As far as I know, @Luisport is the only forum member currently fruiting this species, but I think there were a few members other than me that recently decided to give it a try, so I figured it might as well get its own thread. Here’s Luis’s description (with photos of tree and fruit):
The Wikipedia article is a little barebones, could use a few edits if anyone is so inclined:
I got five seeds from Marcos, from here:
Somewhat regretting only getting five, but hopefully I’ll get at least one or two to grow. I’m giving them a soak before sowing:
My seeds from Marco’s arrive tomorrow, but I got a small seedling from Bellamy trees I put in the ground today. Just as an insurance to if the seeds don’t germinate
I could leave mine be, and then see if mine or swincher’s germinate first. They are from the same source. Mine are on bottom heat, which I’m hoping means I’ll still beat swincher haha
My general policy is to always soak overnight any seeds I receive dried, pretty much without exception other than very tiny seeds where it’s not feasible. They sank after a few hours, so that was the sign I was looking for.
I’ll do the same then, mine should be delivered today. I rarely do anything with seeds except put em in dirt. Unless they need cold stratification then I’ll do that
I missed this part! Mine are on intermittent bottom heat as well. By which I mean on top my microwave, above the light bulb, so intermittent because other members of the household sometimes close the microwave door, so the heat is off until I notice and crack open the door again. This is my favorite place to germinate anything that I don’t think would be happy in the still-pretty-cold-at-night greenhouse. After a few weeks there, they’ll go in soil on a heating pad in the greenhouse whether there’s any sign of life yet or not.
So I got a second batch of 5 seeds yesterday, and this time they came in damp vermiculite instead of dried. It will be interesting to see which ones germinate better. I’m sowing these immediately rather than treating them in any way. That TFF thread had some people theorizing they need to have a dry period to trigger germination.
If mine take long enough to germinate, they’re going to have a dry period or two. There’s just no way I don’t forget to water them at some point if they’re sitting around doing nothing for months on end…
Idk but @Luisport swears to its hardiness. I’m pretty positive they are self fertile though. They are somewhat deciduous so I’d imagine they are close to hardy as a feijoa since they are able to go dormant
I don’t doubt they are fully hardy for Luis in his enviably mild zone. I believe he is in 9b and very nearly 10a. The zone 9a where I garden is colder, with high teens not unheard of. Worst case scenario is I’ll have to manage them as I do the avocado trees: plant in an excellent site, keep them small and cover a few nights each winter. Which is not too much of a hardship if the fruit is as good as online testimonials would lead a person to believe.
For me the feijoas have only shown a tendency to drop leaves when a specimen lacks cold hardiness. My most hardy specimens, a couple seedlings and the cultivar waingaro, never lose leaves during the cold season, regardless of how cold it’s gotten here. Last January we had the worst cold snap since the 1980’s, dropping to 18 F and remaining below freezing for nearly 48 hours. Those seedlings and waingaro didn’t even get discolored leaves from the cold and looked as lush as they do during a normal winter. In stark contrast, the Coolidge, nakita and some other seedlings lost nearly all of their leaves. One of the Coolidge even had extensive branch tip death. Though ultimately it didn’t seem to matter since that plant is putting on lots of blooms. I have doubts that the sete capota would have performed as well as some of my feijoas did during that January freeze.
Hi. I can tell for sure its self fertile and i can tell you it survived very well to our record min temp of -6,5c. All avocados were killed on my region 5 or 6 years ago, i dont remember for sure.
