Mark Albert grew them in Ukiah. His summers were brutal. I don’t believe he watered his trees in summer at all.
He did occasionally need to water in fall.
So I guess it’s a question for the application of science. What is going to make the difference in how healthy pineapple guavas will be in a hot dry summer? We have some data, but no conclusive empirical, long term results. That’s why this site is so great. We keep getting more data and ideas from all of the other orchardists. Then we can put them into action and see what works.
John S
PDX OR
I think deep mulch is definitely part of the solution.
I use leaves from everywhere else in the yard and pile them on. The top soil is rich and deep there.
Maybe once a week watering isn’t too onerous?
@marta may have some insights. Her climate is way hotter and drier than yours.
They grow fine in my hot dry climate. We irrigate every 6-7 days in the summer. Every tree gets 10-15 gal of water in each irrigation
1 Like
Portland: I water every 3 weeks during summer, just a small sprinkler for 2-3 hours. On ~100-degree days, I go out with the hose+nozzle and “rain” on the bush for a few minutes once the sun has gone off the plant, 8:30PM.
During the Heat Dome of late June 2021, total damage to my large bush was 3 partially burned leaves (out of perhaps 10,000 leaves). This with watering and mid-afternoon shade. 3-day heat episode peaked at 118F in sun and 111 in shade. Other evergreen plants in the yard suffered more long-term damage.
2 Likes
Larry gene: Good to know! I am hoping to leave them on the bush for another couple weeks. I have never heard anyone here talking about them cracking in the rain. If I get worried about them, I will just bring them in.
I am also curious about how little you water. How old are your trees? Mine looked pretty crispy during that same heat dome, but they recovered. They’re just small, maybe 3’ tall. They had heavy morning shade plus late afternoon shade until last year, and probably too much grass competition until this year.
I water all my fruit producing plants once a week, for a minute to three minutes each depending on the water pressure where I am (the hill is just gravity, and the flats have reasonable but not great pressure) and the type of plant. It’s enough for most everything but blueberries, but probably not ideal.
1 Like
Feijoa fruit is impervious to moisture: mist, drizzle, pounding rain, it will make no difference. The only cracks I have ever had is from landing on a sharp edge: deck railing, etc.
The main caution is not to let ripe fruits fall onto any hard surface as the ripe fruits bruise very easily. Many of my fruits are falling from 6 feet up and more.
Frequent (weekly) summer water here for mature plants is not necessary, although our once-common morning-till-noon clouds are becoming a rarity.
The old bush is over 30 years old. Size is about 15 feet in all directions. Root zone is largely shaded. Canopy is sunny.
A 3-minute watering of a mature plant would not be adequate. Note that I am watering for up to 3 hours. Even that little sprinkler watering about 100 square feet could put out over 100 gallons in that time. A 3-foot plant could be easily be watered by hand in 3 minutes. That root zone is probably less than 10 square feet. The volume of my old bush is similar to a smallish room with a high ceiling, perhaps 1,000 cubic feet.
5 Likes
They look quite large! How much would you estimate they weigh?
1 Like
Cracking is only part of the problem that worries me with a rainy November. I know that a Feijoa is not an apple but a rainy November will ruin the quality of any apple varieties I was hoping to ripen in November. I’m patiently waiting to see.
Wow! I didn’t even know they could get that big. Thanks for sharing.are you a professional grower/nursery owner?
Those are beautiful. I’m excited to hear how they turn out for you. Have you tasted it before?
1 Like
Yes, they are large. I’m not great at estimating but they are at least 100g each.
Not really, this is the first year it’s producing for me. I tasted one a few days ago. It wasn’t ripe yet but I was impressed with the flavor of the pulp. It wasn’t very sweet but very pleasant. Better than store bought fruit I’ve gotten in the past.
I won’t have much to compare to as my couple NZ fruit already ripened.
1 Like
I’ve had fruit from Larry and they are still the best I’ve had. I haven’t tried most named cultivars, just a few. And a handful of seedlings and whatever they’ve had at grocery stores.
So I’m curious to see how they stack up.
1 Like
…as am I, the graft material donor.
How many years old are the grafts by now?
What percentage of them took?
The flavor of fruit from the original bush is variable, but in general tends to be more tart than sweet, although fully ripe fruit can almost be sugary-sweet. Perhaps one in 20 fruits have been minty. The flavor is more complex than other sources I have tried, and with no off-flavors.
Harvest on the old bush this year started 22 October.
Have you had any grafted fruit drop yet?
2 Likes
No, just a guy on a small city lot with 2 feijoa bushes. The size is a result of luck and time rather than professionalism.
I have seen pictures posted of California plants that were 30-40 feet tall.
There are some varieties that stay dense with acutely-angled branches and stay much smaller.
2 Likes
I would love to taste it. Maybe we can do a side by side comparison with my Albert seedlings/selections. But logistics might be a challenge. Could you measure brix and post?
1 Like
The only degradation of feijoa quality I have experienced is the late-to-ripen fruit (mid-December to January) tends to stay hard and eventually the pulp turns brownish. That is why I pinch off any blossoms that open after 4 July.
Over the past 30 years, my bush has been ripening fruit 2-3 weeks earlier due to warmer autumn temperatures, expecially at night. Our November low to-date is 42, ridiculously high. October low was 38–still quite high.
3 Likes
We havent dipped below 40 here either. Im mostly concerned with the sheer volume of moisture mother nature is providing and the lack of sunny days.
Having said that I just went out this morning to check the bushes, they are a good 1/4 mile from my house so I dont walk by them that often, and the fruit has dropped from all the varieties.
There was only one fruit each on these one year old plants and I consider myself pretty lucky to have gotten anything from the tiny plants I got from OGW in March. They have been planted in one of my empty orchard rows for the last couple months and seem very happy. We will see how the winter treats them.
As far as the eating goes, Takake and Kaiteri seemed ripe, a definite sweetness to them and gel like consistency, good flavor. Anatoki had the most tartness to it although still good flavor. My wife, likes the skin too, says tastes like a Guava.
3 Likes
Thank you again for distributing the grafting material. I got mine via @swincher. The grafts are 3 years old, I believe. I did a several grafts that spring, I had about 50% takes. The grafts I did in mid March did better than grafts in April and May. Not sure why.
None have dropped yet. It’s fruiting for the first time on a seedling that is about 4 feet tall. Maybe they’ll fruit earlier once the tree is more established.
Do you always wait for them to drop? Or can you pick them prematurely and ripen them indoors?
That’s great to hear. I’ll try to get @ramv some of the ripe fruit to get his opinion.
1 Like