Hi @Arhus76 , You have a real winner there. Also @jsteph00921 was posting photos of his giant fruit.
This is why I feel we should still keep growing seedlings alongside grafted varieties. Seedlings show the potential of what is possible with this species.
My only legit sized feijoa so far is this Mammoth at 35 grams. From the pulp it looks ripe. The seeds were more numerous and forward, and it was sour. Hopefully they will get better. Larry’s fruit are WAY better.
As a practical matter, and more in line with the large majority of forum-reported feijoa fruit sizes, I have found over the decades that small feijoas weighing 20 grams, if plumply-formed, are worth eating and can have all the texture and flavor properties of larger fruit. A morsel rather than a mammoth.
That’s good to know. This one clearly looks fully formed.
My preferred method is to cut in half and scoop out with a spoon. This was big enough to do that effectively with a regular cereal spoon. Much smaller and I’d need a different type of spoon.
…and that is the secret. The spoon I use exclusively for feijoa eating is 30x15 mm, making the eating experience more satisfying.
What sort of brix are you getting out of the small fruit?
I’ve never had a brix measuring device. I prefer fruits on the tart side, but my old bush feijoas are noticeably sweet, sort of like a well-balanced caneberry. The small fruits of course have less of a gelatinous center that tends to be the sweetest part.
I think I have one fruit left, I could measure brix.
I think its this guy:
The cut fruit is different from the rest, much less gelatinous pulp. Still tasted good, but not like the others. Brix measured 14 so maybe the others I’m guessing were around 17+.
I squeezed the fruit and rubbed it on the glass the first time. 2nd time I mashed it up and got some juice. It measured the same both times. I should have done that with the ones with more gelatinous center.
And no problem getting the fruit out of this 26 gram one using the regular spoon.
There’s a small chance that this was a Nikita or something and not one of Larry’s. If so, I’m encouraged because it was better and sweeter than the Mammoth I posted about earlier.
What’s your elevation?
I live in the northern part of France. But not at altitude. My region is rather flat, without major relief. My altitude is between 78 and 149 m above sea level.
I have a plot of land that is 2 m above sea level.
I am located 85 km from the sea.
My main plot of land is floodable, it is on the banks of the Seine River. Ideal conditions for paw paws. I am invaded by wild boars that break all the trees.
Although I am in the north, I try all the fruits, like citrus fruits, the harvest of which you see from the weekend after the snow.
You are at a very high latitude for citrus. I know there are some decent citrus trees in the UK too.
What kind of citrus are you growing?
I grow quite a bit as well. Best luck here with Meyer, sudachi, kumquat, and mandarins.
I’ve found the feijoa are all fully hardy here. Even still, the Coolidge, nakita and waingaro received some mild damage from temps below freezing that persisted for 48 hours straight. I’m very pleased with my seedlings this year. They are by far the hardiest, and make excellent fruit.
I am not in a citrus region. I can have up to -18/-19°C (-0.4°F) in winter.
The fruit trees you see have endured -18°C the year they were sown (less than a year). They were in pots, they were just used to the wind by a fence wall and in the shade. The frost at this temperature lasted 10 days. All the Himalayan dogwoods and 80% of the Diospyros Virginiana seedlings died from this frost.
None of these feijoas suffered any damage, not even loss of leaves. This is why I say that my strain is hardy. The NZ would have died in such conditions, I am sure. Many friends saw their feijoas of fruit selection die from the frost that year. I am convinced that some strains will die as early as -10, while others will be able to reach resistance up to -21°C over a short period. For citrus fruits, I have about 180 varieties, I am currently testing hardy ones. The avocados were flattened to the ground by the snow, but did not suffer.
With global warming, I do not know what we are heading for… Cold or hot? After 7 years of drought, I had a cold and rainy year this year. I am donating persimmons that resist up to -32 and avocados. It’s funny when you think about it. But unlike in the past, the change is so fast that we will have to be ready.
Wow, you are in a very cold winter region. We haven’t seen temps that low in my region since the 1950’s. The coldest my weather station has recorded is -8 C one time. That’s still too cold for avocados, as when it drops that low, it sometimes stays below freezing the entire next day. That happens about once each winter and is what damages the avocados. I have some very large avocado and citrus trees, but I have an awning system from the roof that protects them. Without the awning they would surely die. What kinds of avocados are you growing? Do you have some kind of protection against the cold?
What kind of fruit traits differentiate the New Zealand feijoa from these other varieties? I have a couple seedlings that produce very thin skinned fruit that reminds me of the waingaro fruit. Waingaro is a NZ cultivar right? Anyway, both the Waingaro and the similar seedling do fantastic here even on our coldest nights. Of course they haven’t really been tested against a deep freeze. That might happen eventually. A low temp of -18 C is possible here even if it hasn’t happened in a long time.
When you say you grow hardy citrus do you mean trifoliata hybrids or those Japanese cultivars with ichangensis parentage?
@jsteph00921 , is your Waingaro ripe yet?
This is about the latest I can reliably expect feijoas because of the onset of cold weather. I still have feijoa on my Apollo, Anatoki, Abbadabba, and 8 ball. Most others are done.
The waingaro 3 are still hanging on the plant. one seedling still has about 10. All the rest are done. I preserve what I don’t eat fresh by making them into membrillo.
Very cold temperatures only happen about every 10 years. Generally, winter temperatures no longer drop below -7/-12.
The last real winter was in 2018/2019.
I’m going to grow them in containers to plant them already large in prime locations. I don’t want to be a slave to winter protection.
For avocado, I have ariwapa, negro, Steward…
For citrus fruits, I have everything, Japanese and hybrids.
If you are in a marginal region for all these plants, an awning system can add a whole zone of warmth to a location. If you have a polycarbonate awning extend off a south facing wall you create a microclimate that elevates a zone from a 7 to an 8 or an 8 to a 9. That also affords you something to drape plastic from in the event of an extreme cold snap.
Such a system allows people to grow feijoa in zones rated as too cold. Of course it would also work for someone growing avocados and citrus in a marginal region. It has definitely been proven to work.
Of course if you are looking for specimens that can survive without any kind of winter protection that’s a much different objective.
I assume your citrus are in a heated greenhouse.
