I did a search for this species (also spelled guabiyu), but there doesn’t appear to be a thread dedicated to it even though it’s been mentioned in passing by a few people (@Carld@Luisport@SnacksFromPlants e.g.).
I planted a pair of tiny seedlings last spring, here’s a photo of one of them shortly before it went in the ground about a year ago:
They grew slowly but steadily through the growing season, and I was hoping they would get a couple mild winters before really being tested for cold hardiness. But instead, they were completely unprotected for this six-day freeze event in December:
Hopefully now they can get a few mild winters so they can grow a bit more before their next bad freeze!
I’d love to hear others’ experiences growing this, and what they think of the fruit (I saw that @Richard at least thinks they are inferior to cherry tomatoes in one thread about them).
It’s interesting how different their coloration is even though they are planted a few feet apart with the exact same sun exposure and soil. Here’s to hoping they survive another winter!
Great, thanks for taking the time to document it, that’s some precious information.
Try also Uvaia (eugenia pyriformis). I think it’s even hardier than guabiju. I am 90% sure it can survive and ripen in Seattle area.
I don’t have that one, but I am also growing the similarly named “ubajay” (Hexachlamys edulis or Eugenia myrcianthes). It seems slightly less hardy than guabiju, as it was killed above ground level last winter and already shows some slight frost damage this fall, but it’s still alive at least.
Oh I thought Ubajay is hardier than Guabiju too, maybe more mature trees. I was thinking about getting it but too many people complaining about the garlicky taste and with the lack of space in my garden I gave up.
Well keep us posted. My guabiju will go in ground in April or so.
I have a couple of 5 year old Guabiju, Uvaia and Ubajay plants. It is my experience that Guabiju is by far the hardiest of these. The only problem I have with them in zone 8b in Europe (The Netherlands - around the latitude of London) is that the ones that I plant in the ground do not survive the winter while the ones in pots have no problem at all. It seems that the roots cannot handle our cold and wet waterlogged winters, while the leaves have no problem surviving -10 C. So the potted ones survive outside without protection.
Uvaia is a very diverse species - or a broad name for many different plants, so it is hit and miss on their hardiness. There is enormous variation within the species, or the group of species that are called Uvaia. So it depends on your seed source whether you find a cold hardy one.
Ubajay is quite cold hardy in my experience and will, just like Cattley Guava often sprout back after hard frosts from the roots.
I only got the Uvaia to flower and fruit so far.
What kind of soil do you have? I wonder if that plays a role. My two plants seemed to have no problems even though we had a very wet & cold winter and spring this year. My soil is sandy and clay-rich, originally a glacial deposit. Here’s how the most recent geological map for my area describes the three most common soil types here, though there’s a good bit of topsoil on top of it in my yard:
Hi Solko, I did not know you are visiting this forum as well.
I shared with @swincher your success with Uvaia from FB. Congrats again! After reading your post I am going to try to grow it in-ground as well. And also thanks to @Luisport for the uvaias, can’t wait.
So far so good, despite a bit of a hard freeze in late December. However, a loose polycarbonate sheet was blown onto one of them while I was out of town, so it got kind of flattened and damaged from that. Here’s the other one, which shows essentially no damage after many hard freezes, with the lowest being minus 8.3°C (17°F) on the morning of Dec 22nd:
Hi Paul, yes I visit this forum as well!
We had two very cold weeks in December with ten nights in a row of -4 to -7 C and daytime temperatures barely above freezing. People were skating on natural ice the last couple of days.
The Guabiju’s and the Uvaia in the ground came through this frost again. The Guabiju’s in pots look completely fine, the Uvaia’s leaves turn deep red, but it looks still alive.
Both ubajay seedlings failed to wake this year, roots were dead when I examined them. The guabiju suffered only slight winter dieback, but didn’t even lose all their leaves. They are starting to grow nicely finally after a slow start this spring:
