A forum search showed no recent feijoa-exclusive topics and Brady asked OT in the recent SWD topic, so here goes:
My single-bush 22nd year planting hand-pollinated un-named variety feijoa produced over 2,400 fruits this year weighing over 150 pounds. Year 2014=30 pounds, 2013=90 pounds.
It is good to hear Brady up in WA finally got a few fruits. Another PDX gardener treated me to his first-ever feijoa from a sixth-year planting, he went on to harvest dozens of fruit, some quite large, Apollo seedling and un-named seedling were the varieties. A fellow a few blocks away reported a hundred or so from about 10th-year plantings, they remain quite small.
A local professional grower has scheduled a trip to Uruguay next March to attend a feijoa conference in their native habitat, his report will be eagerly awaited.
Small portion of 2015 crop donated to a local CSA farm.
In Spring 2014 I planted 9 feijoa bushes, including 5 named cultivars (Mammoth, Nazemetz, Nikita, Our Best Round, Triumph) and a few unnamed seedlings. This November I had my first harvest: two fruits from Mammoth.
Here is one of these Mammoth fruits near a medium-size pomegranate:
Yes, the average size was small this year, in past years the average fruit size has been nearly 2 ounces. On this bush a 3-ouncer is big, only get a handful of them per year.
Stan is east of San Francisco, I know that quite a few years ago significant acreage of feijoas was planted in Northern California, but apparently no industry came of it as happened in New Zealand.
Mammoth, Triumph, and Our Best Round have been purchased at Menlo Growers (see http://www.menlogrowers.com) at their nursery in Gilroy. This is actually a wholesale nursery that sells its trees through retail nurseries and garden centers, but my wife goes there a couple times a year and they remember her and sell her a few trees at a time. Mammoth and Triumph are well-known cultivars (e.g., http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/feijoa.html), while Our Best Round is, as far as I understand, a selection by Menlo Growers themselves.
Nikita has been purchased from Bay Flora (through an online order). Nazemetz has been bought from a local Home Depot store (the actual grower is probably La Verne, but I’m not sure); this seems to be the most common cultivar (at least, in California).
I have recently contacted Patrick Schafer who is a well known CRFG member and feijoa expert in Northern California. I’m going to buy several named cultivars from Patrick at an upcoming CRFG scion exchange event. You can find more info about Patrick by googling his name, for example, http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Quince-mulberry-feijoa-in-the-spotlight-2478870.php.
What a great looking harvest! Our feijoas just produced for us for the first time after 3 years in the ground. We have a hedge of them along our drive. About 7 plants I think. Mainly Coolidge and Nazemetz.
Yes,that’s an abundance,Larry.So much,that some can be given away.I’d like to get to that point.Right now,that is only happening with Blueberries.
Stan,I’d like to get your input about taste between the cultivars,if available? Thanks,Brady
Sorry, my experience so far is limited to just the two Mammoth fruits I described above. Both me and my wife liked them very much, but I have no basis for comparison. Hopefully, next year I will have a little bit more information, if additional varieties produce some fruit.
The infrequent fruits I have run across over the years were not as tasty as mine, but the Apollo seedling mentioned above was very sweet, almost distractingly so. Was like eating a Bartlett pear.
I’d sure appreciate some advice on getting feijoa to set fruit. I’ve been hand pollinating the last 3 years but have yet to see any fruit, or even much pollen. There must be something basic that I’m missing. I have two older ones that are lost name types, and a Nazemetz. The two no-names (transplanted to my current home 8 years ago) started blooming in Sept/Oct about five years ago and only last year did they bloom at a more conventional time.
All three look pretty healthy (Nazemetz is in 15 gal container). Could someone comment on their pollen cycles and hand pollinating.
John, I did not do any hand pollination since I did not expect any fruit from second-year trees. It was late August or September when I discovered, to my surprise, that my Mammoth has a couple of fruits on it. However, I did see quite a lot of bee and bumblebee activity around the flowers. I have a bunch of Buddleja, Pride of Madeira and some other bee-attracting bushes planted in the vicinity of my feijoa trees.
Nazemetz and Trask are supposed to be good pollinators for each other. However, in contrast to Nazemetz, Trask is notoriously difficult to find. I have only seen it offered by Tropical Oasis Farms in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Up here in Portland, feijoas bloom in June, peak bloom is late in the month. California plants are several weeks earlier.
The pollen is fresh and moveable for 2 or three days for any one bloom. I simply use the fingers of both hands and can cover hundreds of blossoms that way rather than the more commonly documented paintbrush method. Fingers do turn yellow in the process; shaking a branch will reveal airborne pollen if sun is available for backlighting. So you would have to hand-pollinate every few days.
This is the first in 20 blooming years I have ever seen a bee on the bush–likely because of the ~4,000 blossoms. The flowers do not produce nectar. Birds are most often mentioned as pollinators, but no birds are attracted to my bush either.
Feijoa seems to require certain niche climates to fruit well; in most areas the plant is sold for landscape rather than fruiting purposes.
Are you saying the pollen is fresh for 2-3 days from the minute the blossom opens, or is there something else that starts the clock ticking. And is the pollen only available in the mornings or is it anytime during the day. I’ve usually tried pollinating in the late afternoons and so far it’s been rare to see any pollen.
I think I’m going to plant a Feijoa this spring. The location gets full sun but it rarely goes over 100F during the summer. Would it be bad for the tree? Also the spot has really poor drainage, so I plan to plant it on a 3’X3’X12" raised bed. Would that be good enough? I want to plant a standard or at least train it as one. I want to use it as a hedge to cover up my neighbor’s ratty backyard. I’m good with 15’.
I live in an area that is supposedly not conducive to growing feijoa with high heat and humidity but they have done fine. I have 2 because I was told I needed cross pollination, don’t know if that is true or not, I think there are some self fruitful varieties.
