Tried one of the abbadabbas just now.
Maybe the best of the season — similar quality as Kaiteri. Very mild skin. Excellent tart/sweet inside. 16 brix.
This is a productive variety but late this far north. It is considered early in CA!
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murky: Do you care for those dehydrated feijoa chips? A bit of peel on those.
Thank you for sending them, it was fun to try. I hope I acknowledged them.
The skin was too much for me on those. I want my daughter to try them, but she hasn’t yet. I’m curious what they’d be like without it, maybe half fruits.
Do you like them?
…in small quantities, 2 or 3 chips along with other food. Kind of citrusy.
I slice them so thin (1/8") for quick drying, that they are mostly peel.
Well, I notice the number in our bag diminishing. That means my daughter is eating them.
I’m not a fan of citrus peel or zest, which these remind me of, but stronger. I suspect that some people would find them very appealing. I’m intrigued to try drying scooped out flesh when I find myself with an abundance. I’ve found some pictures with a google search. Looks promising.
Sort of a feijoa leather?
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Is that where you get your feijoa? I know 1 gallon very little ones from them. Do you think waiting local nurseries is better choice to buy? How do you think between New Zealand varieties and and nikita one @murky ?
Yes, I got mine from One Green World in person. They weren’t big, but also not runts like the Cardinal persimmon was.
Perhaps Ram can answer better, but I get the impression that these New Zealand varieties are considered much better for our climate. They ripen early, presumably precocious, and large-fruited. I have Nikita, I think its the bigger one at my current place. It’s flowered a few times but hasn’t made fruit to full size yet.
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I think it is worth growing the NZ varieties even if they start out small. They will likely fruit by the 3rd season in ground. There isn’t a large advantage in getting a larger tree. It will not be easy to get a large NZ tree anyway.
Nikita has been a flop for me. My tree is about 5 feet tall and across. Very few flowers for such a large tree and fruits are all runts.
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@ramv @murky
When did the New Zealand varieties introduce to US. We did not hear much about them before. What’s the best choice for us among all of them? Thank you so much for information.
Recently. I just got them, ramv is growing them. I’ve had the same results as him with Nikita. These give me new hope.
Jim Gilbert, who brought them from New Zealand, seems to have chosen these to do well here.
Kakariki sounds like the surest bet based solely on the descriptions, if you are worried about enough heat and season to ripen fruit:
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I’ve been growing them for over 2 years.
I knew about them before and jumped on them as soon as they became available.
All the ones released in the US are quite early. By comparison, Mark Albert’s earliest varieties were about 1 month later (well into December)
Arhart is the earliest but it is not available here. I was fortunate to get a tree. (Early November ripening)
Takaka is also very early and self fertile.
Old varieties like Mammoth are unlikely to even ripen in Seattle area.
Apollo is also swelling for me but it will probably only be ready in Jan. That is assuming that temps stay above 25 which is looking highly unlikely.
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I’ve had similar results growing Nikita side by side to Apollo in my greenhouse - Nikita is earlier for me but the fruit doesn’t seem to compare well in size or flavor to Apollo. It also seems to me to get more rubbery and off-flavored when it is overripe, and I don’t know this for sure, but I think the fruit is affected by heat more than Apollo. We still like Nikita, but I am considering replacing it eventually.
A year or two ago my feijoas were ripening during some very hot weather, the fruit set was OK on both of the trees but the Nikita just tasted awful compared to Apollo, and had a terrible texture that year, despite being irrigated and having bore relatively good fruit the previous year.
I just planted a Takaka and Kaiteri in my greenhouse this year, also from OGW. The trees I received from OGW this time were pretty small but I think they’re about the same size as the Nikita and Apollo were that I got from them a number of years ago. I’m also really excited to grow out a bunch of Apollo seedlings, as well as the Mark Albert cultivar seedlings I picked up from Fruitwood earlier this year.
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With more cold weather in the forecast, I picked off all remaining fruit from the ‘Unknown’ bush, over 200 fruits and over 20 pounds. A thorough branch-shaking today dropped 6 more fruits All these late fruits should ripen in the garage or in the house. I will post season totals for this bush at a later date. Note to squirrels: tough luck.
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Abbadabba seems better flavored than any of the NZ varieties that ripened this year. I just picked one that had dropped off now. I’ve been eating them for a week.
The downside is that the fruit size is smaller and it ripens much later (over a month later). But it is more productive – Mark Albert has told me it fruits too heavily for him.
Also it is not possible to buy a tree - you have to get scionwood and graft yourself.
Are Abbadabba all clones? In watching one of the videos, it sounded like some of his “varieties” are seedlings, and referred to as “group” or something.
Abbadabba is a specific cultivar. I think fruitwood sells it. Marta is also selling it now.
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I still have a few fruits on my bushes. I didn’t take them down because it is only expected to get to 27F in the foreseeable future. They already survived that temperature before.
I am also noticing that these late ripening fruit are very good – as good or even better than the ones that ripened in early November. Maybe it is cultivar related. Or maybe something else.
Next year I will take out some more of my hedge (Osmanea Burkwoodii) and replace with feijoas. The good thing about Osmanea is that it is winter blooming and very fragrant. But I already have loquats for fragrant winter blossoms.
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