Pruning pineapple guava

Could I prune off 3 branches off this regular pineapple guava bush? I want to keep the best looking branch to form a tree.

Pineapple guava are shrubs. You can force a tree shape with annual maintenance, although the size of your harvests will be greatly reduced.

2 Likes

They are slow growers, and will take awhile to catch up. I would remove no more than 20percent a year…

1 Like

Actually they grow quickly in the ground in his zone.

Here are some pics of the trees.in the row with the red bowtie im about to move 3 trees to a different location.they seem to be too close don’t you think?

2 Likes

Their natural growth habit is shrub. The spacing looks perfect.

1 Like

Richard so these should be fine? Im a little worried they will be cramped when they grow older

If that’s too close, my 3 bushes planted 2 feet apart are in trouble! :neutral_face:

They appear to be 8’ on center. That’s how I would plant them.

2 Likes

One of my neighbor’s has some really old fejoa’s that have been trimmed to tree shapes. He gets lots of fruit but the quality is not as good as modern cultivars. If these trees were originally planted when the house was built they would be roughly 70 to 80 years old.

7 Likes

Nice! I wonder how many feet apart are those trees.:thinking:

My guess is that a perpendicular measure from the retaining wall to the wooden fence is about 20 feet, so those plants are about 8’ to 10’ apart.

1 Like

In climate areas that do not favor fruiting, this plant is sold as hedge material, so crowding is not a problem. Some plants are trained and sold as standards, but are allowed to densely branch when only a few feet tall.

Various feijoas have different growth habits; your first picture group above shows that you have a type that is somewhat spindly and looks like it would grow 2 feet or more per year. If pruned to a single branch, they may need staking for some years to remain vertical. Training or forcing a balanced branch system will be key.

The row spacing above looks fine (for harvest access) and is more important than the plant-to-plant spacing within a row.

3 Likes

Of course you’re referring to seedlngs of the species Acca sellowiana, and not cultivars developed for fruiting.

Very true.

1 Like