It seems strange that when I look up my city of San Jose, California, I'm categorized as zone 9. However, the average lows in the winter are 45 degrees F according to Wikipedia and personal experience, so I really should be zone 11. What's up with that?

TT, the zone is based on the average annual low (minimum temp) over several years which is different from the average low.

For instance, Wikipedia says the average low for December in SJ is about 42F. That is the average of the lowest temperatures for each day of December. If you were to look at the minimum temp in December it is usually around 30F. In SJ over the past 10 years, the minimum temp each year has ranged from about 25-33F. The average minimum temp is 30F which is on the border between 9b and 10a. Annual minimum is generally more important when it comes to plant survival than the average low--like if the low temp was 60F 364 days in the year but 20F on 1 day, that would kill a lot of tropical plants.

The hardiness zones don't take into account the high temps either. Some plants need high temps to get good fruit or flowering. I don't know about atemoya or sugar apples but there are several cherimoyas in the area.

hope that helps!
r

This post was edited by sf_rhino on Thu, Apr 3, 14 at 0:04

Atemoya tastes NOTHING like a pineapple. I love sugar apple, as well as atemoya, cherimoya, and guanabana. They're all related. From personal experience, I would say that atemoya has the "rubbery" texture of a guanabana (aka soursop), but the sweet flavor of sugar apple/cherimoya. I'm in the central valley, CA, where the cold winter can get down to low 30s. My in-ground atemoya is still alive after 5 years. I get fruits every year.

I have several sugar apple / annone trees in Lehigh Acres, FL (9b)... A couple of mild frosts and the sugar apples are unharmed. Having said that... Hurricane Irma flood last year took out several trees, while several other trees survived. I'm still scratching my head over that one. Same conditions, some survived while other perished.

Hi Friends, Does anyone have some sugar apple seeds? My tree ended up as a Cherimoya tree. Now i am look for some Sugar apple seeds i will really appreciate if some one can send me some sweets from a good sweet fruit. i can pay for the postage& even seeds. Thanks in advance 🙏

I, personally, don't eat pineapple from the grocery store since almost all are GMO now. I have been told that pineapple out of Mexico is ok since it is not supposed to be GMO.

I will be buying 2 Sugar Apples next week from a nursery. Since I have a house in the city, I will probably be cutting on it often to reduce the size. We get really hot here in Houston so heat is not a problem. One to give away and one to keep.

I believe the new pink pineapples are the GMO’s. And papaya is a GMO too, if grown in Hawaii.