custard apple hand pollination

Town Farm starts with ...
Can anyone explain how you hand pollinate custard apples? The flowers don't seem to open very much.

fruitist says...
Basically the flower is a female in the morning when its petals are unopened and then in the evening it turns into a male when the petals are fully opened. So, every morning, with my chinese paint brush, I poke it into fully opened flowers to collect the male pollens in the hairs and then I poke the brush into those flowers which are barely opened. It is time consuming process. About 0.5 hour each morning for about 4 weeks. Some people collect pollen from older open flowers in a jar in the evening and then in the following morning, they dip the brush in the jar and poke it into those "shy" flowers.

Also, the Atemoya flowers are grown from fallen leaves, you can increase more flowers by cutting off leaves during late Winter. This technique can also be used to alter the flowering timing thus fruiting timing.

fruitist says...
The opposite is my case. I live in Brisbane and it was a mild and wet winter so I didn't get many flowers on the tree this year. In fact, I only found 1 female flower this morning and about 6 females yesterday. I think I will have about 30 fruits this year compared to 50 last year.

Joycelyn says...
100% success rate pollination if done in afternoon when 'male' flowers open suddenly at about 3 to 3.30 pm early summer - about 5 pm in December.
As has been stated today's female flower is tomorrow's male. Use a fine brush to collect pollen from a newly opened flower and insert gently into one that is only slightly open. ( tiny beetles near creeks or rivers are the natural pollinators). Choose to pollinate the largest female flowers on sturdy stems or branches for largest sized fruit. Heavy weighted branches will later need shear leg props, easy to place under branches. Cover prime fruit for special purpose with double plastic bags tied firmly against possums. Brisbane Horticulture Dept sent out pamphlets to enquirers in the Seventies. There were many very happy Custard Apple farmers !