Feijoa Review (Video)

[fyliu]

I'd like to get the Albert varieties but I don't see them here in SoCal.

I'm starting seedlings in addition to grafting known cultivars. I have a bunch of seedlings coming up where I buried an overripe Apollo fruit. Any idea how long it takes to get fruit? I guess I'll have to divide them up among friends later.

[pschill444@aol.com]

i take the cuttings to root, i do that with most everything,i have also had great luck with the seeds when i do seeds i DO'NOT bury or cover them  i lightly pack/pat the ground drop the seeds on top then water in this works the best for me , hard to tell how long to fruit from seed as i give them all away mostely to people who are not gardners,but i would think abouy 3 years .   Patrick

[King]

It turns out that feijoa shrubs aren't all that uncommon around town in Northern California. They were commonly used as decorative hedges during the 70's and 80's, and there are a few growing around town around businesses and roadsides.  I'm going to try my hand at some guerilla pollination and see if any fruit grows.

Pollination seems to be an issue for feijoas, most varieties need to be pollinated by another variety.   I'm guessing these hedges around businesses are all of the same variety, probably a non fruiting variety. But the petals actually taste good on some of them. I'm going to take one of my Nazemetz flowers and try to pollinate some of the feijoa bushes around town, and I'm going to take some flowers of the bushes and use them to pollinate my Nazemetz bush.

[fruitlovers]

I have a bunch of temperate fruits coming up in my series, so here's the last tropical for a while.

http://youtu.be/dH59FuHUDvw

You're already doing temperate fruits as feijoa is a temperate fruit. It is native to highlands of southern Brazil where they get freezing weather in the winters. They won't fruit in the tropics. Here they will only fruit at elevations above 2500 ft.

[Solko]

It turns out that feijoa shrubs aren't all that uncommon around town in Northern California. They were commonly used as decorative hedges during the 70's and 80's, and there are a few growing around town around businesses and roadsides.  I'm going to try my hand at some guerilla pollination and see if any fruit grows.

Pollination seems to be an issue for feijoas, most varieties need to be pollinated by another variety.   I'm guessing these hedges around businesses are all of the same variety, probably a non fruiting variety. But the petals actually taste good on some of them. I'm going to take one of my Nazemetz flowers and try to pollinate some of the feijoa bushes around town, and I'm going to take some flowers of the bushes and use them to pollinate my Nazemetz bush.

I think that these ornamental Feijoa's will be individual seedlings and that you have a good chance of finding some variety among them. It is not particularly easy to clone or propagate Feijoa's, only a percentage of cuttings take, so my guess is hat they grew them from seed in the 70s and 80s. You might even be able to discover a few plants that give nice fruit.

[King]

I found a few feijoas growing around town around businesses and in parking lots. They were surprisingly good, and actually larger and had more fruit than the Nazemetz feijoa tree I bought.  I picked these up from the ground.  I'm surprised at how many feijoas were growing, even though I assume they were just ornamentals and never hand pollinated.





The more oblong ones on the left were from a parking lot around a shopping center more gritty in texture, they had more meat vs pulp.  The skin texture was more rough, thick, lighter green.  The taste was sweet, but sour too, they were good feijoas.  The skin wasn't too good.

The ones on the right, the more round feijoas were ones I found at a parking lot around a business center. They have more pulp than the ones on the left, and it had a more jelly-like texture over the gritty pear-like texture of the feijoas on the left. The skin was more smooth, shiny, and thin.  The taste was sweeter and more intense than the ones on the left, and the experience was more like eating a jelly than a fruit.  The skin had a good lemony taste.

I preferred the ones on the right more.  But overall- I'm very surprised at how good quality parking lot feijoas can be.   They were probably planted as decorative plants from seed in the 70's and 80's.  I assumed they would just be tasteless and poor quality, but they were sweet and delicious with a nice scent.

[SocalKoop]

They are commonly used for landscaping in orange county.  Here's last weeks haul from a local park.

[Solko]

Very cool find! I love picking fruits of trees that others consider ornamental 

There is a chance that when you let the oblong ones sit on the counter a bit longer, they will sweeten up, too, and develop more jelly on the inside.

[Jared]

I have a bunch of temperate fruits coming up in my series, so here's the last tropical for a while.

http://youtu.be/dH59FuHUDvw

You're already doing temperate fruits as feijoa is a temperate fruit. It is native to highlands of southern Brazil where they get freezing weather in the winters. They won't fruit in the tropics. Here they will only fruit at elevations above 2500 ft.

My mistake. Thanks for clearing that up!