None on the ground … yet.
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Well we tried a few of those this evening … a bit small but outstanding! Good flavor and zero grit.
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Are you able to measure the brix level on these? It would be helpful to understand how much sweeter they get in your climate.
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@ramv
Thanks for the reminder!
I cut open two fruits, one a bit fatter and more seasoned. It did not yield any liquid. I did obtain two readings from the smaller, one at 16 and the other at 18.4.
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That is very sweet! It never got above 16 brix here based on my tests last year. Hopefully this season will be better.
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I did not expect those readings, my guess was lower teens.
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How was this brix sampling performed?
To me, a ripe feijoa changes from sweeter in the center to tart near the rind in an almost linear fashion.
I squeezed the fruit.
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Larry, good question. Ripe feijoa are like those fruit gusher candies. It has the sweet gel filling in the middle. That’s probably where the juice came from. The gritty flesh seems to be where the acid resides. I’m curious how much sugar it holds.
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Yes, in both halves of the narrow fruit the few drops came from the middle. The 2nd fruit did not yield any – it was like trying to press liquid out of jello. I had my pipette handy though!
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I would think that if multiple or larger fruit was available, juice could be squeezed from various parts of the fruit in adequate quantities for the brix meter. I would be most interested in the results.
Perhaps the brix is constant throughout the fruit but the tongue perceives the near-rind acid content as less sweet overall.
It is this variable sweetness per individual feijoa fruit that I find pleasing.
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The cultivar is Nikita.
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I have one in a container.The lows were getting near freezing,about a week ago,so the plant was brought into a greenhouse.The colder period has passed.
The leaves and fruit are similar looking to me,especially when small.One day,there were a number of them.There wasn’t much hand cross pollinating by me,so this may have been done by itself.
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Fruits had begun to drop so I harvested the whole crop. It amounted to 2 gallons of fruit, half of which were less than 2 inches (if not 1 inch) and ended up in the greenery barrel. Here’s the remainder, all 2" to 2.5" in length.
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Lovely. So envious of your setup. I’ve never had a pineapple guava either.
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It’s grown a lot since your last photos a few years ago.
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And it’s been pruned twice!
Amazing bush. I ordered some seeds obtained from an ‘Apollo’ x ‘Nikita’ cross-pollination. I’m curious what to expect about the hardiness and fruit qualities of the future shrubs in a few years.
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