31st of March 2021 Update:
Farm Closed: details here: Feijoa Farm Closed 😡😢
Ebay feijoa fruit for sale:
Colombia feijoas for sale in eBay!
Fresh Feijoa/Pineapple Guava 1 kg*
Amazon feijoa fruit for sale:
London Grocery Store – Fresh Feijoa / Pineapple Guava 1Kg*
Grow your own trees:
Grow your own feijoa plants – links to buy plants or seeds.
Farm still reduced, trying to perfect a feijoa for UK.
18th of March 2024 Update:
Although my health is still struggling after heart surgery and the continued frustration of strokes, generalised dystonia, functional neurological disorder (FND) and the dystonia spasms breaking my vertebrae, I’ve lost 9cm (3.5 inches) of height.
I am still trying to perfect a frost tolerant feijoa plant that produces a reliable crop of tasty and sizeable fruit for the UK, especially for the cooler weather of Scotland. We are currently looking at buying a small holding outside of Edinburgh instead of renting farmland in the hope of growing and testing 1000s of trees 🙂.
Size is starting to become similar to New Zealand varieties, here’s the latest large feijoa fruit grown in Edinburgh next to a medium sized avocado:
Grow your own feijoas
Hoping to get a bigger feijoa community growing in the UK and if you’re interested in growing your own I’ve added a few links here: Buy feijoa plants in the UK. – I’ll try to update at least weekly with up to date links.
Finding feijoas growing in parks, zoos and gardens:
Find feijoas growing in the UK – If you know of others would be great to share 😀.
Links to feijoa lollies, juice and booze!
Feijoa Studio London: Feijoa art and food products
Feijoa Studio London UK – New Zealand & Australian Lifestyle shop
Feijoa Studio London – Shop Feijoa and Kiwi Fruit — Feijoa Studio London UK – New Zealand & Australian Lifestyle shop
SANZA is one of the top spots to get feijoa lollies and booze in UK:
Feijoa Lollies – Mayceys Sour Feijoa Lollies
Juice – Macs Feijoa, Pear & Elderflower (4 x 330ml bottles)
Vodka – 42 Below Vodka Feijoa
Cider – Wild Side Cider Feijoa & Passionfruit (500ml)
Schnapps – Zumwohl Feijoa Schnapps (700ml bottle)
Liqueur – 8th Tribe Feijoa Liqueur (750ml bottle)
——————
Hi everyone, after 13+ years of growing feijoas from seed brought over from Middlemarch New Zealand, the coldest place in NZ could find feijoas growing, crossing them and eating some nice fruit, finally made a decent tasting, small but good cropping feijoa for the UK climate.
Find out more about UK Grown Feijoas
If you’re interested in hearing updates about UK grown feijoas for sale feel free to sign up for the newsletter. There should be an option below:
The size of UK grown feijoas: Although we can’t get feijoas to grow to the mammoth size you can get in New Zealand, we have managed to get a decent size for the climate. Find out more about the size on: Size of UK grown feijoas.
Ethical affiliate links about the *.
The reason for the * is due to affiliate links. We believe in being ethical and transparent about how the site works. If you click and buy something from the links with a * we get a small commission from the sale. It does not increase the sales price for you and the money gets reinvested into growing more feijoa trees.
I fell in love with feijoas when I travelled around New Zealand. This is so amazing that I can get them in England!!!
Hi there DulwichDave great to hear you travelled around NZ. It’s such a lovely country.
As for the feijoas we currently grow them in Scotland just outside of Edinburgh but are looking for a second location in the south of England. Hope to have a large crop for 2020, we sold out in under a day this year.
How about Cornwall? I am looking into diversification for members of my Roseland and Fal Farmer Facilitation group, a scheme funded by Natural England.
Cornwall looks like a perfect candidate for growing feijoas!
I’d love to work with farmers in Cornwall, however I’ve recently had heart failure. Just home 3 days ago and have to wait for up to 6 months for surgery.
Wondering if there’s anyone else that’d be interested? Be a fantastic location!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hope you are on the mend. Amazing what a positive mental attitude can do! Rest and get well soon. I’d love to grow Fejoia as a crop. Shropshire any good?
Hey Sonia, thanks for the well wishes, Shropshire should be warmed from the Gulf Stream and would be very much worth trying some feijoas out.
Totally agree on a positive outlook, resting at home amongst the greenery and bird song, very pleasant.
Hope you get some feijoas growing and be great to hear if Shropshire does well.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi I live in Cornwall and have bought a Feijoa which is still in its pot — will it take coastal winds ?
DKT
Hi DKT,
Feijoas will handle the wind but are not the biggest fans of it, especially when they have fruit on their branches as the branches can snap from the weight.
My test plants in my garden in Edinburgh get hit hard by winds, so far haven’t lost any to the wind, a quick clean up of the branches with a prune if they get snapped but no real trouble.
Hope you get the plant growing well soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi
I realise that this is an unorthodox way of contacting you but, I’m unable to find a contact email address.
I have some Feijoa seeds, which ( Fell into my suitcase in NZ )
I’m hoping to find some assistance with propagating the seeds, can you possibly point me in the right Direction
Hey Bob, great that some seeds fell into your suitcase! I’ve been meaning to put together a page on here about seed propagation. I’ll give a run down and hopefully it helps. Will add a page to the website sometime in the near future.
I start my seeds around the second week of February on a north facing windowsill, I use a Garland electric propagator:
https://amzn.to/46bXDQ3 – it comes with 3 or 7 trays, I prefer using 3 larger propagator trays rather than 7 small ones, the larger tray being modelled by the Fox Ginger Rovers last year: https://feijoas.uk/2022/05/23/feijoas-starting-to-grow-again/
Then I just lay the seeds on top of Fertile Fibre seed mix to start: https://amzn.to/3Z3Erkq – cover with the lids until the seedlings start to come up, then I turn the heat off and take the lids off during the day. Overnight I put the covers back on but leave the vents open.
You should get seedlings that look like these:
Photo of Feijoa seedlings in a seed tray on the 19th of February 2022 – about 2 weeks after sowing.
https://feijoas.uk/img_20220219_110227/
Photo of Feijoa seedlings in a propagator seed tray on the 1st of March 2022 – about 3 weeks after sowing.
https://feijoas.uk/img_20220301_160621/
If I can’t transplant them as early as should be, I add a mix of liquid seaweed feed to the tray for the plants roots to suck up, the Fertile Fibre seed mix doesn’t have nutrients in it and doesn’t feed them, meaning the plants just sit stunted if no extra feed is given. It’s not a problem if you can move them within 2 to 3 weeks of germination.
I then move the seedlings to Melcourt SylvaGrow Multipurpose Compost https://amzn.to/3rohjBv if it’s in stock, if not I use whatever is available and generally add a lot of perlite for drainage, as can be seen here: https://feijoas.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-fruit-2.jpg (whoops, I’ve named that photo wrong) or on the page: https://feijoas.uk/2022/05/23/feijoas-starting-to-grow-again/ . Word of warning, the Wickes multipurpose compost is terrible and should not be used for feijoas, it keeps the plants roots too wet and rots them. Miracle gro peat free compost is decent and can often be found at Sainsbury’s in small easily handled bags.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
I am a kiwi and cannot find feijoas for sale anywhere near me in Alloa. Any suggestions please and how much do they cost.
Many thanks
Louise
Hey Louise, chatted with you via email, but guessing others will have similar questions.
The season here in the UK is around the November, December and can run into January although 2019 was a warmer year and the fruits were ripe earlier than usual.
The 2019 price structure for UK grown fruit was:
Pricing this year, per fruit:
30 – 40 grams: £1
40 – 50 grams: £1.50
50 grams + £2
+ delivery. You can see some of the fruit here: Size of UK grown feijoas.
As we’re still small there was a 12 fruit limit per order.
2020 will most likely be the same unless we manage to move to a bigger location with the ability to grow more.
Cheers,
Gav.
Got my first flower for this year! So excited. About 50 buds so 🤞🤞🤞
I had 2 tiny fruit last year so I know it can be done (NW coast).
I love Tok, lived in Te Aroha for 15 years before relocating back to the UK.
Good luck!
Fantastic!!! So excited for you. Hope the other 50 buds open too!
Te Aroha such a glorious part of NZ 😃.
Enjoy the great fruit.
Cheers,
Gav.
OMG, where can I buy there beauties?
Tina
Waikato girl
Hey Tina, love Waikato! Miss Waikato Draught.
At the moment they’re only for sale on the site during UK feijoa season. It’s usually at the peak around early December, but depending on weather can run from November until as late as end of January.
The last, which were very tiny fruit fell off the plants on the 17th of January this year.
Best thing to do is sign up for the newsletter, there’s a box near the top of the page, or on here: https://feijoas.uk/where-to-buy-feijoas-in-the-uk/
Hoping to have a bigger 2020, we’re still small and seeing if there’s enough interest before going full on.
Cheers,
Gav – Tokoroa boy.
Thank you Gav! Hadn’t had a feijoa since leaving NZ, they were as tasty as I remember. My daughter had her first and is now a fan we’re both desperate for more!!
No problems at all. Glad to hear there’s another Feijoa fan! 😀💚
Hi Gav!
Absolutely adored feijoas when living in NZ for a short time! Now living in SW France, would be very interested in whether they would flourish here? Any thoughts?
Hey Phillip,
Glad to hear of another feijoa fan. SW France would be perfect for growing feijoas!
To tell the truth before the Brexit mess we had been looking through French property websites to see if we could get a small piece of land there. We were especially looking for land in the Aquitaine region.
Hope to hear how you get on.
Cheers,
Gav.
I’m a kiwi too, living in Manchester. About to try to grow some feijoas in my garden. I can buy them in a local shop here for a very reasonable price, but they are miniature and picked before they’re ripe, so seldom taste that good. They are grown in France and I’ve been wondering why no one seems to grow them here – good to see so many people on here who are interested.
Hi Kerry, if you don’t mind sharing the shop name I think a lot of people would love to know where to buy 😃. Guessing that they sell the variety Coolidge it’s a smaller fruiting variety that seems to be popular in France.
Hope you get some great fruit in your garden, this year has been terrible up in Scotland but very good for growers further south. Sadly no outdoor fruit up here this year, the May frosts burnt off all the flower buds and new growth. The plants didn’t start to recover until July. There’s still loads of dead branches, hoping they’ll sprout but looking unlikely.
Be great to hear how you get on.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav. Yes, it’s Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton, Manchester. You can only buy in the shop – nothing online. It’s all organic. I think the first feijoas will probably come in around Nov-Dec, Brexit and Covid allowing!
I live in stoxkport and have a plant growing about 2 years in our garden. It is still tiny, and looses its leaves in the winter which my dad tells me it shouldnt. Will look up that shop. Thanks for that. I wish they sold dried feijoas as sweets,, chocolate and alcohol just isnt the same. Thanks for sharing. X
Hi Fiona, sorry for the late reply a lot has been happening and Carpal Tunnel has stopped me from typing much.
It is indeed unusual for feijoas to lose their leaves over winter. I have a few in test beds that do however this is from the frosts burning the leaves off, they get no sun at all during winter and only partial sun during summer, they oddly survive the frosts better than others. I’ve never had any flower buds on these plants even ones that are over 10 years old and they grow very slowly. If you have the plant in a very shady spot it may be worth moving it to a sunnier position. Hopefully you will then have leaves all year round and in the future flowers and fruit.
Cheers,
Gav.
I meant to say “dried feijoas as sweets” does sound good! I wonder if anywhere does that?
Cheers,
Gav.
My son in Brittany has a very flourishing Feijoa bush, a good crop this year ….
Fantastic to hear Lilla! It really is a great region for feijoas.
Cheers,
Gav.
This is fascinating. I hope to order some in December. I suppose feijoas plants would only grow in hothouses/ conservatories bc of our winters here in the UK? Bit like an avocado tree which would need extra protection?
Hey Marijke, once they’re of a certain size they do pretty well outside here in the UK. I start them off indoors, then move them to an open ended covered shelter. Once they are acclimatised move them outdoors.
We lose a fair few young ones, but in the end it makes the ones that survive tougher. You can see a few young plants covered in snow here: https://feijoas.uk/2019/12/11/new-feijoas-frost-cover-made/
We’re still small and are looking for larger premises. I broke a few vertebrae in 2018, so things are a bit slower than we’d hoped.
If you’re near London there are a few plants that fruit in public places as well as Kew Gardens. I haven’t been there since 2014, but there was one fruiting in Hyde Park, the fruit was still a few months from being ripe but was well on track. Really want to get some seeds from that plant. – Might write up a post about that now.
Update:
I’ve added a post about where to find plants around London and South Hampton: https://feijoas.uk/2020/03/20/feijoas-growing-in-uk-public-parks-zoos-and-gardens/
Cheers,
Gav.
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
I bought a tiny plant early 2000’s at Penshurst Kent and must admit it has been a bit neglected. I have to keep it outside all year, against th sunny side of house and last year had some lovely flowers. Fruit disappeared! I am planting it this year because I find everything hard work now. It is now three feet, probably would have been taller if we had looked after it better! So it is hardy enough in the south.
Thanks Wendy, great to know others are growing them too. The second fruiting year I lost a fair few fruit to mice. Only year I have. I’ve listed a few places that you can find feijoas out in parks, zoos and gardens on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/03/20/feijoas-growing-in-uk-public-parks-zoos-and-gardens/ – hoping more people have stories of growing them and know more locations.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi, we have a Feijoa plant but it’s never flowered and it doesn’t have a pollinating buddy. Do you sell Feijoa plants? I’ve heard that they need to be grafted but you’ve successfully grown from seed?
Hi Cath, currently don’t sell plants, there are a few sellers on eBay and Amazon, I’ve listed them here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/
Where is your plant located and how old is it? As for cross pollination it is helpful but not always important. First plant I managed to grow in the UK produced one flower and one fruit only after its 5th year. The fruit was tiny but very tasty. That plant flowered with about 20 flowers the following year and others had close to 100. I cross pollinated and the fruit were much larger. Oddly I’ve not been able to get cuttings or layering propagation to grow from that plant, most others I have no trouble. I’ve taken over 100 cuttings from that plant with no luck.
You are right growing from seed does produce quite different plants and we can’t get the quality that NZ growers get from their named varieties. However growing from seed gives us a chance in the UK to get something and plants that are suited for the UK climate. It’s better than nothing 😉
Hi there, I recently purchased the FEIJOA (ACCA) SELLOWIANA PINEAPPLE GUAVA UNUSUAL FRAGRANT EVERGREEN SHRUB/TREE from eBay around a month or so ago and wondered if you had any tips on how to help it grow?
I have it on my window ledge and re potted it recently . I’m watering it once a week but wondered if there was anything else I could do/use to help it on it’s way? I’m a gardening novice btw
🙁
Thank you in advance,
Barry Webster
Hey Barry, great to hear you’ve got a plant 😀 hope it’s starting to show some new growth 🤞.
For plants undercover: I’d use a liquid seaweed weekly mixed in when watering, twice weekly when flowering/fruiting or during dry weather, reduce watering to fortnightly with no fertiliser around mid January and start up again late February, early March. Use as instructed on the bottle, somewhere around 10 – 30ml depending on the size of plant and strength of the seaweed product you go for. Seaweed feed has sadly sky rocketed in price at some places. Hint when growing in pots: I’ve killed more feijoas by overwatering than underwatering.
Seaweed feeds:
Seasol is the one I used when in New Zealand and Australia it’s now finally here in the UK: Seasol.
Maxicrop I have been getting the 10L bottles of this which is usually £40 to £50, but not currently available, the 1L is expensive!: Maxicrop Original Seaweed Extract, 1 Litre*.
Empathy seaweed is also great, but can’t find any site selling that at the moment.
I’d start with the seaweed and see how that goes.
For plants outside: Generally don’t need to water them in Scotland. However as I’m on clay soil the other fertiliser I’ve found to work well is Alfalfa pellets. You can still use these in pots but you don’t need much of these especially for a small plant (probably 5-10 pellets around the edge of the pot in Spring and then 5 or less in Autumn), they swell up and break down creating a slow release fertiliser. I buy it in 20Kg bags, something like this: Alfalfa Pellets*. For larger trees I throw roughly 5 or 6 handfuls around the soil below the drip line of each plant. Try to keep it away from the trunk, they collect water and can rot the trunk.
Hope that’s helpful, can you let me know if you get a response from the website about this? I’m not sure if people are seeing the responses.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi! We fell in love with the unique taste of feijoas whilst living in NZ for a short while. We’d now like to grow some of our own. We live in the far southeast of England. What varieties would you recommend and where can I buy good plants from please? Thanks
Hi Rosa, great to hear you fell in love with feijoas in NZ.
South East of England is a perfect place to try. There’s only 3 named varieties I know of available in the UK, that I know of, they’re all imported from NZ, you can see them listed on the Grow your own page. However if you have the room it could be worth trying others that were grown from seed in the UK, they may be better acclimatised, their fruit may not be uniform or as large but they can still be tasty.
The most important things about growing feijoas is give them as much sun as they can get and to try and to protect from wind when young and when in fruit.
Please let us know how you get on. Buds for flowers started to show here on 23/04/20, only a few so far.
Cheers,
Gav.
Gidday! I’ve stumbled across your site just now whilst looking at plant delivery sites. This is so exciting!!! I’m from Wellington and been living in Scotland since 2004 (Edinburgh, then Dalgety Bay), and I really miss feijoas. My folks grow them, and I was very envious of them the last time I called home, as Mum said they’d had such a large crop. They’ve just got a suburban garden, nothing massive. I would love to be able to grow feijoas here, but I didn’t know if it was possible. I’m not the best gardener, but I try.
Hey Sarah, great to have another Kiwi in Scotland! Sorry for the slow response, just out of hospital. If you want to try and grow your own I’ve found the 3 named varieties from Burncoose nursery to offer promising results, I’ve got them listed on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ – they will need to be kept arm and can even be kept as a small plant in a sunny room, just cut back after fruiting to keep size small, the flowers form on new growth.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi all, I’m coming back to the y.k i June 2020,having lived in nz for 21years. I need my daily feijoa, where can I get them in the u.k, or is it legal for me to bring seeds over.
Hey John, glad to hear you enjoy feijoas! You legally are allowed to bring seeds into the UK of feijoas. If you happen to have a few spare I’d be very interested in them 😉
You can also buy plants in the UK: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ – I’m doing ok with the named varieties.
Cheers,
Gav
Hi Gav, I have 2 medium size feijoa plants outdoors in pots (a mammoth and a triumph) in Surrey. Have had them for 3 years, they generally produce about 12-15 blossoms each, which I manually fertilise with a cotton bud. The fruit does start to grow, but when about 1cm long, they seem to either drop off, or maybe get eaten by something? So far I’ve had 2 edible (but not quite ripe) pieces of fruit! So, I’ve decided to try planting them in the garden this weekend to see if that helps. Fingers crossed!!! I’m originally from Papakura (South Auckland), and am missing my feijoas terribly!! Occasionally I find them in fruit stalls in the Borough market in London, they always seem to be from Colombia (I’m hoping to one day go to the feijoa festival in Tibasosa!). I’m sorry to hear you are not well, best wishes for a full recovery.
Cheers, Michelle.
Hey Michelle,
Sorry to hear that the fruit aren’t getting all the way to ripe. I have lost a few fruit to mice in 2018, but that was very into being ripe and falling. Oddly the only year they were interested.
If you’ve got a wall that gets a lot of sun on it and can plant against it that will help a lot. I have a few plants that didn’t make the grade for fruit production (I just don’t have the heart to throw out) sitting in front of my house which faces directly south and they’re starting to do well now. Another thing to do is once in the ground mulch them around late September early October this should keep the warmth in the soil, hay is great or even grass clippings can work.
Earlier this year I purchased 1 of each of the Mammoth, Triumph and Gemini that Burncoose nursery are selling and am testing them in my small greenhouse, they’re still small but now have between 3 and 9 flower buds. Obviously can’t keep in greenhouse forever but felt it may be a good way to cross pollinate and create more productive plants for the UK when mixed with the small outdoor fruiting varieties I’ve been breeding.
I’ve tried a few from Colombia they’re just not the same, although I appreciate them when I get them. The feijoa festival has been on my to-do list since I heard about it 4 or 5 years ago, one year I hope to go!
Thanks for the well wishes, hoping I’ll be out of hospital by the time the feijoas falling, it’ll give me something to look forward to.
Cheers,
Gav.
Sweet as! Been in USA 2yrs since moving from Te Kuiti NZ and I need feijoas! Nonexistant in USA. One more reason to be excited for my move to southwest UK soon
Hey Pen, hopefully we can help you! California’s starting to get a small group of feijoa addicts there, but haven’t heard anywhere else in USA.
Southwest UK should be great for growing feijoas, getting better plants for the UK climate now 😀
Hi
Sorry to hear you aren’t well. Hope they can sort you out soon.
My daughter has returned from a year in New Zealand and is raving about feijoas. I have dutifully ordered 2 plants from Primrose but they don’t mention a variety but I assume they’ll be the same. Any idea what they are selling? I’d like to buy a third of a different variety, probably from Burncoose: which would you recommend? They are going to have to live in pots in my cold greenhouse as I’m nearly 1000 feet up on the Malvern Hills on the Welsh border.
Thanks for your help.
Hey Claire, great to hear that we have another feijoa lover in the UK 😀
The Primrose ones will more than likely be seed grown plants that are hard to judge how they will be in the future.
As for the best option, Gemini is the earliest fruit producer of the 3 that Burncoose sell and it’s also self fertile but does produce better with another variety.
I’m currently testing the 3 different varieties in my small greenhouse here in Edinburgh, they’ve all now put flower buds on. Gemini was later, by about a week, to start adding buds but their size is about the same now and I think at last check it had the most of the 3, however the plant is slightly bigger than the other two.
Be great to hear how you get on.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hey Gav,
I’ve got 8 Feijoas all growing well… one that I grew from a cutting in NZ, 2 more from cuttings from that, and the rest bought over here from a garden center. We’ve had some good fruit from the NZ one, and it looks like the rest will fruit well this year fingers crossed!! Lots of flowers forming at the mo. One quick Q though… I seem to have some caterpillars feasting on a couple of them. Any advice on the best way to get rid of them??
Cheers, and good luck with the recovery.
Craig
Hey Craig,
Great to hear you’re growing and have lots of flowers forming! Looking like it’s about 2 to 5 days before the first flower should open here.
Are the caterpillars on the leaves or flowers? I have small white cabbage butterflies lay eggs on the leaves quite often and you get a fair few holes in the leaves, but doesn’t seem to affect the plant too much. However they do like to pupate in the new leaves right where flowers should be forming. The best thing I’ve found is birds, attracting blue tits, house sparrows and robins near the trees and they remove them quite fast. If no birds near by I’d remove by hand. I don’t use chemicals so not sure if there’s any chemicals. Thankfully only found 1 caterpillar on a fruit so far.
Just wondering how did you manage to the cuttings through to the UK, did you have to quarantine it? My family tried bringing some but were stopped at Heathrow, seems you’re not allowed live plant material from NZ… I thought UK had all the pests that NZ did, seems they don’t my garden in Edinburgh is a great example, it has a real problem with New Zealand flatworm, thought to be introduced by accident by Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.
For anyone wondering you are however allowed seeds without quarantine.
Hope the plants go well and you get loads of fruit! Be great to hear how you get on.
Thanks for the well wishes 😀.
Cheers,
Gav.
Please, get better soon!
Thanks Lisbeth! Just resting at the moment. Flowers are starting to bloom over the last week or so 😃.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
I’m a Christchurch kiwi living in London – now longer than my time spent in nz! I stumbled on to your website after a call with my family in nz about their current bumper crop of Feijoas! I’d like to try and grow a shrub or two. Out of the varieties available in the UK, which one would
you recommend? Also, do you think these plants available in the uk are from seed or grafted? I love all the information available on your website. All the best to you as well on your recovery.
Adrianne
Hey Adrianne,
Great to hear from another Kiwi and feijoa fan living in the UK! This year in NZ has seemed to be a great year for feijoas from all the photos friends and family have sent.
As for what I’d recommend the Gemini is the earliest fruiting variety of the ones that Burncoose Nursery sell. Once I found out they were selling NZ varieties I ordered 1 of each to test in my small greenhouse as suggested on the website. I’ve had them about 2 to 3 months now, they’re all doing well and although the Gemini was last to add flower buds has quickly caught up and now has more. You can find direct links to each of the varieties on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ having 2 varieties should give better fruit set and can often produce bigger fruit.
To me they look like they’re very skilfully grafted or are from cuttings, I haven’t had a good look at the roots yet, once I re-pot may have a better idea.
Hope to hear you’re growing heaps of feijoas soon!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Nice website!
I bought two trees from Paramount Plants around two months ago now. I didn’t have high expectations, but was quite impressed when they turned up – both are around a metre tall and bushy for their size, they arrived looking very healthy.
We’ve got a small suntrap for a garden in inner-city Brighton and they’re doing well, all day sun and shaded from any winds. Both plants have new leaf growth and plenty of small buds on them now. Feeding is still once a week, rotating Maxicrop liquid seaweed and Baby Bio citrus food. We’ve got a few other flowering plants in the garden (lavender, mainly) so hopefully we get enough bumblebees and other insects to help pollinate – very few birds in our garden unfortunately due to the neighbours’ cats.
Best of luck with your health!
Shane
Thanks Shane, great to hear there’s another grower. I’ve never tried citrus food on feijoas, it has a good NPK ratio for flowers and fruit be very interested to hear how it goes. A sunny sight in Brighton should be very good, as for pollination fingers can work as well as the bees, they put out a fair bit of pollen, just rub it on the stamen and you should be set 😃.
Will have to check Paramount Plants website and add links to the Where to buy plants page, thanks for the heads up!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Hope you’re doing better.
Plenty of new leaf buds on both plants now, but no sign of flowers so maybe later or not until next season.
What I did notice yesterday was one of the plants had a few leaves sticking to each other. I peeled them gently apart, and a small caterpillar dropped out. This appears to be a tortrix moth leaf-roller caterpillar – and after checking the plant more closely it’s a small infestation, I’ve picked off around 10-15 of them. No pesticides yet, have just manually checked every branch and stem (a bit like checking the kids for nits) to pull any stuck leaves apart and flick out the caterpillar.
Only one plant affected so far, the other one appears to be untouched. Not too much damage done but they do appear to love the softer new leaf growth and they’ve eaten a few of those.
Cheers,
Shane
Hey Shane, thanks for the heads up. I have had a fair few new growth leaves hit by moths or butterflies. Not sure what type as I’ve spotted both Cabbage white butterflies and Angle Shades Moth, but as they do exactly what you’re saying they may be the tortix moth. I generally just take the entire affected leaf off by cutting the stem at the next good leaf buds below, it acts like pruning and the next flush of growth you get two branches and a bushier plant.
I hope that makes sense. Struggling to hold a camera the moment or would send a photo of what I mean.
Cheers,
Gav
I see you’re out of action… hope you’re fully recovered soon.
I’ve just planted three Feijoas in our little orchard today. They’re about 3’ tall bushes.
How much land do you have in mind for a southern setup? We have a small field in need of a purpose. In Suffolk.
Mum was a Kiwi.
Feijoas rock!
Hey Ed, Thanks for the well wishes 😃 Great to hear that you’ve got 3 plants! Love hearing about more and more people growing feijoas! The great thing about feijoas is that they don’t need a lot of room to get a decent crop. Depending on direction of land, wind breaks and other protection you can get roughly 450 plants per hectare (about 2 and a half acres).
Although I’d really love to grow more further south at present with health issues sadly I can’t commit to anything. I’m still struggling to walk and have to wait for the heart surgery. Whilst in hospital and the period directly after lost just over 150 cuttings this year during the sunny/frosty period. Obviously very frustrating, however there’s good news, a fair few people are starting to grow and some people are planting a few 100 plants, hoping to see a lot more feijoas grown in the UK 😃. Some more good news, I do have about 100 seedlings still growing as they were at home, they take about 2 to 5 years to start producing fruit.
Be interested to hear how your plants go and if you add more plants, have been impressed by the Burncoose nursery Gemini variety, compared to ones I’ve bread they’ve got about 30% more flowers for the same sized plants.
Cheers,
Gav.
Growing in Essex. Currently flowering well which they always do. Getting fruit to develop has always been the issue. Building a shelter for them this year to try and develop the fruit in the colder months.
Hey Mark, great to hear you’ve got flowers. Do you know what variety your feijoa is? Any sunnier locations you can move it to?
Cheers,
Gav
Hi Gav
I am unsure what variety they are. I have had them for about 6yrs and never took much notice of any labels when they were delivered. The trees are currently in the most sunny part of the property. Unfortunately it is a bit of a wind tunnel so hopefully this new shelter will help develop the fruit.
Regards
Mark
Hey Mark, just wondering do fruit start to form or do the flowers just drop off not long after flowering?
If they’re dropping off not long after flowering it is usually due to not being fertilised, best option for that is a second plant (or more 😉) from another source to create better cross pollination.
If the fruit do start to form, then yes wind and warmth protection will be a great help. Hope it works. The Wickes 10mm Twinwall Polycarbonate Sheet is decent, but needs to be fixed to a heavy structure. I’ve got one made with plastic piping and then put sand bags on it to weigh it down, it means it’s easy to move when not needed. Currently testing it over abut 25 cuttings to see how it helps them grow, they look to be growing faster than the ones left in the open.
Pretty sure these were the panels:
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-10mm-Twinwall-Polycarbonate-Sheet—700-x-2500mm/p/246000
and a bigger version:
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-10mm-Twinwall-Polycarbonate-Sheet—900-x-3000mm/p/105909
Hope you have some success soon!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
Thanks for the product tips, will look into them. We usually get some fruit but just too small, we have had edible fruit twice in 6yrs.
We currently have 3 trees but I might take out the paint brush and try some hand pollination and see how that goes. What do you think?
Cheers
Mark
Hi Mark,
Great that you have 3 trees already, a few plants I’ve grown from seed always produce small fruit even when cross pollinated with another plant. If the paint brush doesn’t work, the only things I can suggest is another plant, possibly one of the varieties on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ – then get the paint brush and give it a try, rubbing the pollen right on to the very tip of the style to make sure the tiny stigma gets pollinated. Tip 2 is more water when flowering and fruiting to try and get them to swell up. 2 decent soaks a week during warm dry weather and 1 really big soak during the cooler weeks. Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi.
We’ve just been given a plant, sadly it’s rather poorly. It was damp when we opened the container, but all the leaves have dropped off. We’ve stood it in water, we would really like some advice as to how to bring it back to life!
My dad had an aortic valve replacement in 1965, one of the first in this country. You’ll be a new person after your op. Take care and be safe.
Hey Patsy,
I’ve over soaked plants in the past and they’ve lost all the leaves too. First thing take the plant out of the pot and check the roots, are there still lots of small white ones? Hopefully there are, if they look healthy and not too crowded put the plant back in the same pot, if they’re looking crowded it’s time to move to a bigger pot if the plant is staying in a pot, I personally like to keep them in a pot until they’re well enough to go in the ground. If it needs transplanting rough the roots up a bit around the edges to break a few and try and get them to extend out from their current root ball position, this way they’ll grow into the new potting mix.
Put the pot in the warmest sunniest position and let the potting mix pretty much dry out, may take a week or two, hopefully by then you’ll see some buds starting to form and can give it a water with some seaweed feed or high nitrogen fertilizer this should give a nice flush of new leaves. I’ve got a few currently having this exact process at the moment as friends/family were helping me when I was laid up in hospital and with kindness over watered a few plants. Sadly lost a 2 year old plant from a Scottish grown seed, but it could have been worse as I was in during the hot period in May and they hadn’t been watered for at least a week before going in.
Hoping the plant bounces back in no time 😃
Thanks so much about the aorta info and the well wishes, just need to get the pulse down under 100, still sitting at 110 to 120 at resting. Meds have started to slow it though 😃.
Hope that all made sense, been called for dinner, best go.
Cheers,
Gav
Hey Patsy, just uploaded this picture: https://feijoas.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/feijoa-over-watered.jpg
It’s the plant that’s going through the process described above, as you can see all the leaves are new growth this year and there’s still a few branches without leaves but they’re starting to bud along the stems.
Struggling a bit to stand for long so can’t get great photos, hopefully this one is helpful.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Thank you bringing feijoas to the UK! I fell in love with them when I lived in NZ with my family 30 years ago. My first attempt to grow my own is now a foot tall! Sorry to hear you’re unwell. Whereabouts are you in the UK?Will you need any help on your farm come harvest time? Consider me a willing volunteer! Marie
Thanks Marie, great to hear your plant is coming on.
Really appreciate the support. I’m up in Edinburgh, and we’re setup just west of Edinburgh. At present not sure about the crop this year, due to the heart failure and dystonia I’ve been put in the high risk category and told to shield. Frustratingly I can’t currently go in the car to check anything due to the fractured bones / ruptured disks. I have test plants and seedlings at my house which keeps me busy enough and hopefully increase fruit in future years 😃.
Hope you get fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hello Gav,
I hope you get your treatment soon and get on the mend.
Since I have been to New Zealand 7 times since 2007 (just love it so much!) I too am getting withdrawal symptoms for Feijoas. I looked after my son’s house in Te Puna, Tauranga, and there were plenty of Feijoas in the garden — bliss!. I am so glad I found your website and will now do some research from previous contributors and see how I get on locating some plants.
I live in a flat -south facing the sea – in South Wales and have grown a variety of plants on my balcony!
Well, Here goes — and very best wishes and thanks for your website and advice.
Ray (adopted Kiwi!)
Hey Ray, welcome to the adopted kiwi club! Sounds like your son has a great place, trees in the garden is most Kiwi’s dream.
South Wales with a south facing window should be great for a plant or three 😉. There’s a bit about where to get plants from here: feijoa plants in the UK, and to keep a plant small I’d suggest a named variety, “Gemini” should be the earliest fruiting variety, some places say it’s self fertile but you will generally get better fruit with 2 different varieties. I grabbed 1 of each to test and all 3 are flowering at the same time. Just prune the plant after fruiting to keep it the size you desire.
Thanks for the well wishes 😃, bones are healing and have physio exercises for the disks, with everything with COVID-19 not sure when they’ll see me about surgery, still a lot of testing to be done.
Cheers,
Gav.
I am in somerset and my Feijoa Sellowiana is 4ft high and has been producing fruit for several years and the flowers are spectacular. This year for the first time, as far as I know, it is producing clusters of red berries similar to redcurrants in appearance. Can anyone tell me why?
Hi there, great to hear you normally get fruit. Sadly no idea what the red fruit are, never heard of that. If you can send a photo we can add it here and see if anyone has any idea.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
I hope you’re doing well now.
I’m so happy to find this website all about Feifoas..hat off to you..wow I’m a massive fan. Thank goodness for tips on growing, pruning etc..
I spent a few months on the north island, mainly whangarei. What an incredible country, lovely lovely people.
I had the pleasure of spending a good length of time there and made some amazing friends.
There would always be a bag of feijoas left on my doorstep when I got home.
I even manage to bring back some beautiful wine made by a couple who run a small business in wine making. Gutted that I can’t buy it here in the UK, it was beautiful.
I’m glad to say the bottles made it back in one piece.
I’ve been searching for a plant or seeds to grow my own.
I’ve seen a plant on Notonthehighstreet but I’m reluctant to buy it in case it’s not actually a feijoa or it’s worse for wear when it arrives!
Would you reccomend where I can buy a plant?
Thanks & all the best to you
Marie
Hi Marie, so glad you love NZ, Whangarei is a lovely part of the country. Actually where I had my first feijoa in my grandfathers garden. 6am run out to try and grab the ones that had fallen overnight, before my sister got them 😉
There’s a page setup about buying plants here: where to buy feijoa plants, a named variety is a good starting point and if you have a bit more time and want to try a few of grown from seed plants often found on Amazon might be a good purchase, they may be better suited for the UK climate.
I will be updating the page as a company is also sending the variety “Coolidge” from France, it’s an old variety and may be what many of the NZ varieties have as a long distant parent. I just picked up 3 to test along with 1 of each of the named varieties on Burncoose – mentioned on the above link.
Cheers,
Gav.
I have just found this site. I was given a tree from Noronthehighstreet, and my little tree is doing great. I keep it outside all year in a pot and had my first 5 flowers so I maybe lucky and get fruit one day. I live in Kent.
Hi Linda, great to know the plants from Not On The High Street are flowering, makes it easy for people to get plants. Kent is perfect for feijoas, please let us know if you do get fruit this year.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
Hope you are getting better and wish you a speedy recovery.
Does Feijoa tree attract any pests such as aphids, blackflies, or leaves get podwery mildew, etc?
Thank you.
Li
Hi Li,
Thanks for the message of support, really appreciate it. The only bugs I’ve had here in the UK are Coccidae (Scale) and leaf roller moths on new growth leaves. I’ve never come across aphids or blackfly on them, if growing indoors and you have Coccidae just put the plants outside during the day as close to spots where birds feed and they will have them removed rather fast. Have a few friends here in Edinburgh growing indoors that have done just that after they noticed a sticky residue on the leaves. Leaf roller moth, I generally just let them get on with it, there’s a few lost leaves but on a decent plant it’s not a problem.
In New Zealand they’re currently dealing with the Guava moth from Australia, but hopefully we don’t have that here!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hello Gav, I visited London today and sort out the Feijoa bushes at Lancaster Gate. I found one, the righthand side red dot on your map. Hopes dashed though as flowers haven’t developed into fruit. I can send a picture if you wish.
Hi Rochelle, Thanks for checking its location. Shame there’s no flowers! That’d be great if you can send some photos.
Wondering if there were two plants and the one left is no longer getting pollinated. There were some small fruit on the plant when I saw it back in 2013. Plants here in Edinburgh usually don’t fruit until November to January however they should be forming by now. The weather this year in Edinburgh has not been good with the frosts burning all the flower buds and new growth in May, then the plants shut down all growth during the hot spell late May through early July when they’d normally be growing fast. Since mid July it has barely broken 20C here. Doubt there will be any outdoor fruit at all this year. They’ve only recently started growing again and just started to flower. The few in the greenhouse will give some fruit that are already forming.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Hope your doing well: )
Auckland boy here growing fijoas from seed that came of my mums tree back home.
I’m getting these tiny caterpillars that are sticking the tips of new leaves/shoots together with silk and killing those leaves. Any idea as to what they are and the best thing to use to eradicate them?
I have three trees that are about 2.5 years old. They were about 3ft tall however I cut them right back early spring to get them to bush out. They are now about 1.5ft tall and looking lovely… except for those caterpillars.
Regards,
Jon
Hey Jon,
Great to know there’s another grower and from seeds too. I hope when you prune the plants you’re putting the cuttings into a pot of compost and trying to encourage a few knew plants 😉. A few years back many of the test plants were all sprawling with thin stems perfect for cuttings. Whilst my parents were staying I went to water the plants one day and found they’d all been perfectly pruned by my mother, a much better gardener than I, however all the prunings were already in the compost. Although late Summer early Autumn is best for cuttings I feel if you have branches it’s worth putting them in some compost and you may get some extra plants.
The moth will probably be a leaf roller moth from the Torticidae family, I get them here too. Haven’t seen them do much damage except for 1 to 2 leaves and have never been a real issue. I’ve found birds are the best, if that doesn’t work then just cut the affected leaves off and take them away from your garden.
The only pesticide that seems to work are ones that use Organophosphate, this is a very dangerous pesticide. To get the roller moths you have to get them in larvae stage which means you’d have to spray regularly as the moths seem to lay eggs from start of Spring through the end of Summer.
Sorry can’t think of any other options. The wasps seem busy taking something off the plants at the moment there’s 100s of wasps going back and forth.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
I stumbled across your site today – what a find! I’ve long thought that the UK needed a feijoa farm, but I always thought it would be in Cornwall or somewhere other than Scotland. Your success at getting fruit gives me hope that one day I might too – I live in North Berwick, just along the coast from you. I’ve got a Unique and some plants grown from seed that came from fruit I’ve brought back with me from the ‘old country’ and although they’re a fair size (the Unique is about 2m now), I’ve never had even a flower. I wasn’t sure if you grow your plants outside, or under cover of some kind.
I’ve actually got 3 potted seed-grown plants if anyone is interested in them – free for collection. They’re about 50-60cm tall and although they look a bit sadly (they’ve been in pots too long), they would probably come away nicely if put in the ground. I can’t justify any more feijoas planted in my garden – need the space for some hardy NZ natives.
Hope you can get back into the garden soon.
Cheers,
Mark
Hey Mark, great to hear from another grower in Scotland! Love North Berwick, if you haven’t done it already the trip out to Isle of May to see the puffins is pretty cool. Try for the photographers boat trip it’s a smaller boat group, not the huge tractor trailer loads of the Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony Tours.
Hope your plants are doing well and you have fruit soon. The facebook group Kiwis in Edinburgh may be a good way to shift the plants. I would normally jump at trees but at the moment can’t take them on.
Sadly up here they only grow OK and don’t get massive crops, this year no outdoor fruit. As you’d know our weather has been rubbish with the late frosts burning all the flower buds and new growth in early May, then the plants shut down all growth whilst recovering through May to early July when they’d normally be growing fast. Since mid July it has barely broken 20C. I have a few in a greenhouse but not enough to get a decent crop. The flowers on the outside plants have just finished but now there’s not enough time to turn to fruit before winter.
I had been saving up for land in the south but the heart failure diagnosis has put the breaks on that, average life expectancy is 5 years for heart failure. Had thought I’d have at least 40 more years, a bit of a pisser! Will have a rethink after the surgery and see what the cardiac specialists say. Now I’m trying to give any advice I can to help other growers out. Really hopeful more feijoas will be grown across the UK by the time my niece and nephew start backpacking in 10 to 15 years.
I had a few kowhai growing but the frosts in May took them, I still have a few Chatham Island forget-me-not growing. A few more seeds of other NZ plants in the fridge I hope to try next year.
Cheers,
Gav.
Kia ora Gav, hopefully you on the mend mate. I wish I was in the UK, all this talk about home and the fruit is welling me up and making me drool. A combination not recommended visually acceptable.
I live in Ireland and have managed to get 8 young plants grown from seed. They are in good condition almost 2 ft tall. Unfortunately I dont know their variety. I was meant to have 12, but they were damaged in transit and destroyed ( ? ) Anyways received 8 new ones finally. My Q is, I have just put up a south facing 8m x 3m polycarbonate tunnel. Are these fine inside it ? The temperature can be min 7 degrees /am to 48 midday / 35 degrees pm celcius inside. Is this too extreme….haven’t put soil and beds in just yet. Plus I’ve just repotted them. Any help to my vast comment much appreciated.
Later
Jamie
Kia ora Jamie, great to hear you’ve got plants in Ireland!
I currently have 7 test plants in pots in a greenhouse here in Edinburgh, sadly they’re the only ones to get fruit this year after late May frosts killed all new growth and flower buds outside.
Although 48C may be a bit hot it will only cause issues if the fruit has started to form. Long periods over 42C can burn the inside of the fruit and you can end up with black rotten insides even though the outside looks fine.
On the hot days try leaving the polytunnel open at both ends and water the floor down on the hot days and if possible during the hottest periods. If you head out before it gets warm another option is a couple of builders trugs full of water, the 40L ones are decent. They help regulate the temperature with evaporation and make it feel a bit more tropical in the greenhouse, perfect for feijoas.
I’ve dug one into the ground of the greenhouse:
I know it uses up growing space but the frogs mean less lost lettuce leaves and the water stays ice free over winter as it works as a heat sink. I add a 70L black trug at ground level in winter to help regulate the temp so I can grow salad leaves without needing heating.
Watering either the night before a forecasted hot day or in the morning helps protect the plant. Don’t water the plants during the middle of the day on hot days even if the new growth is wilting they will perk back up in the evening and be more receptive to water then.
Hope that helps, be great to hear how you get on.
Cheers,
Gav
hi, well i have 2 fejoas in my west London garden but unfortunately the squirrels get them before I do!!! I also had to get rid of a 25 year kiwi vine due to them stripping it so there’s no point in having it. I’m about to go to Rome to pick around 15 kilos of fejoas, they grow very well there but Italians don’t know them so don’t eat them (they’re grown as fencing), roll on fejoa crumble all winter…
Hi Kaye, shame about the squirrels, wonder if they take the fruit in Kensington gardens too?
Ohh where in Rome do you find them? The weather up here in Scotland has not been great this year. Enjoy the crumble 😃
Hi Gav,
Hope you’re doing ok. Another Kiwi here with a madcap scheme to plant a Feijoa orchard in Chew Valley, Somerset. We have 15 young plants that are getting close to a metre tall. We’ve just repotted them and put them back in the greenhouse for winter. So we’ll see where this goes.
Bye Sharon
Hi Sharon,
That’s brilliant! So glad to have another grower in the UK. Did you chose a variety or are you trying to create one for the UK climate from seed? You’ve chosen a better location than I did, this year late frosts took all the soft new growth, they’ve come back but not soon enough to fruit.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi,
Don’t know the variety – we bought them as young plants from two UK growers. I got caught with a late frost here in our vege patch, so hope we don’t get the same. We’re looking to plant them out late next spring.
Bye Sharon
I’ve had a 2.5 kg crop here in Nottingham. Would love to chat more and see your farm, if I can offer a hand during your times of I’ll health please reach out
Hi Bethan, fantastic! You probably got more than we did this year. The late frosts in May killed all new growth and flower buds. They didn’t flower until it was too late with only the flowers towards the centre of the trees making it to fruit which has been small and disappointing. Thanks for the offer for help, hopefully next year will be better, 2018 and 19 were decent and was hoping for even better this year.
Cheers,
Gav
Hi Gav,
Just came across your website as I’m looking to plant a feijoa tree in my garden in London. Firstly sorry to hear about your health and hopefully you have managed to get the medical care, despite what’s going on right now!
If you can offer any advice on planting and growing a feijoa tree that would be amazing! Im missing my fav childhood fruit like mad! Thanks
Hi Bonie,
Great to hear you’re planting a tree in London, there’s a few people doing well only major problem I’ve heard is grey squirrels are said to love the fruit. Feijoa variety “Gemini” is the easiest early variety to get hold of in the UK, more about it on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ 2 varieties with cross pollination is always helpful.
Planting out:
Acclimatising: a good time is Spring, if the plant’s been inside or in a greenhouse over winter the best thing to do is acclimatise the plant by putting it outside in the morning and bringing it back in each night for a week. This will stop it going into shock, but they are pretty hardy and can handle very bad weather.
Planting position: the sunniest spot that you can, especially if it has a wall behind it that can hold extra heat.
After care: a good organic mulch (leaf mould, potting mix, spent coffee grounds, spent mushroom compost, home made compost are all good) when you start to see the plant growing in Spring, about 5cm deep should do. Repeat again before the ground gets cold late Autumn early Winter to keep the roots warm over winter, this gets the plant growing earlier in the year and keeps it healthy. I also use seaweed meal and alfalfa pellets the type for feeding horses which swell up quite a lot therefore not a lot are needed a decent handful per plant should do it to add Potash for flowers as I can’t find an equivalent to “Yates Thrive Certified Organic Natural Sulfate Of Potash” in the UK.
Watering: water well when planting, during dry spells and especially during flowering and fruiting.
Hope you have fruit soon.
Health is up and down, still waiting for surgery but in some good news may not have heart failure and instead a hole in the heart, need more scans. With how hectic the hospitals are with COVID they just haven’t been able to get around to me, which is understandable but also frustrating as lack of blood flow means I have very little energy to work on feijoa farming or anything else.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Well done on your amazing little website.
I stumbled on Feijoas quite by accident – have two plants both 3 feet tall now and lots that are seedlings. They are attractive and pretty much bullet-proof albeit I have an enclosed south facing garden on the south coast which is a super heat trap – grow excellent apricots for example!
I would like to maximise my chances of getting fruit….so as my current plants were just “generic” Feijoa Sellowiana seeds bought off the web, which named variety do you think would compliment best in terms of cross pollination?
Regards
Dave
Hey Dave, sorry for the slow response I have been stuck in hospital again due to the heart issues, still waiting on surgery but they have to have an ICU bed available before they can offer the surgery. COVID has them all full.
Sounds like the perfect place to grow feijoas! Never tried growing apricots myself, would be nice though.
Named variety I’d go for Gemini or if you can find them in the UK Unique – If you do come across Unique please let us know, they are hard to come by over here. Gemini is the earliest fruiting named variety I’ve been able to find in the UK, it is self fertile but will do better if cross pollinated with your plants.
Hope you have fruit soon!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hey Gav,
Great to hear a Kiwi is having success growing these in the uk. After moving over here 6 years ago, this was something I missed from hom so I have 4 trees grown from seed about 3 years ago, they are about 1.7m tall now and growing in pots.
Dont suppose you have any tips for growing in pots; regarding feeding, pot size, and when to expect first fruit, pruning, etc….
But, good on ya mate for getting this community together. Count me in.
Cheers,
James
Hi James, sorry for the late reply a lot has been happening and Carpal Tunnel has stopped me from typing much.
Great to hear you’ve got 4 trees, that’s brilliant! I have grown a fair few in pots, especially when I didn’t have a permanent place for them. What I found best is if they needed to be moved depending on size was using a 40L trug or 73L builders trug with a lot of drilled drainage holes in the bottom. A good potting mix with added John Innes will give the plant a longer time in the same soil, something like: https://www.melcourt.co.uk/product/multipurpose-compost/ – if you can’t get that the standard: https://www.melcourt.co.uk/product/sustainable-growing-medium/ with a few added handfuls of soil from your own garden and mixed in is perfect.
For plants undercover: I’d use a liquid seaweed weekly mixed in when watering, twice weekly when flowering/fruiting or during dry weather, reduce watering to fortnightly with no fertiliser around mid January and start up again late February, early March. Use as instructed on the bottle, somewhere around 10 – 30ml depending on the size of plant and strength of the seaweed product you go for. Seaweed feed has sadly sky rocketed in price at some places. Hint when growing in pots: I’ve killed more feijoas by overwatering than underwatering.
Seaweed feeds:
Seasol is the one I used when in New Zealand and Australia it’s now finally here in the UK: Seasol.
Maxicrop I have been getting the 10L bottles of this which is usually £40 to £50, but not currently available, the 1L is expensive!: Maxicrop Original Seaweed Extract, 1 Litreitre, Brown*.
Empathy seaweed is also great, but can’t find any site selling that at the moment.
I’d start with the seaweed and see how that goes.
For plants outside: Generally don’t need to water them in Scotland. However as I’m on clay soil the other fertiliser I’ve found to work well is Alfalfa pellets. You can still use these in pots but you don’t need much of these especially for a small plant (probably 5-10 pellets around the edge of the pot in Spring and then 5 or less in Autumn), they swell up and break down creating a slow release fertiliser. I buy it in 20Kg bags, something like this: Alfalfa Pellets*. For larger trees I throw roughly 5 or 6 handfuls around the soil below the drip line of each plant, or to edge of the pot. Try to keep it away from the trunk, when they swell they collect water and can rot the trunk.
Hope you have fruit soon and do let us know how you go.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
I have a Feroa tree in my garden growing beautifully; it’s grown almost to 7 feet now; bought a small plant 20 years ago; all through the year it remains silvery green colour; but I’m waiting for it to flower; from the comments above I reckon the season to flower for Fejoa is December ; which I think is unlikely to happen in the UK ; so my wish is for it flower soon; I’m waiting in Hope regards Ritha
Hi Ritha, sorry for the very slow response. Fantastic that you have such a decent sized plant. It should have flowered by 20 years, wondering what part of the UK you are in? Is the plant in full sun? Do you prune it at any point of the year?
Flowers start in the UK from as early as March and go through until about August, fruit starts to drop around late October until mid January if frosts don’t get them before they ripen.
Hope you have fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi from across the water in Ireland. I have two beautiful plants the past six years. Sadly never had flowers and they never grew more than a foot high. I’m thinking it’s because I have them in pots. Have you ever tried them in a greenhouse to see would you get them like they are in NZ? I used to live in Napier and had a few.
Thanks
Dáithí
Hi Dáithí,
Glad to hear you have 2 plants, there’s a few people growing in Ireland 😀
Where do you have the plants located? I have grown a fair few in pots, some are over 2 meters tall. I often use pots when I didn’t have a permanent place for them. For a 30cm plant I’d look at a 10 Litre pot. What I found best is if they needed to be moved depending on size was using a 40L trug or 73L builders trug with a lot of drilled drainage holes in the bottom. A good potting mix with added John Innes will give the plant a longer time in the same soil, not sure on Irish potting mixes but something like: https://www.melcourt.co.uk/product/multipurpose-compost/ – if you can’t get that the standard: https://www.melcourt.co.uk/product/sustainable-growing-medium/ with a few added handfuls of soil from your own garden and mixed in is perfect.
For plants undercover: I’d use a liquid seaweed weekly mixed in when watering, twice weekly when flowering/fruiting or during dry weather, reduce watering to fortnightly with no fertiliser around mid January and start up again late February, early March. Use as instructed on the bottle, somewhere around 10 – 30ml depending on the size of plant and strength of the seaweed product you go for. Seaweed feed has sadly sky rocketed in price at some places. Hint when growing in pots: I’ve killed more feijoas by overwatering than under-watering.
For plants outdoors in pots: using seaweed feed and seaweed meal are both great, meal is often better for outdoors as you can’t regulate the water as easily once again make sure there’s a lot of drainage.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
Thanks so much for all that advice Gav. I will try and get seaweed mix today. I have them outside but based on your advice I wonder – what would you think about me putting them in pots as you described but inside as I’ve a very large front south facing window that’s like a greenhouse. I might have luck there? I’m very impressed that you got plants two metres tall – that’s a serious achievement.
Yes being indoors in a very sunny spot will be perfect. They can grow quite fast indoors in full sun. Hopefully you will have fruit very soon.
My shelter for young plants kept getting lifted up by the strong winds that blow along the driveway and needed a weight to hold it down, a big heavy pot was exactly what was needed. The tree although currently has a thin trunk is over 2 meters tall, sadly this particular plant’s fruit isn’t great but I couldn’t bare to throw it out and thought I’ll use it as a weight. There’s a few fox gloves and rose campion plants at the base for a bit of colour on the driveway. You can also see a few frost burnt leaves on the most exposed side.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Daithi, hope you don’t mind me butting in. I have some growing in my tunnel and they are doing awesome. Managed to get more so will try planting out. I now have 18 sm plants. If you want to contact me 0861654499, James.
Great to see a feijoa community starting to grow in Ireland. Finally responded to your email Jamie, sorry for the very slow response. Had a few hospital visits in the past month and if I don’t respond on the same day things get a bit lost.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi, have loved reading all the comments above. We have just returned to the Scottish Borders from living in the Coromandel. My 3 year old son is asking for feijoa crumble and so I’m on the hunt for fruit in the UK and also to source a few trees that we can try to grow.
If anyone is in our area (Edinburgh/Lothian/Borders) and has successfully grown trees or wants to offload a few then I’d love to hear from them.
Hi Claire, love the Coromandel region.
Not sure if Mark in North Berwick still has trees but he was giving away 3 plants a while back.
We were growing in West Lothian, it is doable as long as there’s not terrible frosts like last year and this year. The named varieties from Burncoose Nursery listed on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ – will only fruit in a greenhouse, I had a few fruit within a year on the ones I purchased.
Hope you have fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gary thanks for all the fantastic tips on your website. We moved back to South Wales just before Covid struck having spent 3 years in CHCH. We have spent the year growing 4 random young plants up in pots. We are just about to move to our own home finally and are planning to get them in the ground along with some other named species hopefully as they become available.
Do you think there’s any benefit in growing in a polytunnel? We have a fairly moderate climate down here.
Cheers!
Tom
*GAV sorry!
No worries Tom, I get Gary quite a bit.
Hey Tom, great to hear you’ve got some plants I would highly recommend a polytunnel if you have space, I have been testing a few plants in a small (2.5m x 2.5m) greenhouse and I am impressed. Normally I’d grow them outside and treat them very hard to make sure we got the toughest stock for the Scottish weather, it meant losing a lot of plants to create trees for Scotland. Last May the outdoor plants were covered in new growth and flower buds this year they haven’t even added any new growth as they were burnt hard by the frosts in May 2020 and didn’t add new growth until August through October which has all been burnt again in the frosts of 2021. The outdoor plants are sitting sulking where as the ones in the greenhouse have new growth and flower buds.
I have 7 plants in the greenhouse, 4 of my own varieties and the 3 named varieties. My varieties were a bit big and had to be cut back hard to get them to fit through the door, I took this photo yesterday:
You can see I’ve given them a recent feed with seaweed meal and alfalfa pellets, they really take to it. The door and vents of the greenhouse get opened every day except the very coldest days. I also have an opened ended lean-to against my house for very small plants that would be completely covered in snow, they also have new growth.
Hope you have fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Brilliant thanks Gav. I’ll get a polytunnel up this year and update on progress made growing in Wales.
Cheers,
Tom
Hi feijoa blog!
I’ve recently got my own place in London so first order of business was to get a feijoa tree (next stop the bbq section). There’s a sunny spot out back next to a solid wall, so I’m hoping they get a bit of sun and warmth there.
So I picked one up at Paramount, which I had delivered, and was going to leave it at that and hope it would self-pollinate – but was walking around the local b+q, which isn’t a huge one, but they had two trees there! I had to get another one, so now I have a pair. I think I’ll leave them in pots and will try the advice above! Will try to keep you posted as well.
Hey Kent, sorry for the delay in responding. B&Q have feijoas!? That’s fantastic! What size were the plants? Hopefully you get some fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi ,just wondered how I could post a picture and comment on this site. I’ve got 10 ~ 3 year old Triumphs. Stripped fruit back to 20 per plant. Its May here in NZ now and the ripe fruit is starting to drop.
Average weight is about 300g which look like avocados but with wind some branches have torn off due to weight.
Cheers woz
Hi Woz, Triumph is a nice plant a great mid to late season fruit variety. Not the best for Scotland as they don’t always get ripe but great for the south of England and New Zealand.
I’ve added an image upload option for comments, the file has to be a JPG/JPEG image and I think can be up to 10mb in size. Look forward to seeing the pictures.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
Your story was a heartwarming read. Thank you for sharing and I’m cheering you on in hope that one day you will fulfil the dream of growing feijoas. I’m a kiwi living in London and feijoas have a special place in my heart, but are distinctly absent for my fruit bowl. I miss feijoas so much that I created a wee local online store called “Feijoa Studio London” (www.feijoastudio.com) that sells artisanal kiwi goods to UK customers. One of our star products are freeze dried feijoas and also feijoa powder (for smoothies and baking) from Nelson. They’re not quite the real thing but are a delicious/nutritious snack and tastes like the real thing but in a different form https://www.feijoastudio.com/shopall?category=Feijoas.
I’d love to send you some for you to try if you’d let me. I’ll even wrap it up on our feijoa wrapping paper! Just let me know your snail mail address or email me it. Take care & all the best. Michelle
Hi,
What a brilliant site you have created here – you inspired me to give growing feijoas a go although I’m not sure how well I’m doing 😬
I live in Cornwall but originally from NZ. We recently bought a bigger property and so I decided it was time to buy some Feijoa plants in hope to grow and eat some delicious fruit having discovered your page.
I purchased two 1m plants from a seller on eBay and have been creating some space to plant in the ground. However, the leaves have started turning brown & dry. I’ve been regularly watering and can’t work out why this is happening. Do you have any ideas? Should I plant in the ground or try and find out what’s going on before doing this? Any feedback would be most appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
Meg
Hi Meg,
Great that you’ve got some plants, Cornwall’s a perfect place for feijoas.
Would you be able to send a photo?
I’ve found in the UK that Feijoas in pots love a good drench and then to dry out almost completely. Over winter once every 2 to 3 weeks and during spring once every week to 2 weeks during summer especially in greenhouses it can be as often as twice a week during summer. Volume of water depends on the size of the pots and plant.
Hope the plant pops back.
Cheers,
Gav.
Question for Gav if poss?
I have two feijoa plants in my garden, I live in Suffolk, I planted them out from pots last year, so this is their 2nd year. Bit of an experiment I suppose, I’m originally from Hawkes Bay and feijoas are on eof the things I miss most :(. Anyhoo, they r looking a bit sad, brown rusty looking leaves, some. What’s the best thing I can feed them in the UK? Many Thanks , Leanne.
Hi Leanne,
Great to hear you’ve got some plants! The crazy weather this year and last year have been awful for feijoas and I have heard of a lot of problems with plants this year. The fertiliser I’ve found to work well is Alfalfa pellets. They swell up and break down creating a slow release fertiliser. I buy it in 20Kg bags, something like this: Alfalfa Pellets*. For larger trees I throw roughly 5 or 6 handfuls around the soil below the drip line of each plant. Try to keep it away from the trunk, they collect water and can rot the trunk.
Seaweed feed of either seaweed meal or liquid seaweed will give the plants a very quick burst and as the weather warms up will show a lot of new growth.
Seasol is the one I used when in New Zealand and Australia it’s now finally here in the UK: Seasol.
Maxicrop I have been getting the 10L bottles of this which is usually £40 to £50, Maxicrop 10L seaweed*, Maxicrop Original Seaweed Extract, 1 Litre*.
Empathy seaweed is also great, but can’t find any site selling that at the moment.
A good layer of home made compost can be a great boost.
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi,
I love your website, thank you so much for being here.
Keeping my fingers crossed that you have a better year ahead, and can get a good place for your new nursery.
I fell in love with feijoas as a child, in a much milder climate than northern England. But a generic variety has been quite happy in my garden – except that it can’t fruit on its own, so am looking for a companion plant. Are you growing your New Zealand varieties in the open or in the greenhouse? How are they doing now?
Many thanks,
Pol
Hi Pol,
Thank you very much really appreciate the well wishes.
I am growing the NZ varieties in my small greenhouse, just popping out to see which is doing best, the 3 varieties I have are Gemini, Mammoth and Triumph all are roughly 45cms tall, this is the second season in the greenhouse. Gemini has about 100 flower buds, I’ll reduce that down to 30 for such a small plant, Mammoth and Triumph each have roughly 10 flower buds each. They’re currently in a 25L pot from Elixir Garden – Strong Black Plastic Plant Pot / Flower Pots / Seed Planter in Various Sizes*, with: Multi-Purpose – Melcourt* compost, except a friend said that this years mix hasn’t been as good for feijoas, if you do use it add a lot of nitrogen straight away. The supply I got this year has not been great for my courgettes, everything else has grown very well. For slow release nitrogen I use Alfaplan Alfalfa Pellets / Nuts 20kgs* with Seaweed Meal Fertiliser 10kg | Plant Feed, Lawn Conditioner, Soil Fertiliser* and the quick boost Maxicrop 10L seaweed* or the smaller bottle Maxicrop Original Seaweed Extract, 1 Litre*.
As they grow they will be moved up to 40L builder trugs or Elixir Gardens Large Plant Pot/Tree & Shrub Pots with Handles | 30, 35, 50, 75, 80, 95, 110 & 130 L Plastic Planter Pots in 1-10 Quantities* which I have been using a bit more of since losing the farm as it keeps them portable and easy to move in the hope there’s positive news in the future and if I can find some land again in my price range.
Hope that helps and you have fruit soon. I will be taking cuttings this year and will see if I can get the NZ varieties to grow and fruit outdoors.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav, I hope your health is improving and 2021 is being better to you than the previous couple of years.
Thank you so much for your website, my fiancé is a kiwi and we weren’t sure if we could grow feijoa in the UK until we found your site! Now we have three small trees in our garden in Peterborough that seem to be settling in pretty well. Lots of buds and new growth and even a few flowers 🙂
I was wondering whether we will need to wrap the trees in fleece to protect them over the winter? Or if there is anything else you would recommend to protect them from the frost?
Also, do you know if/how to take a cutting to grow on? We have some friends that would also like to try growing.
Any advice would be gratefully received!
Thanks,
Leah
Hi Leah, great to hear you have feijoas growing and you have had flowers already. Although the plants can survive the winter and frosts (as long as you don’t have to move them as we did in January 2021) as you have 3 plants I would probably fleece them at least for the first 2 to 3 years after planting, they should be strong enough after then, also add a thick layer of mulch around the base of the trees about now mid October to keep ground warmth in, try not to let the mulch hit the trunk as it can rot it especially on smaller plants.
We start between 20 and 200 plants each year from the best fruit of the previous year and treat the plants very hard after the first year which means leaving them out to be covered in snow, hard frosts etc. as we’re trying to get strong plants that survive the Scottish weather, we lose a lot, but hope to get a more resilient plant over the years.
This was during the 2018 Beast from the East:
As for cuttings, I am very hit and miss when it comes to cuttings, I have one particular 15 year old tree that produces the best fruit (although still not as good as the NZ varieties) I’ve taken 100s of cuttings off it and not one has taken, I have started layering it and the first layered plant looks to be taking but it’s taken 2 years sitting in a mix of sand, soil and topped with moss. Other plants I can take cuttings from March through September and they have 100% success rate, they seem to be the seedlings from 2016 and 2017 that made it through the bad weather of 2018, none of those have fruited yet and I’m not even sure it’s worth taking cuttings from but as I prune them for shape I never let anything cut off go to waste, just in case.
As my energy increases I will be setting up a few new trials and post about them on here, but it may take me a bit. From an email copy and paste: I had the aorta replacement heart surgery on the 4th of August and am still recovering. During the op I had 3 strokes (2 very small, 1 medium) which has increased my Dystonia shakes, causing both my ankles tendons to rupture again (longus tendon or brevis tendon can’t remember which as on one ankle they had to swap them around after tearing the other), my right hand is currently almost useless and I struggle to chew. Things are have been improving, as I left the hospital I struggled to see or remember a lot of words my eyesight is back to 100% and my vocabulary still limited is a lot better now. The doctors are very hopeful that I should get back to my normal range of movements over time. Hopefully be getting back into full swing of feijoa growing as soon as I can 😀.
Hope to be more help in the future.
Cheers,
Gav.
Many years ago we looked after Old Kea Churchyard and one of the shrubs which we
Planted was an acca. It is in a sheltered position immediately adjoining the entrance
The wall against which it is planted is listed,so I thought it would be safe.
I a nearly 94 and now live nr Perranporth and as I am disabled for some years, I have not been
able to visit. From memory it must have been planted in 2012.
At the time we were also running a small plant business and the shrub would have been
Three years old
At that time it would have come from Trewithen Nurseries who were really classy growers, but sadly the very skilled manager, Luke, was lost when the family closed Trewithen Nurseries.
Fantastic William, that’d be a perfect place for it!
Hopefully someone living near the Old Kea Churchyard will be able to let us know if it’s still there.
You may be interested to know that the scientists at Kew Gardens reclassified and rename the Latin name from Acca sellowiana to Feijoa sellowiana in 2019. It’s the only species in the genus, they found that there was enough difference from Acca lanuginosa and Acca macrostema that it needed to be split.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Glad to hear you are on the mend!
I am a kiwi living in Scotland for 11 years, currently in Fife.
My Auntie kept sending me pics of Feijoa back home which lead me to find your website a couple of years ago and you inspired me to grow some here! Unfortunately you weren’t selling at the time but I did get a couple of plants from down south.
I got plenty of flowers the first year and this year but only two fruit the first year and none this year! but the plants seem strong and have more than doubled in size.
The recent storm wreaked havoc in the backyard and broke panes in the glasshouse, one of the Feijoa took a hammering from the wind and all the leaves have shrivelled up! I have it inside now and hope lots of TLC will bring it back. I was thinking of giving it a really hard pruning in the hope that the growth will go into the roots, what do you think ?would that work or maybe stress it out even more?
Anyway , I have meant to connect for ages but never got around to it.
Take care and all the best
Hi Jayson,
great to hear you managed to get some plants.
Sorry to hear about the damage, glass houses can really cop it! About half of my greenhouse is now Twinwall Polycarbonate due to storm damage in the past.
My Auntie (In NZ) and sister (in Oz) do the same, so many photos of feijoas.
The storms were bad, first time I had a lot of broken branches when they weren’t heavy with fruit, even small plants snapped. A bit late in the year for cuttings but I have used all the broken branches as cuttings in the off chance.
You can indeed try cutting them back hard. Below is one of my first plants, it was when I was still testing if they’d grow, I let a few bush out with multiple trunks.
In the move all the plants with single trunks either died completely or their tops died and the base of the trunk put out lots of suckers.
I gather your plant is looking something like this?
A hard cut back can work wonders, this one started to grow back in May this year:
I only have a small greenhouse think it’s 2.4m x 2m which meant I only managed to get 3 of the 15 year old plants in there, the others were put on the grounds at a friends nursery and none got their leaf coverage back, but some did put a lot of suckers out at the base, have started layering them.
Young plant that the top died off, but sent out a lot of suckers.
15 year old plant, the top didn’t survive but there’s a fair few suckers.
Hope to find some land and get things running again in the near future. Managed to save about 200 plants from the farm, most that survived are young third generation plants that seem to be tougher for the Scottish climate, the majority aren’t at fruiting age yet and only managed a total of 16 fruit this year, a real disappointment, but the process of getting the strongest plants continues.
Collecting the seeds from one of the fruit last night:
Hope that all makes sense, the 3 strokes have messed up my ability to process thoughts and restricted my motor skills more than even the Dystonia does, I had to be EXTRA careful when using the secateurs and use Kevlar based gloves, I wouldn’t have bothered taking the cuttings if it were any other plant 😉.
Cheers,
Gav
Hey Gav
I’m another ex-Tok kid living in the UK. Was amazed to find your website when trying to tell friends about Feijoa’s.
The only time I’ve ever seen them in the UK was on the river side wall of Hampton Court Palace when they were flowering. Meant to go back during the fruiting season, to see if any had fallen off but Covid happened.
After reading that it’s possible to grow them from pots I’m definitely keen on tracking some down. What would suggest on age and size to buy them? Or is it just the luck of the draw as to what is available?
Cheers
Jodi
Hey Jodi,
Thought you might appreciate the Kinleith pub on the Water of Leith up here in Edinburgh.
Thanks hadn’t heard of the plant at Hampton Court, will have to update the where to find Feijoas in the UK.
Burncoose nursery sell named varieties and I’d suggest ‘Gemini’ being the earliest to fruit of the ones they sell. It does well in pots, I haven’t kept this one as bushy as it should be but as you can see loads of flowers (this year has been a bit of a mess for me), I’d thin them down to about 2/3 or even 1/2 to make sure the plant has energy to create fruit.
Put them somewhere very sunny and if you can protect them from the wind especially in winter even moving them indoors then you’d definitely get some fruit.
There’s more about buying plants on here: where to buy feijoa plants.
Hope that helps and you have fruit in the next year!
Cheers,
Gav.
Haha, love the pub pic. Will have to hunt it out next time we’re in Leith.
Thanks for the tips. Will be looking into that today.
Glad to hear you’re on the mend.
Jodi
Hi Gav
I hope your health has improved.
I lived in nz for over 6 years and was addicted to feijoa.
A few weeks back, whilst holidaying in France I found some very well priced feijoa trees and bought them back to Devon.
They have started to look a bit crispy and unhappy, but I have put them in better soil and mulched.
I’m hoping they recover well enough to fruit in a few years.
As we are planning to move, I have put them in large pots.
I will send you some pictures.
See what you think. As the Devon climate is quite similar, I’m really hoping that they do well.
Best wishes,
Almond
Gemini and triumph
Some results from Framlingham, Suffolk for the trees I bought at the start of the year. The Unique and Apollo varieties looked like they had been in the nursery for a couple of years, so I put them in 25l pots and left a few hand pollinated flowers on them, mainly to see how the ripening would go.
We had an exceptionally hot summer, followed by a very mild autumn, so these results may be better than an average year.
Unique ripened and dropped starting 10th of November. The fruit were around 80 grams and of good quality. Much the same taste as NZ grown Unique.
The first Apollo came off at the touch today and weighed in at 139 grams. I have two more fruit on this tree of similar size yet to drop. The taste was very good, basically the same as NZ grown Apollo, although perhaps a little more sour closer to the skin.
It looks like here in Suffolk Unique will be a good bet for most summers, whereas Apollo may not ripen in an average summer, but time will tell.
The picture is of the Apollo.
Fantastic Andrew!
I had a terrible year this year, we had less than 1cm of rain between December 2021 and the start of August 2022. Obviously once the Edinburgh Fringe started it pretty much rained every day. Most of the surviving plants didn’t flower until October and are still in flower now. I should remove the flowers, but after the strokes have become light sensitive and can’t go outside unless very overcast and so many other jobs.
The few I could manage to water are dropping fruit now. Not many but they are bigger than usual.
Cheers,
Gav.
keep, up the physio you,ll only cheat yerself.
Hi, I’m new to growing Feijoas in the uk but grew up in nz and loved the flowers and the fruit when I was younger. I have 6 plants of different varieties but they are suffering from an attack from something I can’t figure out.
Has anyone else had this problem?
There seems to be a tiny caterpillar that forms a white sticky weblike stuff between leaves and glues them together. Also brown leaves and stalks were there was previously new growth.
Hi Tara, great that you have 6 Feijoa trees. Not sure on the caterpillar, possibly take some photos to upload here and hopefully can find out more. It may be leafroller caterpillars, the caterpillar of the Tortricidae moth family. Not sure which one, but I get them on plants here in Scotland, best way to deal with them is have the plants close to wear birds nest and feed, birds such as Great Tits or House Sparrows will go through all plants taking out the pests.
Brown leaves and stalks can be a few reasons, most common is overwatering, I have been guilty of this when I want to try and take good care of the plants 😉. Next one is if they’re in pots it can be vine weevil, the grubs get into the pots and attack the roots.
Once again I have this a fair bit at the moment being forced to have 200+ plants in pots very close together, I come across vine weevil adults even in the house. The third could be a bit of burn from frosts, very common at this time of year for a random frost to burn new growth. Protection from frosts for new growth could be used or just leave them in place to protect the growth closer to the stem. Once chances of frosts are over, early June in Scotland, see if any growth comes back or do a bark test, scrape off a bit of bark with your fingernail or a pruning knife if under the surface is green keep it, if it’s brown cut it out.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi
I have bought a feijoa which is beautiful and hope to have fruit on it next year once it has settled into my garden. I have it in a fairly big pot and as it grows will transplant into a 40 litre pot.
I think it is a wonderful plant and the flowers look gorgeous, i have heard you can eat the petals when in bloom also.
I also purchased a packet of 10 seeds which i will be starting next spring and eventually would like to be able to sell them or seeds from their fruit.
I have enjoyed reading the comments and replies, which answers questions i lmay have had.
Keep up the good work and i would also like to get these plants noticed more in the UK.
Hi Christine, that’s fantastic that you have a plant. I have found 40L pots are great for plants up to about 1 metre, once they get bigger, I started using 73L Builders trugs that have a lot of drainage holes drilled into the bottom. Some have plants that are 17-year-old in them that were transplanted when we had to move.
Yes, you can eat the petals, they’re very nice. I have one plant I have named “Strawberrys and Cream” as the petals are lovely however the fruit on that one is terrible, and it grows great from cuttings, better than any plant in the past, wish it had great fruit. If you want fruit on the plant, just make sure you only take the petals but leave the central parts of flower intact, the stigma, style, ovary etc.
Hope you get some flowers and fruit next year.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hello, do you know where I can buy Unique seeds please. Thanks very much.
Sorry for the very late reply, the message for some reason went to spam. I haven’t been able to find Unique plants or seeds in the UK. They’re meant to be a great plant for UK climate.
Cheers,
Gav
Hello
I am living near Te Aroha but will be moving to Scotland (near Glasgow) in the near future.
I have 6 feijoa trees so I am saving the seeds from the different varieties.
I can post some seeds to you if that might help with your endeavours and me in the future?
Hi Tracey, thanks so much, always after more seeds to try. Have just asked my uncle in Napier for some more a few weeks back, normally try and get them from my aunt in Middlemarch, as it’s the coldest place I know of to grow feijoas and closer to Scotland temperature wise, but they only manage to fruit every 5 or 6 years.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hello,
I recently bought a Feijoa plant, after reading that it can withstand UK weather. I have it in a pot, ready to move indoors, should it suffer from the temperature drop in the Highlands.
While looking up info on the plant development online, I happened upon your page and I would like to get in touch, as I read that you are successfully growing Feijoas in Scotland.
Kind regards
Ivana
Hi Ivana, sorry for the slow response. A neighbour cut the network cable whilst cutting their hedge, took the internet down for a few houses in the area. Great to hear you have a new feijoa plant. Let me know what information you want to know.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav,
Just came across your site and am writing because I live in Edinburgh (sunny Gilmerton) and you have inspired me to try and get a feijoa plant!
Do you sell them yourself?
Will let you know how I get on anyway and send very good wishes for your health.
Ruth
Hi Ruth, sadly don’t grow enough to sell the trees myself. Gilmerton should have the extra benefit from the city heat, if you can find a sheltered sunny spot it should grow well. From my testing I’d suggest the cultivar Gemini, not sure if they’re currently available but worth looking for it.
Cheers,
Gav.
I have still never even tasted one, but I’ve been growing a plant for about 5 years and it has finally flowered for the first time this week. I was concerned I had given it too much of a hard life but it seems to have survived! Fingers crossed we might get something in the next year or two!
Fantastic Tin-Tin. Hopefully you will have fruit during the autumn and you enjoy it.
Cheers,
Gav.
Kia ora Gav
I live in New Zealand, my son is now living in West Sussex and really misses feijoa fruit from his childhood and is keen to spread the Feijoa love around. He has some land and is keen to grow feijoas in the hope he could get them to fruit to a commercial scale some time in the future. How would you recommend he go about this? Should he grow from NZ seed or buy Sellowiana plants here and hope they fruit?
Replied via email 😀