You’re very patient! I do all sorts of little tricks just so something is happening. What is your germination method? Do you clip your seed coat a little or you let it be in soil?
is Marcos a store or someone on this site?
Yeah, but they do have amazing deals for people who bring plants inside though. I got a Meyer lemon that I’m forcing to fruit (sorta working) for $30 (home depot) and at the local nursery they clearly took the same batch (stem size looked smiliar/same pots) but took care of it some more so some of it fruited for $85 and up. I get labor and all, but personally, my frugal cells tingle at such purchases.
What I don’t like is how etsy sellers sell hybrid seedlings, but then I wonder if the seller is also clueless… it’s a tough world out there… 
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Yeah, their prices at least are much more reasonable than online nurseries tend to be, and for bigger plants. I’m a little further east than you and a good bit further south, so my Lowe’s Meyer lemon is planted in ground close to my house. I got it last year. After not growing at all and just establishing for a few months, this spring it flowered pretty heavily and set a few lemons. Those all eventually dropped, partially on account of that crazy dry June we had, but now pretty much every single node on this plant is flushing new growth. I think I’ll have a pretty healthy tree next spring, so it’ll actually hold some fruit.
Granted, from a cost perspective, a handful of lemons three years after a $30 investment sounds kind of meh as far as returns go, especially for something I do have to protect on cold nights, but my interest is as much in breeding work as anything else, and Meyer lemon is useful in that regard.
I scarify a little and soak them for 24 hours or so, Marcos has a storefront with rare seeds
Seems like the site isn’t working at the exact moment or maybe it’s my browser but it’s
https://www.huertasurbanas.com
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Interestingly, I saw someone in my zone put it south facing outside in a coldframe/greenhouse inground -by the house, it was fruiting like crazy. I did some cuttings off of mine and they seemed to have taken, might try to leave them outside if they’re a decent size by winter.
Actually, my return has been immense, lol. a packet of fresh Lime/lemon leaves at the grocery store cost me, around $9 or so. And with those leaves, I have no idea how they’re taking care of them.
You can freeze leaves for later use, had mine in lamb curry yesterday, it was excellent!
lastly, I think I can get it to fruit sooner, that was the plan and part of the fun for me. Since the purchase, I’m on my second set of a few blooms but the weather has been rainy recently, so Idk. Hopefully, they set. I prob will post a pic if the forcing got me a lemon. 
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Thank you!!! His shop is so cool! I already saw something I want, lol but I prob should wait… but I think you have it already? Misiones Biribá
I couldn’t help it and just got a small grafted Lisa atemoya, it should arrive tomorrow… if it looks good, thinking of getting geffner next (heard it fruits better) and jack them up with fertilizer this winter 
in the pursuit of fruit next season… I think odds are 50/50 mother nature vs. my hopes and dreams 
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… I wanted to add pics to my original post but can’t seem to edit, does anyone know if we’re not allow to make edits? Was going to add pics/new notes based on people’s comments… in-case this thread becomes filled with my comments, lol. I’m new to this site so perhaps, this isn’t how it’s supposed to work but I’ve seen a post with 105 min read time…. 
Anyways, wanted to share… ta-da!!! DAY 22 (countdown starting from seed soak to now)
Origin Story: Mother plant is from a nice lady from Florida, self-proclaim organic grower, who happens to own an Etsy shop that I bought from. Based on the photos I’ve seen, this is probably what is conventionally known as the Red Sugar Apple but she calls it Purple SA, so that is what I’m going with. “Very good quality big size fruits, sweet, creamy and sugary.” - Seller
Countdown to One Year - 343 days left
@Gkight you still have some time left to make some moves with your SA, until one year … (JK, I know your stance but I believe….)
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Another rebel cold hardy tree that is from a tropical/subtropical family is pringle’s sapote. It’s a white sapote, but mine has survived about 11°f unprotected on a windy North exposed ridge. I’m sure it wouldn’t make it through the cold a paw paw could take though.
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That’s way more hardy that I I heard it was, dang! How’s the flavor, and where’d you get yours?
I had read about it a few years ago but I think it had been described as marginal in zone 9. But 11 F is very hardy indeed
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Thank you! by the end of this, will be cool if I can chart this using anecdotally evidence of real cold tolerance, only issue is, there are a lot of variables, such as age of plant, how strong it is already, care, etc.
How old was your plant when it survived 11f?
And yes! please describe flavor/texture! I never had that fruit but it seems a lot of folks grow it.
A plant explorer who had a nursery a few miles from us found that variety in the mountains above Monterray, Mx. He planted one in his nursery and it was famous for surviving 13°f in one of our bad Winters years ago. They propagated them and sold them. The nursery was eventually sold and the developer scraped everything and put apartments on it. A demonstration garden ended up with a few of the trees and also propagated them. That’s where we got ours. The name has changed, but it was peckerwood gardens.
I have not tasted the fruit yet Mine is about 10 years old now and put on it’s first flower last Spring. It is really cold hardy! We’ve had 3 Winters in a row with prolonged wreather dipping into the teens or lower and it does fine.
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So about 9+ years longer than the race to get fruit haha Jk jk
That’s really awesome hardiness, we will all be excited to hear about the fruit quality whenever you are able to get some.
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I assume winters are tough on it even if it survives, probably extremely slowing it down. I know something like soursop defoliates when it gets to 45 out, and it will survive, but it will never fruit if it defoliates every year.
Super cool that its that cold hardy. My big fear is as soon as I get my tropicals established we’ll have our every 30 or more years freeze and kill everything immediately. Maybe at least my annonas will survive.
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I think personally I won’t mind never getting any soursop, but I had seedling soursops in my greenhouse and it routinely got to 35-37? And the tiny seedlings didn’t defoliate. I want them for a tea from the leaves anyhow so I’m not counting on fruit ever. Don’t even really like guanabana much, but I’ve only had it once
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Updating my post- to avoid confusion- please see replies to this post- re: sugar apple leaves and toxicity
There were a bunch of sources, so I picked NIH- screenshot of a photo from the article
bc SA are cute to look at
I recently learned guava leaves can be used for tea as well, haven’t tried it yet though. guava leaves are sold on Amazon
But beware that the leaves have high levels of annonacin, squamocin, and other compounds that might have applications in making cancer treatments, but are also neurotoxins that have been implicated in atypical Parkinson’s disease. Some places that use lots of soursop have much higher incidence of neurodegenerative disease. I would personally never consume that tea regularly.
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I would strongly advice not to make tea from any member of Annonaceae, custard apple in particular.
The whole plant contains a potent neurotoxin called annonacin that causes early-onset atypical Parkinson’s disease and palsy. The fruit tends to have less but the leaves have a lot of it. Islanders who traditionally drink the tea as a medicinal have massively elevated rates of Parkinson’s and other neural degenerative disease.
Yeah, some folks claim anti-cancer or whatnot. And yes, annonacin does indeed kill cancer cells. But it kills brain cells even better.
Don’t drink the stuff. Brain lesions are not fun.
EDIT: ah, swincher already got to it, nice.
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And @a_Vivaldi
Ohh, thank you, you both! That makes sense, sugar apples are known to not have many pest, so that is why…
also for the reasons mentioned, that is prob why its leaves are not sold commercially…
Details are adding up in my head, yes… I will stay away… 
And not to try to scare you away from delicious fruit, but the toxins are also present in varying amounts in the fruit flesh of most things in the family, including pawpaw, cherimoya, and most especially soursop.
My view is it’s just not a good idea to make these fruit a major part of your diet, but eating a few each year is a delicious treat. I hope that over time as more things get tested, people can begin to select for lower neurotoxin percentage.
In pawpaws there have been some recent studies that showed some varieties (Mango, Sunflower) have very low acetogenin content, while some varieties have almost shockingly high percentages.
I would love to see similar studies for various annona varieties, and then I would know which ones are safest to eat more regularly.
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Fully agree with what swincher just said. I’d also add that for pawpaws at least, something changes when they are dehydrated. There’s a small percentage of people who get sick after eating fresh pawpaw, but for some reason dehydrated pawpaws pretty much universally make people really sick. Unless you’re looking for a good DIY emetic, I’d not dehydrate pawpaws. I think people usually freeze the pulp for preservation, especially convenience since ice cream is a major use of pawpaws, so it’s no big loss.
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