Here Arhart it’s a big producer, kaiteri too.
For Takaka, I will see next year.
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Do you hand pollinate?
Yes. But Takaka is supposedly self fertile.
I get good fruit set on other varieties too but not like this.
Self fertile but still needing pollen transfer and having seeds, yes?
3 of my 4 New Zealand feijoa died, and when ordering Lucy Rose from Burnt Ridge I ordered all but Takaka.
Well, one of the rootstocks is alive, maybe if I learn to successfully graft feijoa, I can graft Takaka back to it. No guilt, I’ve already paid the royalty with my first purchase.
I hear conflicting reports about self fertile.
According to Mark Albert, nearly all feijoas are self fertile. They have to be pollinated by a different flower on the same or different tree.
Usually they are bird or wind pollinated. Pollen drops from higher branches to lower.
They will always have seeds which are fertile.
This is why on larger trees, you’ll have more fruit lower down on the tree.
In my young trees, I want all the fruit I can get and so I hand pollinate.
Unfortunately we don’t have Mark. Maybe someone with experience with multiple trees/varieties like @marta can elaborate and clarify?
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Very few cultivars are self compatible. You are better off having multiple cultivars blooming at the same time
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Hi Marta, thanks for your response.
I’ve seen isolated trees absolutely loaded with fruit. Unless they were pollinated by insects flying from substantial distances, I wonder how they were pollinated.
Cooligei was well distributed and it’s self fertile
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I think that the most self fertile varieties were the most propogated. If you look at the California ones that were most popular: Coolidge, nazemtz, mammoth, Apollo; these are all at least partially self fertile. That makes sense as of course, people will pick the varieties with the most fruit and largest fruit, taste being equal.
On the flip side, all the studies I’ve seen state that very few are actually completely self sterile. It’s just that the fruit set is either very low, the fruit weight is low, or the fruit is hollow.
A NZ study said Apollo was only 28% fruit set when self-pollinated, but 88% when cross pollinated. So even a 10% fruit set might be a lot of fruit on a large tree, if it blooms heavily, and IF it’s not one of those that’s completely self sterile.
Thanks for the helpful website Marta!
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This is what Mark Albert told me.
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I agree. Ive never seen such a young plant produce so much. I have a young Unique, so i’ll compare it next year. But the self fertile nature of Takaka doesn’t seem to be exaggerated. I may try crossing Takaka with Kaiteri in a few years…
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Pollination: My large 30+ year plant has never attracted significant amounts of pollinating insects, and most years, zero. Some years tiny birds eat the flower petals but remove the entire blossom in the process.
ramv: interesting comment above on large plant cropping pattern, that is what my bush does…
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Not as big but my very first fruit! - hand pollinated 2 year-old Kakariki
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Howdy ramv!
I was wondering if you or anyone else could give me their two cents about this autumn’s feijoa crop?
I have several feijoa plants that were labeled Coolidge when I bought them. This year one of them yielded for the first time and the fruit was significantly larger than the fruit I’ve come to expect from the other specimens labeled Coolidge. The fruit from this plant is massive, about the size of my fist. Is fruit this large possible from a Coolidge? Or was this plant perhaps mislabeled before point of sale, and what I actually have is the cultivar Mammoth?
Here are two pics of the typical size fruit my Coolidge plants produce:
Now here are a two pics of the extra large fruit from the anomalous plant labeled Coolidge. These fruit are 3 to 4 times larger than the fruit being produced on the other plants labeled Coolidge.
Is this a case of mislabeling or just a Coolidge that makes extra large fruit? The Waingaro, nakita and seedling plants I have are all producing fruit roughly the same size as the ‘normal’ Coolidge.
Any guesses would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Usually plants labeled Coolidge are seedlings with variable characteristics. I suspect you got lucky!
Those are really nice and large - approaching the size of the NZ varieties.
Also there is so much variability with feijoa — I grow multiples of the same variety and some are so much larger than even their clones.
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My mature bush of unknown variety produces a crop with at least a 4:1 size ratio of fruits large enough to be worthwhile picking (3 ounce to 3/4 ounce). This size disparity can occur even where multiple fruits form at the same leaf node.
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here the Arhart fell first, followed by kakariki, then Anatoki, after which the first kakapo and pounamou fell. The last of the New Zealanders this year is Kaiteri, which surprises me greatly.