I guess the lesson for us in the PNW is that there is a lot of variability year to year and from location to location. Feijoa at this time must be seen as somewhat experimental. Maybe in 5-10 years we will have definite answers as to which varieties consistently do well, if any.
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I probably wasn’t clear. I view the mistake as planting them in the winter. I assume once established they will be hardy. I am annoyed that they cut most of the plant off, and I’d have gone the other way, pruning off or shortening the lower branched and keeping the leader. I’d like it to start branching at 3 feet or so up.
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Yesterday I examined for the first time this year, a short row of feijoa a few blocks from here. These bushes are less than 10 years old and about 5 feet in all dimensions. They were about 1/4 defoliated, much less than my 3/4+. But their new growth was not as advanced as mine.
Today I pruned my old bush of all deadwood and of too-high-up branches. The prunings are easily the volume of my Apollo bush that is approaching 7-foot dimensions.
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I think this is a flower bud on Mammoth. For those wondering if their new growth will bloom. I’m sympathetic to first timers wanting to know if there’s any chance of fruit.
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There is a good chance of fruit if you can hand pollinate with another flower nearby.
This year my in-ground NZ Feijoas appear to have taken the year off from producing flowers. There is all kinds of growth but no flower buds.
Only Apollo, Abbadabba and 8 ball have flower buds.
Just for comparison, all varieties down here have finished flowering and are growing fruitlets…
These are Takaka and Apollo
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Mammoth is going to be too late for your location in N.Seattle. It is a late variety.
Wow. I heard that they are just beginning to bloom in Bay area CA. You will likely have fruit in August/September.
I’ve been trying to match the ripening times. I have a table with the ripening times posted in New Zealand from different literature. I flipped it 6 months since theyre in the Southern Hemisphere, but there’s no mention of heat units which will probably cause variation in North America…
| Feijoa Variety | Ripening Time in New Zealand | Ripening Time in Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo | April | October |
| Unique | Mar-Apr | Sep-Oct |
| Kaiteri | Mar | Sep-Oct |
| Anatoki | Mar | Sep-Oct |
| Takaka | Mar | Sep-Oct |
| Wiki-Tu | May-Jun | Nov-Dec |
| Triumph | May | Nov |
| Mammoth | May-Jun | Nov-Dec |
| Den’s Choice | Apr-May | Oct-Nov |
| White Goose | Mar-May | Sep-Nov |
| Kakariki | Feb-Mar | Aug-Sep |
| Waingoro | May-Jun | Nov-Dec |
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The one Mammoth bush some blocks from here has produced egg-sized fruit of average flavor.
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Looks like the only graft with flower buds this year is Oktoberfest from @Marta. This will be the first flowers on that one, which was grafted in spring 2021. There are only about 4 buds, but that’s 4 more than anything else! Here are a couple of them:
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You need to figure out a way to pollinate those. Maybe someone in the neighborhood has Feijoa too.
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Yes, one of my neighbors has an unknown/seedling bush that flowers a lot each year. It looks to be a week or two behind mine, though, so probably will be too late to pollinate mine. Their bush always sets heavily without cross pollination, but most years they fail to size up in time for fall.
I just walked past their house, this is the stage of their buds:
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I was just looking more closely at my notes and I’m actually not sure whether this was Oktoberfest (Marta 10) or Cosmos (Marta 7), but it’s definitely one of them. The tags faded too much, so I only know how many grafts of each I did on each bush, but have to rely on memory for which is which. I have a definite Oktoberfest on the other bush, so when that one flowers (next year?) I can compare to see which ones on this bush match it in flowering/ripening time and create new tags.
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I seem to recall that Marta’s scionwood came from Mark Albert seedlings.
I have numerous “pride”, “joy”, and ‘supreme’ seedlings. But no flowers/fruit on any of them in the many years I’ve had them.
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Yes, though she didn’t specify which of his fruit were the parents, she said the fruit came from him. Here’s a post about them on her blog (before she named #7 “Cosmos”):
I just walked past another feijoa I know of in my neighborhood, and even though it’s a fairly mature bush that flowered last year, no sign of flower buds yet this year:
I have no idea if it’s a named variety or seedling, I haven’t knocked on their door to ask about it yet.
That tree doesn’t appear to have a lot of new growth. There is still time for it to produce some flower buds.
Most of the varieties I’m growing that produced fruit last year have decided to take a break and grow vegetatively instead. I’m seeing between 6-12" of new growth in some varieties but zero flower buds.
Meanwhile, others that did not fruit at all last year have dozens of flower buds. They are right next to the ones that decided to grow vegetatively. I don’t understand this species.
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Seems almost like our climate is inducing biennial bearing for some reason? None of my grafts flowered last year, nor the rootstock branches, even though it seems like a large enough bush to flower.
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