A few days back I purchased 4 Feijoa from Bob Duncan on Vancouver Island. The varieties I picked up were Anatoki, Takaka, Kateri, and Nikita. The trees are a little on the small side being 3 ft tall max and in 1 gallon pots. I’m planning on keeping the Feijoa inside the house for the winter where they will receive natural light and the temp is usually around 40-50° F during the winter.
My question regarding these new Feijoa trees is when would be the best time to replant these trees. I’m intending to eventually have these permanently planted outside in 2 raised concrete planter boxes 3 ft wide x 3 ft deep x 10 ft long. My question is, should I up-size their plastic indoor containers now, or should I wait till the spring (or later) when their permanent location is ready to transplant them next year.
When exactly is the best time to transplant these subtropical Feijoa species?
I planted mine around this time, or late October, when I got them in 2021, with no ill effect. They aren’t really very cold sensitive and you can also just leave them outside in their pots all winter, unless we get some freakish bad freeze.
If their spot in the ground isn’t ready, I’d pot them up now, but leave them outside unless there’s a bad freeze.
Those are large plants for a 1-gallon pot, it is likely many roots are pressed against the inside of the pot.
If they are going to remain potted this winter, I would keep them above freezing but as cool as possible, and plant them out as early as is practical.
I’ve got a nice size Waingaro. Do you want some cuttings to root? I had great success cloning feijoa last summer. Not nearly as high a success rate as figs and citrus, but 4 out of a dozen rooted and are doing fantastic.
I had 10-15% success with late summer cuttings a few years ago. I was hacking off a lot of the low-hanging branches anyhow so I trimmed them, dipped in hormone, and stuck them in a mix that was mostly perlite with a bit of sandy topsoil. The few that survived didn’t start growing until the next spring, but those all grew pretty well the next year. I posted a photo here when I first potted them up the next spring:
Since you have access to plenty of seeds from your already-fruiting bushes, I think it may work better to just plant seeds and graft them later. But if someone has a technique with better success rate or faster initial growth, rooting may make sense.
I had some feijoa branches that snapped off during a windy day last summer. While gathering them up, I recalled that Swincher had posted about having some success rooting feijoa cuttings. So I decided to give it a try myself.
I put the cuttings in a mix of equal parts peat, sand and perlite. I slid it under a table in my greenhouse and kept the medium damp. I never spritzed them on a regular basis, only when I applied water to the medium every few days or so. And I didn’t put a cover to maintain humidity.
I had about 30% success from dumb luck. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work, so I stupidly failed to label them. Now I have several clones without a known exact parentage. For what it’s worth, I know they are clones of either one of the seedlings, Coolidge, nakita or Waingaro. Time will tell.
Here’s pic of one this morning. Been putting on new growth recently.
Someone needs to breed this red blush trait so that the fruit can be more easily spotted.
In the denser areas of my large bush, sometimes I just have to give it a shake and see what falls, much easier than trying to sight fruit that is leaf-sized, colored, and shaped…
Next time I go over there, I’m getting a bunch of cuttings for grafting. It’s far better than every variety I grow. Not to mention the nice dark blush.
Are you growing waingaro? I got one a couple of years back and just this week got the first ripe fruits. They are phenomenal for me, by far the best tasting compared to the seedling, Coolidge and nakita I have. The waingaro got round and very plump, before developing a reddish blush. Inside is mostly jelly, very sweet with a perfect amount of tart. I’m going to make many clones of this bush next summer and plant them all over the property. I left them on the bush for this recent cold snap and they were undamaged from several hours at 25 degrees.
I have read several times that deer are averse to browsing on the Feijoa tree. To those growers in areas with heavy deer pressure, if you leave Feijoa unprotected will deer actually avoid these trees?
