Acerola, also known as Barbados Cherry or West Indian Cherry is a tropical fruit tree that thrives locally due to our warm sub-tropical climate.
The fruit are the size of a cherry and start out green and ripen to a nice red, like the ones in the photo.
I first was able to taste the fruit about eight years ago and quickly decided we needed to have them here at Tullamore Farm.
We planted our first two Acerola not long after, and we now have three very productive trees. Many visitors who join us here for Farm Tours or Workshops have differing views on the taste. I like the strong tart flavour.
We eat them straight from the tree and sometimes add them whole, seeds and all, into our breakfast juice.
Acerola is one of the richest sources of Vitamin C in any fruit. They apparently have between 20 and 50 times the vitamin C of Oranges.
Our first two Acerola struggled for the first couple of years here but have really flourished since establishing.
They like a slightly acid soil but most local soil will be fine. We fertilise our established Acerola trees once a year now in February with our homemade compost.
We have always mulched our trees well and the treatment of Acerola is the same. We mulch everything with wood chip or pruning’s to around 15 centimetres.
Acerola are well documented as drought tolerant once established. Ours fared well through the nasty drought we had here a few years back.
They take well to pruning. We really give them a strong prune every year in late Autumn after the fruiting is over. A good prune helps keep them to a manageable size and easier when accessing the fruit.
Acerola produce well and can have three or four crops yearly between October and May. Most of the local nursery and plant outlets have them and they are easy to source.
Being really attractive bushy trees are you ready to add one or two?
