spring in order for fruiting to occur. Move to a 7 gallon pot within the first year, and possibly a 15 gallon, if the tree gets to 8’. The tree likes full or almost full sun.

Watering: Do not water while blooming as this will greatly reduce production. Water regularly during the dry season except when it has rained.

Pruning: Prune only in spring when the sap is rising.

Fertilizing: Use a balanced organic fertilizer in the spring.

Harvesting: Allow the white, yellowish or red tint to appear between the rind segments before harvesting. This is the first signs of separation and ripening. If allowed to ripen on the tree, the fruit falls apart. If picked before color appears between the rind segments, the fruit will not ripen. Cut open and eat the flesh separating the seeds in your mouth. Spit out the seeds, do not chew or swallow. Or the fruit can be pressed through a sieve to eliminate the seeds, and then used on ice cream or in a shake.