PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF CUSTARD APPLE

2. •Botanical name :- Annona squamosa
•Family :- Annonaceae
•Origin :- Tropical America
•Ch. No :- 2n=14
•Synonyms :- Sitaphal, sugar apple,
sweetsop,noina, ata.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Custard apple are delicious fruits and
are used when they are full ripe.
 Pleasant flavor mild aroma and sweet
taste have a universal acceptance.
 Cultivation of custard apple is prevalent
in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India.
 in India custard apple is under
cultivation throughout the southern part
and in Assam, Bihar, AP, MP, UP, MH.

4. COMPOSITION AND USES
 The large aggregate fruits are composed of peel,
pulp, seeds.
 Fruits contain 45% edible portion , 100gm of which
composition 70.5gm moisture, 23.5gm
carbohydrates, 1.6gm protien, 0.4gm fat
 Which is also rich in minerals those are calcium
17mg, 45mg of phosphorous, vitamin-a 37mg and
gives 104 k cal of energy.
USES
 Fruits are used mainly for fresh consumption.
 Custard apple is the “fruit of poor people”. Pulp is
used in ice creams and puddings.
 Products such as jam, jelly, squash, syrup, nectar,
canned product and a fermented alcoholic
beverage.

5.  Fruits, seeds, leaves and roots of custard
apple are valued for their medicinal
properties.
 As well as used both in ayurvedic and yunani
systems.
 Seeds containing 30% oil which is extracted
and used in soap and paint industries.
 Leaves are used for preparation of blue or
black dyes.
 Seeds are used for abortifacient and roots
are drastic purgative agent.
 Seeds , leaves ,young raw fruits are used for
making insecticides and lice killers.

6. AREA AND PRODUCTION
 The custard apples are mainly growing
in tropical parts of America, Australia,
brazil, Egypt and some parts of India.
 Andhra Pradesh is the major fruit
growing state in India and following by
MH, UP, Bihar, Assam.
 The Area having 53,000ha and
production is 2.5ton fruit yield/ha

7. BOTANY
 Growth of the plants are shrubs or small trees
growing up to 5 to 6m.
 The leaves are alternate simple and entire.
 Flowers are born either singly or in small groups,
yellowish green and hermaphrodite and
protogynous and having auxillary bearing habit.
 Fruits are heart shaped, fleshy syncarp formed by
the fusion of the pistils and receptacle, pericarp is
the edible part. Custard like edible pulp.
 Pollination is mainly by insects i.e. cross
pollination.

9. SPECIES AND VARIETIES
 Custard apple belongs to family annonaceae, this
family includes 40 genera and genus annona has
got 120 sps out of which 6 have commercial
significance.
A) Annona squamosa : (custard apple, sugar apple,
sweetsop)
 Having good quality.
 The fruits develops from loosely cohering carpel's
forming a squamose or tuberculeted surface.
 The pulp around the seeds is very sweet and
pleasantly flavoured.

11. B) Annona cherimola : (lakshmanphal
cherimoya)
 cherimoya is one of the finest subtropical fruits.
 It is the best annonaceous fruit because its
acidic sweet flavored and low seed content.
 it is however not suitable for tropical climate.
 Based on the fruits form 5 cultivars are there
a. Finger printed
b. Smooth
c. Tuberculeted
d. Mannilate
e. Umbonate.

13. C) Annona reticulata : (bullocks heart, ram
phal)
 the fruits are heart shaped, nearly smooth
and contain for seeds.
 The fruits quality is poor because of lower
sugar content of the pulp.
 It is a tropical fruit not grown in commercially
in India.

15. D) Annona muricata :
(sour soap, mundla sitaphal)
 It is an evergreen tropical tree, within grows in AP,
Assam.
 Its large heart shaped fruits.
 The pulp is sour due to the presence of high
acidity.

17. E) Annona diversifolia : (ilama)
 The fruits resembles sugar apple.
 Best cultivar of custard apple.
F) Annona glabra : (pond apple , monkey apple)
 Swamp loving ornamental plan
 Useful in breeding for the drought tolerance and
colored flesh.
G) Annona antemoya :(hanumanphal)
 Hybrid between the Annona squamosa X Annona
cherimola
 High yielding sps.
 Is known for quality fruits but low productive variety.
 Tolerant to more cold.

18. Annona antemoya

19. Annona diversifolia

20. Annona glabra

21. VARIETIES
 Cultivars are grouped based on the
external fruit colour
a. Red type: having red color, smaller
leaves and fruits.
b. Green type : having more popularity in
India.

22. 1) BALANAGAR
 Green skinned fruits with medium size
 High yielding type
2) BRITISH GUINEA
 Fruit weight is about 151gm and 37.9%pulp
 17.9% total sugar

23. BALANAGAR

24. 3) MAMMOTH;-
 Fruit weight about 183g/ fruit.
 TSS content: 23%, acidity 0.19%.
 Good quality fruit.
4) BARBADOS SEEDLING;-
 Fruits having high sugar content.
 Fruits having green rind, orange yellow margins.
 Late season variety.

25. 5) RED SITAPHAL;-
 This variety originated as a chance seedling.
 Fruits are dark pinkish.
 Having average quality and more number of seeds.
6) KAKARLAPAHAD;-
 Very high yielding variety.
 It is very sweet and crispy in nature.
7) APK (Ca) 1;-
 Released from RRS, Aruppukottai, TN during 2003.
 Yield- 14.9kg/tree.
 Fruits are medium in size, heart shaped and TSS
24.5*Brix.

27.  IMPORTANT HYBRID VARIETIES:
1) ARKA SAHAN;-
 It is crossed between Annona atemoya X Annona
squamosa.
 Released from IIHR, Bangalore.
 Suitable for drought prone areas.
 Fruits having long shelf life and slow ripening
character.
2) AFRICAN PRIDE;-
 It is crossed between Annona cherimola X
Annona squamosa.
 Having good quality fruits.

28. ARKA SAHANA

29. Recently released variety;
 TROPICAL SUN:
 Released from Australian Custard apple growers
association(ACAGA).
 Suitable for home gardens.
 Ripening at room temperature.

30. TROPICAL SUN

31. SOIL AND CLIMATE
 Custard apple is adapted widely to tropical climate and prefers
moderate winter and high humidity during flowering time.
 Trees cannot withstand frost and prolonged cold weather.
 Continuous rains during flowering and fruit set results in poor
yields optimum RF is 60-80cm.
 Strong wind causes limb damage , heavy flower drop and fruit
damage.
SOIL
 Trees grown in wide variety of soils including sandy, marginal and
wasteland types.
 Fertile, well drained sandy loam soils with neutral to slight acidic
PH give better performance.
 Heavy soils and water logged conditions not suitable.
 Water stagnation leads to shriveling of branches and sudden
death of plants. because stagnation should be avoided.

32. PROPAGATION
Propagated by both seeds and vegetative propagatioN
Seed propagation :
 Seeds extracted from ripe fruits are used for sowing. Viability of
seeds lasts for 3-4years through best seeds give best
germination.
 Before seed sowing seeds are treated, such as seeds soaking
in cold water for 40-70hours are treatment with GA3(500ppm),
improve the germination rate.
Vegetative propagation :
 Grafting : insitu cleft grafting is used, using the best root
stock are Annona cherimola and Annona squamosa
 Budding : patch, shield and clip budding.

33. CULTIVATION
Planting :
 The custard apple fruits are planting in the square
or triangular systems.
 Pits are made of 50-60 cubic cm, pits are filled with
top soil and 25-30kg FYM.
 Spacing : 4 X 5m
 Time of planting : During June-July. After 1 or 2
rains the saplings are planted in the centre of the
pit.
 Shading, staking and watering should be done to
protect grafts after planting in the main field.
Manuring :
 Application of nutrients to custard apple depends
upon the soil and climatic conditions.
 Custard apple trees are well response to fertilizer
application in terms of increased vigour, production

34. Age of
tree
N
(kg/ha)
P
(kg/ha)
K (kg/ha)
1 – 2 year 75 50 50
3 – 5 year 150 100 100
> 5 year 250 125 125

35. TRAINING AND PRUNING
 Strong tree frame work in custard apple is obtained by
training young plants during the initial stages of
growth.
 Keeping single stem up to 50 – 70 cm height and
then inducing scaffold branches in all directions
makes good frame work of tree.
 To avoid crowding, proper space among the branches
is maintained by removing criss- cross and over
lapping branches.
 Custard apple generally bears on the new growth but
some times fruiting also comes on old branches.
 Therefore, suitable combination of young and old
branches should be maintained by judicious pruning
and which balancing the vegetative and reproductive
growth.

36. FLOWERING AND
FRUITSET Plants starts bearing after 3-4 years.
 Flowering period commences from March-April and
continuous to July – August, the peak timing April and
May.
 Very low fruit set in custard apple is a problem under
natural conditions, 1 – 8% fruit set is reported.
 The main reason being poor pollination due to various
external and internal factors like dichogamy,
hypogyny.
 The external factors like high and low humidity prevailing
at the time of flowering , soil moisture stress.
 Hand pollination can be practiced to increase fruit set to
get better sized fruit and ensure better market price.
 Fruits can be improved by application of growth
regulators, GA (50ppm) at blooming stage, Biocil (1ml/
litre) just prior to flowering.

37. HARVESTING AND
POSTHARVEST
MANAGEMENT Custard apple is a climacteric fruit, which ripens after harvesting hence
should be harvested at matured stage.
 Fruits mature in about 100 -120 days from anthesis.
 Maturity indices:-
 Changing fruit colour in to light green.
 Fruits has attained full size.
 Yellowish white colour has been developed between the segments.
 Initial cracking in carpels.
 Post harvest management:
 Fruit has very poor shelf life therefore for distant markets.
 Harvesting comparatively harder fruits is advised.
 Fruits harvested before proper maturity do not ripe well and
remain less sweet.
 Arka sahana has better shelf life.

39. YIELD
 A well managed grown up custard apple
plant can produce 80- 100 fruits/ tree.
 Arka sahana hybrid produces 25tonnes
fruits/ ha.
 Older trees rarely exceed 100 fruits/ tree
unless hand pollination.

40. PLANT PROTECTION
 PESTS;-
1) Mealy bugs
 DISEASES;-
1) Anthracnose - Colletotrichum
gloeosporiodes.
2) Alternaria leaf spot- Alternaria alternata.