Custard apple in pot - possible???

denise says...
I have a pinks mammoth atemoya seedling that is nearly 4 years old in a pot and is about 25cms tall-starting to flower now. It is kept in a plastic house and looks ok but leaves and flowers quite small.

BJ says...
It is possible DB, but I'm not sure how long for. I've kept an AP in a pot for 3 years, and it fruited a few times, smae with the White cherimoya. Quite easy mainenance too, but both wanted to outgrow the 50cm pots, so now live on my father's farm, where they happily set lots of fruit that gets eaten by the horses :(
Tropic Sun should be your best bet in a pot (go for the 30cm first year, then upgrade to the 50cm, then to the 80 if you feel it is going well and needs the extra root run) but the PP should be alright in a pot if you defoliate and prune well each winter. A bit of root pruning during its brief dormant period should also help.

If you want more info you could also have a search on cloudforset cafe or gardenweb as they are loco for growing cherimoya and atemoya in pots.

BJ says...
Its a bit of a waste of money to jump right into the 80cm pot. You should change the mix annually and with an 80cm pot you will just be throwing your money away. If you go from a 30 or 50cm pot first (I guess you should go straight to the 50 for a 6l bag plant) you can also slowly start to restrict the roots, then when you repot you also train the roots so it doesn't become too bound and you encourage feeder roots. If it goes into the big pot you can encourange the tap root to grow quickly and wind itself around the bottom of the pot before much in the way of feeder roots are established. Well, thats my observations abnyways. The plants also seem to be stronger and stand up on their own better if moved progressively into a larger pot. The ones put stright into a big pot (Annonas that is) seem flimsy and whippy, which probably isnt really what you want for a tree that can put out plenty of fruit in the 800g range.