I put in two pineapple guava 3-years ago and they have been the most carefree plant I have! They are 3’ tall and it looks like they are starting to grow again. Nice! Any idea what time of the year these are supposed to flower in 7B? How many years did it typically take for you to get fruit? Hoping my bushes will kick out some flowers this year since they are supposed to be edible.
Mine flowered and fruited lightly the 3rd year and heavy the 4th. They flower on new wood, here is a picture I just took. You can see the flower buds on the new growth.
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Hi Mark, what variety is that?
I have 2 seedlings. Bought one from Edible Landscaping and then realized I needed a second so I bought a cheap one from Florida Hill. Both taste the same and ripen at the same time but the cheap FH seedling produces bigger fruit and sets a better crop.
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Planted a couple last year and you’re right they are really a carefree plant and look nice too. They do really well here in Florida. Just not sure how long on average it takes for them to fruit.
7B might be tricky for this plant as the foliage burns at 25° and 15° will prevent flowering the following year. Mine in zone 8 does not start to bloom until June.
Florida is also iffy as the plant needs some chill hours and then does not retain fruit well in heat.
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Yes, I agree that feijoas are among the most carefree fruit plants. Several of my feijoa bushes flowered in the 2nd year and one (Mammoth) even produced two pieces of fruit. Seedlings may need another year or two. I now have 6 bushes in 3rd leaf and 7 more planted in January '16 (all named cultivars) as well as 3 seedlings.
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Those temperatures seem a little high. Mine have seen temps much lower and I have never had any damage. This is with no protection, in the open. In the Southeast we get low temps but they usually don’t last last very long, a few hours at most, that may make a difference.
This was taken 5/12/2015 after going to 11 degrees in Febuary. That was low enough to kill most of my protected citrus.
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We have a hedge of them here on the outskirts of Phoenix. Yes totally carefree. Took 3 years to start being productive. Hand pollinating like so many do never seemed to help. Set quite well last year with me doing nothing. Love our 115 degree summers. Dont mind our occasional deep freezes. Not super thirsty. I just wish the fruit were better than third tier. We have Coolidge and Nametetz.
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Larry, I know you’re very well versed and experienced with feijoa, but I have to second what C5Tiger said. I haven’t experienced any harm when our winters have dunked into the teens a few times, either. Like he said, we don’t get extended cold here in SC, and we do have HOT summers. Every summer here is hot, as in 90’s and 100’s all season. Some are just hotter than others. Maybe some varieties are more sensitive than others.
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I’m just glad to see so many people are getting fruit after or during extreme weather. It is likely that a warmer climate and longer growing season is more forgiving to the feijoa in general rather than tolerance of certain varieties. In years when my bush was completely defoliated after temps in the teens, by 1 June you could not tell it happened, except all the leaves are then new growth and the flowers sparse.
Here in the Pacific NW, successful feijoas are hard to come by, new growth does not commence until May and fruit does not ripen until November. If the temperature here went to 11° it would have been below 20 for 48 hours at least.
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Those are interesting thoughts. Goes to show that hardiness zones are just a slice of the actual growing conditions. I’ve seen some things, like raspberries, tend to do much better in the PNW than here.
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The posting from amadioranch in AZ is interesting: Feijoa blooming and fruiting in an extreme environment, but the fruit is “third tier”, I assume this means poor quality. Everyone of the dozens of people I have given my fruits have found them delicious. So growing, blooming, and fruiting is only 3/4 of the battle. Feijoa is known to do well as a landscape plant in the southern states, commercial growing has been done in coastal California but the main success remains in New Zealand.
Note1: Phoenix has record low temperature of 16° (1911) but most winter daily record lows average about 25°.
Note2: I have always been amazed at how many 100-degree days Columbia SC has, but in checking the monthly averages, the hottest months have the most days (10 ! ) with rainfall. This would be a saving grace for feijoas. Here in Portland OR, it is not uncommon to go 40 or 50 consecutive days with very little rain in summer (record is 71 days no rain).
I read that feijoa taste is inferior when it ripens in hot weather. I would guess that varieties that ripen late (late October to early December) would be more suitable for hotter areas. Fruit on my Mammoth bush ripened in mid November, after it was relatively cool for about a month. Taste was very good.
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