Nasty wind today knocked down an entire 15 gal tree. The tree is safe thankfully.
The fruit is unfortunately still hard. I hope it ripens up. I’ve put it in with some pawpaws and apples. I have another one on the same tree that hasnt yet dropped but it is smaller.
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Sorry to hear that. Is the tree ruined, or will it re-establish or grow back?
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Tree is fine thankfully. One of fruits got knocked off.
This is my largest tree and is still not in ground. Next season I will plant it.
Oh, I see, knocked over the pot. I figured it was bought in 15 gallon and transplanted in ground.
BTW, I bought a Kakariki for in store pick up. Hopefully they’ll hold it for a month. It was the last New Zealand variety that they had in stock, and wanted to get one this winter. I figured gaining a year is more important than picking the very best variety now.
I may have been tempting fate, since I ordered it before we got the all clear to return to our house after the Nakia Creek Fire evacuation.
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Kakariki is also a very good variety I think. I have a couple of fruits on my in-ground bush. They are quite a bit smaller at this time than Kaiteri but I expect this variation in young trees.
^ From 2021. Note the lighting and setting that allows easy reading of scale in ounces.
The fruit is 5 inches long.
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I heard from renowned feijoa breeder and expert Mark Albert regarding my dropped fruit.
— size is pretty good
— It is not likely to ripen well as the fruit stem is still attached. That should never happen. Was likely blown off/torn off and did not ripen correctly.
— fusiform so unlikely to have been pollinated properly.
— Rough skinned — he selects for smooth skin in his breeding.
Anyway this first fruit is not likely to be representative of the variety. Fortunately there is another (smaller) fruit on the tree.
Is this a representative size from your tree? That’s a large fruit. The shape is really unusual.
Here is a better photograph of the knocked out fruit. It is unlikely to ripen properly
Next to my sister’s California grown Anatoki. Much smaller but you can see it is not fusiform so likely to be better pollinated. It’s certainly more ripe.
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Fusiform = tapered at both ends and thicker in the middle.
That would describe most fruits where length is more than width. There is nothing unusual about the shape of your stemmed fruit; images on the Web of feijoa show many different shapes, even for one variety. The skin on your fruit is no rougher than many feijoas I have seen. Is a smooth skin in sync with better flavor or size? Most people do not eat the skin, and the rind is so intensely flavored than you would not care about the skin texture.
So take the stem off and try to ripen it. It is true that the stem remains on the bush when ripe fruit falls, but there are exceptions, and I have not noticed a stemmed fruit fail to ripen eventually. My experience is that a fruit that is still very firm, but will give slightly under a hard squeeze, will ripen.
I have had firm fruit outside in a box for weeks that eventually softened.
The 5.08 ounce (=144gm) fruit in the image is the largest ever from my bush, and is an outlier.
The shape is typical of many shapes from that one bush: globe, pear, symmetrical tapers, asymmetrical tapers, slightly curved, slender, etc.
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Jim Gilbert says he likes to eat them with the skins, and I wonder if that may factor into the selections he chose to bring back from New Zealand.
Larry, your fruit taste better than the handful of other “varieties” I’ve eaten. I believe I do not like them with the skin on, but I suppose its possible that yours, while overall excellent, doesn’t have pleasant to eat skin.
I’ve only had muscadines and loquat once. In both cases I liked them with the skin on, although many won’t eat them that way. But I’m skeptical that I’ll like feijoa with the skin.
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Some people eat loquats with the skin. I much prefer it without.
If you eat tropical guavas with skin, Feijoa tastes almost the same - maybe a bit stronger.
The feijoas grown for landscaping have very strong/even astringent tasting skin. I would not eat that.
For an intense flavor experience, feijoa rind is similar to lemon mixed with PineSol (that is, what I imagine PineSol would taste like, given its aroma). I do put thin slices of feijoa in the dehydrator and make dried ‘chips’. In that case the small ring of skin is enjoyable.
I gave the bush a shaking today and a couple dozen softening fruits fell. I also pinched off a very firm fruit (gives about 1mm when firmly squeezed) and brought it inside to see if it will soften. This is the type of firm fruit that has ripened in 2 or 3 weeks when stored outside.
The 8 'Apollo’s on the other bush, some estimated at nearly 3 ounces, are still rock hard.
That’s the average size of Feijoa from my young shrubs. I am quite happy with this size.
Varieties are Takaka(2) Arhart and Anatoki.
These range from 60g to 112g. There is one 150+ g monster(Kaiteri) still holding on. That is the outlier this year but I hear of 300g fruit routinely from that variety.
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This is great news considering I just picked up some of those New Zealand varieties. I appreciate all of this data. It saves years of trial and error.
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If you like Feijoas, then the NZ varieties will work here. These are really beautiful plants that can do quite well in zone 8.
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Feijoa of all shapes and sizes. Average is around 90g for the NZ varieties off young bushes.
Some varieties like Kaiteri produce gigantic fruit (200g) I have not yet harvested the sole fruit on my bush.
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Also should I pick the remaining Feijoa if my temps are expected to hit 30F on 2 separate nights?
I left mine and they were fine until the high 20s, but that was in a southeastern 8a where the temperature climbed in the morning.
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