A few questions have come in about the size of the UK grown fruit. As many people have found you can occasionally come across small imported fruits to buy in stores such as Harrods, Sainsburys and Tesco that have been picked before they’re ripe to send to the UK. These can taste OK, but are never as nice as fruit that have dropped from a tree when ripe.
Although not as big as the mammoth ones grown in NZ of 100 to 200 grams most of the UK grown feijoa fruit are around the 50 grams region. Each year the fruit has been getting bigger.
A couple of photos from the 2019 feijoa crop weighing in at 57 and 64 grams:
Sorry about the quality of the photos, very hard not to get reflections in the window of the scales.
Hi Gav,
I’m an Aus. living in Milton Keynes and have got about a dozen or more Feijoas that I have grown from seed from my daughter in Christchurch, NZ
Trouble is, they are about 3 inches high, where can I put them in my heavy clay soil?
Also, Take care of yourself. You need to bloom and set seed here as well! The UK needs all the help it can get from we southerners.
Regards, Carol
Hey Carol, Thanks for the well wishes 😃. Oz now has a decent feijoa industry. I spent a lot of my childhood in Newcastle, Australia and family and friend now message about their fruit trees. Even the places where it gets to -10C on a winters night and +45C on a summers day are doing well with fruit.
Great to hear you’ve got some plants! Always good to have more feijoa trees growing 😃. I’d suggest keeping them in pots for a while longer, 20 to 30cm would be a good height. Milton Keynes should be good and once you’re ready the warmest spot in the garden, if you have a wall or fence that heats up in the sun placing them in front of the warmth will help a lot. Clay is very fertile but can take a while to warm up, the best thing to help with clay is to mulch in late September / early October and give a good feed in March / April.
They can be very slow to grow.
Cheers,
Gav