Wow. Good job on getting all those varieties. The newer ones seem hard to keep in stock. I had Takaka fruit and drop the finished fruit. The fruits are definitely larger and earlier than my seedlings, but the taste doesn’t seem substantially better to me. First year fruit are usually disappointing though…
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Walked past another another feijoa plant I had forgotten the location of–another parking strip plant, and on inadequate drip irrigaton, leaves dry and curled, too young to bloom.
And I know of two other plantings near here that are not visible from the street.
I have no reason to think my neighborhood is a hotbed of feijoa.
What is most interesting to me about these neighborhood plants is the total of 10 street-visible feijoa plants in 1/4 square mile. Assuming an equal number of backyard plants, that is 20 per sqmi/4, or 80 per square mile. Portland has tens of square miles, that could potentially contain over 1,000 bushes.
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Seattle also seems to have more than I would have expected, once I started looking for them. One of my neighbors just told me that after a few years of poor fruit set or aborted crops on his feijoa, they started harvesting all the flowers to eat instead of even letting fruit set.
Another bush in a front yard within about a block of my house flowered extremely late this year, and surely has no hope of ripening. Here is the stage that bush is at now:
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Seattle folk like to grow fruit trees too but they usually aren’t too adventurous— apples and blueberries are what folks usually grow.
Asian folk grow persimmon and very rarely loquat.
This will hopefully change and people will be more willing to try new things.
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It is mid September and feijoa are sizing up. The earliest varieties (Arhart and Takaka) are the size of medium figs. I expect they will get small pear sized when they are done.
Other varieties are growing too but not as large.
Nikita is a dud. It was also confirmed in private communication with Mark Albert. I will be top working this loser next year.
Based on Larry’s note above, most feijoas are losers in the PNW. Just a handful of performers. It is worth seeking out the earliest and most reliable varieties. No point wasting time on random seedlings.
Quoting myself:
“I have no reason to think my neighborhood is a hotbed of feijoa”
I thought of a reason.
My neighborhood is less than 5 miles from the One Green World retail store.
People this close would be more likely to drive there and pick up their plants directly.
It would be interestng to know in general the distribution of planted fruiting items versus the distance to major retailers.
But aside from street-side persimmons and blueberries, I can’t think of any other neighborhood OGW fruiting plants proliferating in the last 15 years.
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5 miles!! Yay, no shipping charges!! I’d have nothing left in my bank account if I lived that close. You probably have to exercise some restraint!
I visited them about 10 years ago - almost couldn’t find the place it was so unobtrusively tucked into the neighborhood.
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All my Feijoas are now bagged. But I had to show a status update.
Arhart
Others are similar sized maybe slightly smaller.
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@murky The 2012 catalogue shows the old Cramer Road address and the 2013 catalogue touts the current off-Foster Road location. 10th anniversary will be next January.
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End of September update.
Here is fruit from one of my potted trees. Probably another month away from ripe. I expect them to get huge.
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Beautiful. Is this one of the New Zealand varieties brought over recently?
Are they potted because you bring them in for the winter, or are these getting the same exposure to weather that they’d get if planted in the ground?
@murky,
Yes. IMO, the NZ varieties are going to be the most reliable for us. They are dependable as far south as southland (Dunedin, Invercargill) which have similar latitudes as Portland and get a lot less heat units. I am growing some of Mark Albert’s earliest varieties also. They are swelling up too but maybe a couple of weeks behind.
I have so many feijoas that some are currently in pots. I have a whole hedgerow of them in ground. The ones in ground didn’t flower as much last year – but they did flower some. I think they focused on growth. The potted ones like to flower and fruit more.
None of my trees are protected from weather. Whether in pots or not. So I think feijoas are perfectly fine all the way to 15F or even lower.
I heard through the grapevine that Gilbert’s nursery is going to focus exclusively on the NZ cultivars and stop growing older/inferior varieties like Nikita and Mammoth.
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Great, thanks for the summary. I was less concerned about winter hardiness, and more whether you were getting extra heat or growing season. You answered both.
I have 3 apparent duds in the ground, with established roots 
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@ramv ,
If you could recommend just one of the varieties from One Green World, which would it be? Or should I ask you in November?
Oh, it just occurred to me that when you say “Gilbert’s nursery” you mean Northwoods, presumably the supplier for One Green World. Cool. That makes sense.
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Yes, Northwoods nursery. Jim Gilbert imported all these NZ varieties.
I will reserve judgment until November. All of them are progressing well. The ones in ground are almost as far along but have fewer fruit.
I have 9 named feijoa varieties, 6 are holding fruit so I should know quite a bit.
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My record for a single fruit is 5.08 ounces. Go for it!
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I have six varieties , 12 small trees, 7 fruited this year. Sone are in ground, some in wine barrels. The fruit are very small and most only have a few fruit on them. My unknown varieties are my oldest and doing the best.
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Hi Beth,
Very nice to see feijoa photos from you.
My Albert varieties (Abbadabba and 8 ball) are approximately the same size as yours. Some may be even smaller.
Only a couple of NZ varieties are further along. They are especially known to be early varieties.
Have these varieties fruited for you earlier? When do they ripen? This is my first year so am still learning.
Where did you get Mark’s varieties? Does Albert’s Supreme ripen for you in time?