Three out of four grafts I did in March of @LarryGene’s scions are starting to push now, including the one that I did with leaves intact:
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That’s a start. How many years until blossoms can be expected?
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That’s a good question! I’m relatively new to feijoa, and my bush these are grafted on hasn’t flowered yet. This sounds like something @Bradybb or @murky might know the answer to.
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Feijoa typically blossoms at the junction of new growth and last year’s wood.
It will bloom directly off of older wood, the record for my bush is a 4-bloom cluster on a 20+ year-old trunk just above the ground.
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I see no signs of flower buds on my non-grafted branches yet, but they are just starting to grow basically. How soon after the new growth appears do you usually see flower buds emerge? Here is the current stage of my bush other than the new grafts (these include some of last year’s grafts and some of the bush’s own branches):
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Feijoas have been unusually slow this year to wake up – owing to one of the wettest, coldest springs on record here.
There are some clear winners and losers: Nikita is the fastest growing and has put on tons of growth even in the cold weather. Anatoki is second in terms of growth.
Some of the other NZ varieties have barely even budded out. I think those would be unsuitable for our climate. Others such as Albert’s varieties are all in various stages of growth but none as vigorous as Nikita.
I have multiples of each variety – they are planted in different locations and my observations are consistent across locations.
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Good to see you back on here @ramv, I hope you are doing well!
How would you say yours compare to the photos I just posted above? Those include both my unknown/generic bush, and also the @Marta 7 and Marta 10 cultivars, which seem to be slightly ahead of my generic bush in growth (buds emerged maybe 2 weeks earlier).
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Hi @swincher, my trees are mostly similar to yours in terms of growth. This is FAR behind where they were last year. A couple of NZ varieties are even behind this.
The Nikita is the only one that is noticeably ahead of this level of growth.
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I’m not sure how long a graft will take to bloom.It could depend on locality.In areas of California,probably sooner than the PNW.
If guessing,they may be similar to other trees,two or more years?
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Ah ok, I thought maybe you had done some yourself.
Marta 7 is registered as Cosmos and Marta 10 is registered as Oktoberfest
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Thanks for the update! Both of their first-year grafts handled our 16°F winter low without any harm. A few of the branch tips on the rest of the bush got burned a little, but not yours.
Feijoa does seem slow this year. My Portland bush is nearing 30 years old and has opened multiple blooms by 30 June in all but one year (late 1990s).
Portland is still waiting for the first official 80F of 2022, nearing a record for lateness.
Feijoa flower buds look like snail eyestalks.
My yard in Seattle still hasn’t hit 75°F this year, let alone 80°, though came close a couple times:
Just think, we’re only a few weeks away from the anniversary of the record-breaking triple digit heat wave last year. What a difference a year makes!
I’ve been thinking it is possible that those 3 late June days this year could be 50 degrees cooler than last year.
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Here is my answer in picture.
grafting on a spring 2021 sowing. Grafting in early September 2021.
7 months later, after the winter months when the plant was outdoors, here is the result.
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Very impressive that this was done on a seedling sown last year. My seedlings sown in 2021 only grew a couple of inches last summer. I won’t be able to graft them for another year or 2. You must have a very long growing season!
@swincher Thanks again for sharing Larry’s scionwood this spring. Starting in March I did a couple of grafts every month. This is the first bud that is starting to push. It was grafted on 3-26.
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Arhart, Nikita, and Abbadabba have flower buds showing. The most advanced is Arhart (almost open) followed by Nikita and then Abbadabba. These are likely to be the earliest named varieties we can grow here in the cooler parts of PNW.
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