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
Hi Gav,
Trust you are feeling better.
I bought a Feijoa plant from a garden centre near Milton Keynes. Label doesn’t say whether it is a self fertile plant. Have I wasted £30?
cheers
s
Hi Sunitha, Hope all’s great with you! Thanks for the well wishes, back’s getting a bit better 😃, heart still need the surgery.
I don’t think you’ve wasted the cash, many aren’t listed as self fertile but are 😃. It’s always worth having 2 different types even if the plant is self fertile, you’re more likely to get fruit. Even if you can keep one plant very small near a bigger plant you can then cross pollinate. Hope you find that you have fruit soon.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi I bought a seedling a couple of years ago, it’s now about 4’ but still in a pot. Can I keep in a pot or if I plant it can I keep it cut back to approx 5’ by pruning in spring like common myrtles? I don’t really have much space to let it grow to it’s full height, tho I’m not sure how high they would grow in this country. It’s currently in a warm sunny and sheltered spot.
Hi Maeve, great to hear you have a plant and sounds like it’s in a good spot. You definitely can keep it in a pot, I’ve got 7 test plants in my small greenhouse in pots that are currently fruiting, 4 are under 150cm (5′) most are smaller than 90cm (3′). I know the text books say that the flowers of feijoa grow on new growth however I’ve often found they grow on older stems and especially last years growth. Therefore I don’t prune for size/cuttings until September / October after I know where the fruit will be.
Feijoas in the UK can grow to decent heights, there’s a great example at Kew Gardens.
Photo from: Landscape Architects Page.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav. I’m a fellow Kiwi living in the Cotswolds. I have a feijoa I picked up in Cornwall about 10 years ago. Previous years I have had a few flowers that I pollinated with a brush and did get some success but nothing edible. This year due to the long warm summer I have about 100 fruit and still some flowers. Most of the fruit are only the size of an olive but I have about 6 that look pretty decent. Should I pick them before the first frost or leave them to ripen. Dave
Hey Dave, fantastic that you’ve got fruit! One of the best ways to get more fruit in the future is thin the 100 down to about 20 to 30 and the tree will put more energy into the fruit that are left.
I’d keep an eye on the weather and if it looks like a bad frost take them off. I’ve had fruit on the trees here down to -5C with no damage to the fruit but not worth risking it. In the future I’d suggest taking half off before frosts and leave half on to see what happens. Not worth risking it in the first year of fruiting though 😉!
Cheers,
Gav.