I’ve got some Feijoa cuttings coming from Fruitwood Nursery - Albert’s Joy or Supreme… can’t remember which.
I’m seeing some articles saying that Feijoas are hard to root from cuttings. So, I figured I’d better ask for there any tips, tricks or things to avoid?
My current plan is the standard - rooting compound, in a mix of sand/sterile soil and coir, sitting on a heat matt for a couple months… maybe with a cut bottle over it for humidity.
That might be the simplest way and might work.
I’ve done it using a Mist-a-Matic/Electronic Leaf and also ultrasonic fog.
The main thing is to keep a film of moisture on the leaves,so spritzing them with water,using your setup will help.
I like to use new growth cuttings,that are hardened off a little,like in the Spring/early Summer.All the leaves are then pulled off,except for the top one or two.A diagonal cut is made at the rooting end,before dipping in the hormone.
I have tried to root them a few times. No success. The best I did was with heal cuttings. They started to callus but never rooted. I used a heat mat and covered them for humidity but no misting. Best of luck on rooting. I have only had success with grafting scions on to seedlings.
Two rounds of many-month indoor cuttings with heat and manual misting were failures.
Then I tried a process from the fig people: Air-layering using scarring, hormone, sphagnum moss, all inside a cut-up water bottle, wrapping the whole assembly in black plastic. Took 18 months to get significant roots. I will say that the moss stayed damp for months on end without adding more water. I will see if there is any sign of life next spring from two of these that I severed last fall and are currently in pots.
I found one research paper explaining that cuttings taken closer to the ground are much more successful. Unfortunately, I won’t have any clue where these cuttings were taken from the tree. Just an online purchase.
Plan B is to wait until Covid dies down and personally drive to California for an Albert’s Joy. 
Yes, that research paper was out of northern California, perhaps CRFG-related.
Success was very poor 10%? with cuttings from the plant top and 7 in 8 success
for basal sprouts. I think such basal sprouts would form if the trunk near the ground were deliberately injured. My plant has made a few over the years, but weevils always chew them up.
Maybe getting in touch with Mark Albert or Pat Schafer about cuttings,could help.@ramv might have some info about that.
Last summer after thinning my bush a little bit, I stuck about two dozen small feijoa cuttings in community pots (with just sand & perlite) and kept them watered through the dry season. Most of them shriveled within a few weeks, but a handful still show green leaves (but not any growth to speak of). I went ahead and carefully washed the sand off this one today, which shows nice roots:
It went in the ground to be used as rootstock next year.
Remarkable. How far above ground was that rooted cutting taken? I had a dozen from about 5 feet up a few years ago that retained perfectly green leaves for months but never formed a single root (indoors and kept moist).
It was taken from the top of my bush, which is about 4 ft tall. I have a few others I’ll be checking for roots soon, too, but I’d say ~80-90% of the cuttings look dead.
Last week I also cut up a couple of the cuttings you sent me and trimmed, scraped the stems, and dipped then in rooting hormone. I did a couple pots that way. Maybe I’ll succeed with one or two of these as well! Here’s one:
If rooting feijoa is in that difficulty (even with rooting hormones!);
is’nt it easy? to grow feijoa seeds then graft the wanted cultivars on those seedlings. (as they do to guavas)
