First Takaka was quite delicious.
15 brix. Much better than last year
First Anatoki
My Mark Albert Seedling fruit was ripped off by the pot falling down.
It is unfortunately not fully ripe
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You’ve got some nice ones coming in. Do you always wait for them to fall to the ground before gathering. The vast majority of my crop hasn’t fallen off yet. Is that pretty common with feijoa up here. My familiarity is with growing them in California where they are pretty much ignored and still produce prolific crops that we gathered around December once the heavy rains started. Do you think it’s okay to leave them on into December up here in the PNW?
That’s great to know. Thanks. I’ll have to clone it next summer.
Everything I’ve been told, or read, suggests that feijoa are relatively difficult to clone by rooted cutting. Strangely that hasn’t been my experience.
I had to do some pruning after a wind even last spring which yielded me lots of feijoa cuttings. So I popped them into some peat/sand/perlite mix slid them under a table in my greenhouse, out of direct sunlight, watered a couple of times a week and got great results. Of the 10 cuttings I attempted to clone, 6 developed roots and are now happy little plants in my greenhouse.
I suppose the hot, humid environment in the greenhouse really assisted. I also got nearly 100% success with the meyer lemon and sudachi cuttings that I cloned.
What has been your experience with cloning feijoa?
Yes, it is best to wait until the fruit falls to the ground or you risk it not being sweet. But critters take them when they fall! I lost 2 Anatokis last night — stolen by critters!
They typically fall here starting early November. They won’t get damaged until temps hit about 26-27F. So in a good year, you could be harvesting well into December.
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That’s great to know. Thanks.
I have an L shaped area between two buildings that’s south exposed and has a concrete patio with an overhang. Given that feijoa fruit isn’t damaged until around 26 degrees, I’m thinking that might be a perfect place to plant the rest of my feijoa into the earth. Perhaps I’d be able to guarantee a December harvest every year. That microclimate only freezes a handful of times each winter. Though it is blisteringly hot in summer. That’s why I planted my citrus in that area. I seem to remember reading that feijoa don’t like it too hot. Then again, I saw a guy’s video on YouTube who grows them in Stockton with great success. Where I live in the Willamette Valley it is almost as hot.
Feijoa that fall a very short distance, or onto a very soft, fine-textured surface, are safe. Otherwise they bruise, cut, or have abrasions and do not keep as well in storage.
Any feijoa that comes off when bent sideways or tugged on gently is ripe enough to eat or store, and will continue softening even in the refrigerator. The firmness of hand-picked fruit will vary, the most firm will store longer before softening.
Of course harvesting fallen fruit is the most efficient, as it avoids “testing” fruits on the bush.
I wrap my largest fruits with squares of bubble-wrap+rubber band to discourage the squirrels and to protect after falling.
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Most of my in ground outside Feijoa’s are dropping now, about two weeks after Apollo ripens in my greenhouse. All my outside plants are seedlings from fruits from France, Madeira and Colombia. The plants are 5 to 6 years old and this is the second year some of them are fruiting.
My climate in the Netherlands is similar to the PNW, but I don’t know if anyone growing and especially ripening Feijoa’s here. Most of my seedlings fruit remains small and green and hard up until the first frost, but I am stoked to have found one plant that ripens good large fruits in my climate! Apollo in my greenhouse averages 70 grams, Mammoth averaged 55 grams and my seedling outside averages 50 grams with the largest fruit reaching 65 grams. Most of them teach 14 Brix, which is really sweet and the taste is very tropical and different from anything else you can grow in my temperate 8a climate.
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Some fruit I picked on my trip to California.
Top left for size comparison is Takaka. The seedling fruit quality is outstanding and very sweet. Takaka is good but the unknown seedling from CA is better
Here is another photo with Takaka, Kakariki( more yellow), an Albert seeding fruit and one of the unknown for size comparison
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Feijoas at home actually, like, like.
All are mines seedling.
I tasted my first pounamou, Anatoki, Arhart… I confirm my first impressions: Kakapo is the best at the moment and by far ahead of all the varieties I have tasted.
I’m still missing Waingaro if anyone wants to make a trade.
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Pounamou and Anatoki also turned yellow at the end for me.
I saved the seeds to see what it would do. I have pollinated all NZ by hand.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What’s your technique for cloning Feijoa?
Can it work with winter cuttings?
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.
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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.
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Arhart bloomed in August here and is now dropping in late November. 4 months as expected.
To the left is an anatoki and to the right is 8 ball.
Arhart average size.
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