Happy New Year everyone! Update on growing feijoas in the UK I’ve added a new post on where to buy feijoa trees: Grow your own feijoa plants.
Since starting our small feijoa farm we’ve had a few people ask “how are the plants pollinated in the UK?”
Funnily enough much the same way as in New Zealand. One of the big pollinators in New Zealand is the introduced European Blackbird (Turdus merula). There is research into the fact that the bigger UK bumblebees, also introduced to New Zealand may be good pollinators. Smaller insects seem to be less successful.
Although Blackbirds are often in the feijoa plants they haven’t yet been seen pollinating the plants. The birds found most amongst the plants here are Robins (Erithacus rubecula), Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Coal tits (Periparus ater). As we grow everything organically they seem to be most interested in clearing the plants of possible insects.
Bees haven’t been seen on the flowers, however the flowers are very popular with wasps. Not sure what types of wasps visit the flowers. There’s a photo below if anyone knows the name would be greatly appreciated.
The feijoas are planted up with insect attracting plants such as Verbena bonariensis, Lavendars and Foxglove (Digitalis) to try and attract pollinators at different seasons to extend the fruiting season.
Growing Feijoas in the UK, insect pests?
With the North of New Zealand being hit particularly hard by the Australian Guava Moth (Coscinoptycha improbana) we are constantly on the look out for UK pests. There doesn’t currently seem to be any UK based insect pests for the feijoas. Just to be on the safe side and being 100% organic the farm is also planted up with plants such as Achillea Filipendulina to attract hoverflies (Syrphidae) that are preditory insects.
Update 31/07/2023: Growing Feijoas indoors:
As a few people have asked about growing feijoas indoors I thought I’d give it a go, I have a small greenhouse and put a few of my favourite plants in there to see how they go. I open the door every day to let birds in, not something people will be doing if growing indoors, even with that the leaves and stems got heavily hit by scale. Now that I also have a few 100 plants in close proximity scale pops up on them as well, the birds do remove a better job outside and don’t get to be a problem.
Scale:
How to tell if you have scale on your feijoa plants, they get black sticky areas on leaves or the stem as seen in the photo below, sorry about the quality I struggle to take photos these days (not great for someone that worked as a professional photographer). The scale insects, not sure which type they are, create black sooty mould on the leaves, this can weaken the leaves and plants due to lack of photosynthesis, it can be washed off with water or a weak soap and water mix if needed. If the infestation gets too bad cut the worst regions back hard.
More on scale insects can be found here: Scale insects / RHS Gardening.
More on black sooty mould can be found here: Sooty moulds / RHS Gardening.
Photo of scale insect on feijoa leaf as well as the black sooty mould.
Late fruiting feijoas.
A quick final note for this post. Going into the start of 2020 we still have a few fruit falling from the plants, the fruit have been very sweet! Seeds from the largest fruit in the photo below will be kept and grown to try and create a late large fruiting crop for 3 to 5 years down the line. It’ll hopefully be a perfect Christmas feijoa for fellow Kiwis missing the taste of New Zealand feijoas.
Hi there- I’m ankiei in the UK who dearly misses feijoas. I see you donr sell the trees but do you sell the fruit when in season?
Hi Sonya,
Although we don’t sell the trees, sadly not enough of them yet. There are a few sellers selling plants on eBay and Amazon, I’ve added a few of their links on the recent page here:
https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/
As for season, depending on the weather it can run from mid November until mid January. We’re still very small so there’s not a lot at the moment. Hoping in coming years we’ll be able to supply more.
Cheers,
Gav.
Just to say that I was given some Feijoa seeds in New Zealand and all seem to have sprouted. What do I do now? At the moment they are about a cm. high.
That’s fantastic Carol! Glad to know there are more growers out there.
Mine from 2019/20 fruit are currently about 2cm tall they are very slow growing at seedling stage. I will be doing method 1 in about a month or two, weather dependant.
Wondering how many leaves they have? Are the roots starting to come through the bottom of the seed tray? Or have you gone for the grow on paper towel method?
Method 1:
If you’ve got them in a seed tray leave them until the roots are really coming out the bottom and they have a good amount of leaf coverage. Probably 4 or 5 rows of leaves. Then prick the plants out always hold by a leaf and not the stem, try to keep as much root as possible, put them into pots in the range of 7cm to 10cm size. Use a good free draining peat free potting mix. Possibly try some Miracle Gro Peat Free All Purpose Enriched Compost* to grow it in. It looks very similar to what I’m currently using. I’ll be trying the 8cm x 8cm: Coir pots* in the future to cut down on plastic, but currently have plastic horticulture trays that I use.
Method 2:
If you’re doing the damp paper towel method, gently take the seeds off the paper trying to look after the roots and then it’s exactly the same as above.
I will try and do a photo demonstration when I do my pricking out later this year.
Cheers,
Gav
Hi
I have 2 plants due to arrive from Burncoose tomorrow and two more from Primrose sometime! I’m intending to grow them in my greenhouse: will have to keep them small but fingers crossed. What soil do you recommend. Should I use ordinary compost or ericaceous or a mixture? Also, how much should I feed (and what)? I gather best not to overwater. Should I wait until the compost is quite dry? Any tips very gratefully received.
Thanks so much
Claire
Hey Claire,
Great to hear you’ve got your plants! As for watering and feeding I use seaweed feed in particular I use Maxicorp seaweed feed* of Mr Fothergill’s Seasol, I put about 30ml to 45ml to a 9 Litre watering can, that’d probably be enough for 4 plants. Most of spring I feed and water on a Friday which I refer to Feijoa Feeding Friday 😉. As it warms up and the plants need more water over Summer if the plants have dried out I often water and feed on Tuesdays as well. Once fruit starts to grow increase the feed to 45ml to 60ml in the watering can.
For compost just a standard peat free multi purpose that drains decently is good.
I was chatting with Craig on here and he recommended Sulfate of Potash and I’d forgotten about Yates Thrive 2.5kg Certified Organic Natural Sulfate Of Potash, however I can’t find an organic Sulfate of Potash in the UK. If anyone knows where to get Organic Sulfate of Potash in the UK I’d love to know.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi everybody.
I am a keen plantaholic, in north Warwickshire. My parents were keen gardeners in Cornwall for over 30 years & I knew of Feijoa from them. Down there in the 1960 s it was reconed to produce flowers but no fruit.
I have been growing a feijoa out doors ( from seed) without knowing anything about them for nearly 30 years, & yes flrs. it is now about 2.2M x 1.8M , but no fruit, until two years ago FRUIT ! 6 very small 2-3 cms long. Last year about 12 slightly bigger , the largest I ate (about a teaspoonful) it has a unique flavour. The fruit came quite late in the year & was allowed to fall unripe, but put on the window ledge to ripen .
I notice that most of our polinators seem uninterested in the flowers wasps seem to be the most . Also the style enclosing the stigma always projects from the centre of the flr. bud before the flr. opens & that at no time whilst the flower caries pollen does it open. So presumably the pollen must enter the tip of the style. & thus perhaps needs some special insect/hummingbird?
I am therefore pollenating (hopefully) with a brush, each sunny day.
Hope this is of some interest KEITH.
Hey Keith,
Fantastic that you’re getting some fruit even if they’re small. A second plant that flowers may create a good cross pollination and larger fruit.
Fruit set can be low, as low as 30%. Wasps do love the flowers and once blackbirds, wood pigeons or robins find out that the flesh of the flower is very nice to eat they do an OK job. Feijoa flowers only create pollen and no nectar, it means fewer visits from bees, however bumblebees will visit feijoa flowers for pollen if you have a lot of bumblebees nesting close by, I currently don’t seem to and still haven’t seen bees on the flowers.
The stigma is very small, about 0.3mm across, I haven’t checked to see if it’s open when the pollen is on the flower. My experience with hand pollination, the first year I had a plant grown from seed flower there was just 1 flower and I used my finger to rub the pollen across the top of the stigma, it fruited, the fruit was small but very tasty. The following year more plants flowered and I could cross pollinate them, the fruit across all the trees were a fair bit bigger.
Hope the brush pollination works and you get great fruit, would be keen to see if a second plant increased fruit size and yield. The 3 I’ve picked up from Burncoose nursery, mentioned on here: https://feijoas.uk/2020/02/19/grow-your-own-feijoas-where-to-buy-plants/ have been impressive.
Cheers,
Gav.
We have had one feijoa for 5 years but plenty of pretty flowers but no fruit – last year and this year i have tickled the flowers with a tiny paint brush but no luck with fruit – do we need another plant to be successful
thanks
Lorraine
Hi Lorraine, great to hear you’re getting lots of flowers, a second plant should help. The other thing is getting the pollen to the stigma is very important, the feijoa has a very small stigma and can be hard to get it exactly on the tip.
Hopefully your plant is self fertile and be able to get some fruit this year.
Cheers,
Gav.
Just checked out the tree in Kensington Gardens. Just the one not two trees and opposite the lodge. Would you like some photos? Lots of small flowers falling off but no fruit to see at all.
Thanks Jason, shame there’s no fruit, wondering if there were two plants and the one left is no longer getting pollinated. Really appreciate it and love to add some photos to the https://feijoas.uk/2020/03/20/feijoas-growing-in-uk-public-parks-zoos-and-gardens/ page. Thanks for checking.
Cheers,
Gav.
My wonderful friend has just gifted me a fejoa plant, approx 30cm high with two healthy stalks and more on the way. I’m nervous about planting out my precious treasure, will it be ok in my garden in the southwest of England? I have a sheltered sunny spot for it, will it need protecting through the winter? Any advice gratefully received as I’m not that green fingered but desperate for some fejoa fruit!!
Hi Sj, What a great present!
It will be perfectly fine in the ground in a sunny sheltered spot in southwest England. As for protecting through winter the best thing to do is give the area around it a good mulch in September / early October to help keep the summer warmth in the ground. This year was the first year that the trees really got damaged from the frosts as the frosts came in May when there was already new growth and the start of flower buds on the plants, some frost fleece would have helped as there’s now a lot of dead branches. The trees will be fine in the future and can handle quite a heavy frost it just means a lost year of fruit, the plants have started to grow further back on the stems and flowered but sadly too late to get to full size fruit.
They’re pretty tough, they can handle snow and frosts very well just not with new growth.
This was the Beast from the East, but it was in March and caused no problems:
Hope that helps and you have fruit in the next few years.
Cheers,
Gav.
I have a tree which was full of fruit when purchased and the next two years nothing
I called the nursery and they told it does not self fertilise I need another Fijoa with a different cultivar!!
How do i do that?
Hi David, do you happen to know what cultivar? Has the plant flowered in the years that there is no fruit?
If it has flowered then I’d suggest getting a Gemini plant from Burncoose nursery, links on here: Grow your own Feijoas. I hadn’t seen a Gemini in the UK until this year. It’s an early fruiting variety and is also self fertile, but fruits better with another variety to cross pollinate.
If it hasn’t flowered since you’ve got it, there may be a few things to try. Is it in a very sunny warm spot? If you are pruning it possibly try different times of year, I’ve found it best to do it either in late summer or around February to make sure growth has a chance to create flower buds.
Depending on type it may even need more heat and some varieties such as Mammoth are going to be hard to get to fruit outdoors in the UK and will need to be moved into a greenhouse.
Hope you have some success next year!
Cheers,
Gav
My son moved to NZ some years ago and his wife found a pile of Feijoas being put into a waste bin by a neighbour. She rescued a load for my son who says they are his favourite fruit. I think that is part of the citizen test (they passed and have two Kiwi offspring now). They sent me seed which I planted last spring. I have 6 one inch seedlings fighting the cold in a greenhouse. To speed things up I bought plants from eBay shops – 1 from edenplantsman (£8.77) and 3 from hotplantcompany (£14.99 for 3). They have all grown well, still in pots.
I see large trees cost £ 1000s so at those prices I guess the plants are seedlings.
I will report back!
Just for interest – there were purple fleshed Kiwi fruits for sale in NZ and I saved seed and will watch my 6 plants for flowers. I need at least one male unless my own old male tree can do the job. His wives once produced 2000 green Kiwi in a large greenhouse – that fell down after a snow storm and they made 4 fruit last year in the open.
The purple chemical – anthocyanin – makes you live to 120 (!?).
“Anthocyanins are a type of flavonoid, a class of compounds with antioxidant effects. Found naturally in a number of foods, anthocyanins are the pigments that give red, purple, and blue plants their rich coloring”
Hey Frank, Fantastic that you’ve got some seeds growing from NZ, the first 2 years of growing from seed are always the slowest. I have had one flower in the first year but that’s very unusual. Hopefully you get flowers soon.
Interesting about the Kiwi fruit, not tried growing in the UK. I hadn’t heard of the purple variety, how did they taste? Really fascinating had to look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinidia_melanandra thanks for that. I have heard about the purple fruit and vegetables, I have a colourful fruit and vegetable seed mix to try this year for my vegetable garden.
Cheers,
Gav
I do not think the skin was purple – but it is some time ago that we were there. I think the taste was the same as the green ones and not bland like the yellow ones.
The other NZ plant we grow are the orange (not yellow) tomatoes. They have a version of lycopene that is easy to absorb in the gut without the need of fats to help them. Also with the objective of getting to 120! There is a research effort there and they (did) even send out free seed.
I just Googled and found a great listing.
https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/table-of-tomatoes-containing-tetra-cis-lycopene/
This is the NZ institute
https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/heirloom-tomatoes/
(A bit off topic but you have NZ interests – and good for the health.
I wish there was a UK source of the best orange toms. A market opportunity?!)
Thanks Frank, that website is fantastic! I hadn’t come across it before. I wonder how Tigerella would score on the tetra-cis-lycopene scale?
Tangella which has a score of 6.13 and is a descendant of Tigerella.
The reason I ask is the 3 tomatoes I have planned for this year are: Golden Sunrise, Red Cherry and Tigerella. If I have space I will add Garden Pearl.
Next year if I can get hold of them I will be going for Golden Grape – 6.01 and Mini Olga – 6.65.
I only manage good crops of small tomatoes in my greenhouse, larger ones don’t always have the time to ripen.
Hope the purple kiwi fruit goes well, look forward to hearing about it and your feijoas.
I’ll see how my health goes and may be able to add orange tomatoes as a specialty crop in the future. Would be great to have more variety in the UK.
I am fascinated by “organic sulphate of potash”. It is an inorganic chemical – potassium sulphate!
And why is peat so evil ? – Siberia is made of it in billions of tons. And that IS organic!
I have had lots of good results with hydroponics – it only works well if the fluid mimics exactly the fluid plants get from between the soil grains in nature – inorganic chemicals all. Now pesticides are another matter . . . .
A scientist by training !
Hey Frank,
Yeah Potassium sulphate is an inorganic compound and shouldn’t be listed as “organic” instead under other names “natural formed”, “manure based” and “man made” may be better? From memory when man made it can create a build up of chlorine in the soil which can cause issues for plants. Using man made sulphate of potash once or twice a year should be no problem for feijoas.
Last time I looked into peat, the peat used in the UK comes from either Ireland or depleted UK deposits, UK peat bogs are now down to 5% of what they were with a 50% drop in the last 25 years. Totally agree it’s organic but currently best left where it is if it can be. The substitutes are getting better and quicker to regrow/recreate.
If my health recovers I am keen to start looking into hydroponics, vertical farming and learning more about it. It’s something I know very little about. Thanks for the info!
Cheers,
Gav.
I do not think the skin was purple – but it is some time ago that we were there. I think the taste was the same as the green ones and not bland like the yellow ones.
The other NZ plant we grow are the orange (not yellow) tomatoes. They have a version of lycopene that is easy to absorb in the gut without the need of fats to help them. Also with the objective of getting to 120! There is a research effort there and they (did) even send out free seed.
I just Googled and found a great listing.
https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/table-of-tomatoes-containing-tetra-cis-lycopene/
So excited to receive my first feijoa plant toady, we are now in SW Devon so will see how they like it here, we were in NZ for 12 years (Kapiti Coast) where we had a fab orchard which in cluded 20 heavily producing feijoa bushes we dehydrated them, made ice cream, gave them away and fed them to the pigs.
Hi Nikki, sorry for the slow response, a lot has been happening here and growing season is upon us spending as much time outside as possible. Sounds like a great place you were living in NZ, we always had a deep freezer for the excess that we couldn’t give away during the fruiting season, never even thought of ice cream! I do have an ice cream making machine here will have to try that.
Hope you get fruit soon!
Cheers,
Gav.
Hi Gav
We are off to Zambia in April, to start a farm. I have some Feijoa seeds in the suitcase, and am wanting to ask if you reckon they would fruit there? (Savanna – dry climate, rainy season for four months of the year, absolutely no frosts). We will have irrigation.
Many thanks for your help,
Mark
Hi Mark,
An interesting one, I know Hinterland Feijoas in Australia grow in a region where it’s considerably hotter than most feijoa growers and as far as I can see from the closest weather station Nambour: https://www.willyweather.com.au/climate/weather-stations/040988.html which is a bit closer to the coast and lower altitude, their lowest temperature is about 2.6C a max of 43.3C.
Margaret River in the South west of Western Australia which is in the brown region (H4) and into the green (H3) on the Hardiness Zones map: https://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/research/hort.research/zones.html also becoming a large producer of feijoas. Their closest weather station is once again a bit close to the coast to get an accurate guide on frosts showing their lowest temperature of -1C but average is closer to 6C https://www.willyweather.com.au/climate/weather-stations/009603.html
The best thing is to give it a go, a few people told me not to bother, including my mum, and I honestly didn’t think feijoas would grow, flower or fruit in Scotland but really wanted to try. Once I got the second generation going and found they were hardier than my original plants, the third generation are even more suited to Scotland I’ve only just started the fourth generation of plants in the last week. I’ve found it takes between 2 and 5 years to get fruit from plants grown from seed. Hopefully in Zambia with the added warmth they grow fast and you may get great crops very early.
Hope that helps.
Cheers Gav
Here in Suffolk hover flies are attracted to the flowers. They appear to feed on the surface of the petals, but can be found in the center of the flower as well, as seen in this picture of Feijoa ‘Unique’ flowering in late June:
A better photo. The hover fly was feeding quite actively on the pollen.
Hi Andrew, fantastic, thanks for sharing these photos.
I have noticed the hover flies around the feijoa plants quite a lot lately, but haven’t spotted them on the flowers. Due to having so many plants huddled together whilst waiting for a hopeful permanent home I have noticed an outbreak in scale and thought the hover flies may be attracted to those. The sparrows do a great job but still a lot on the plants. Seeing a lot of wasps on the flowers and most mornings find snail or slug trails across many flowers when especially they’re grouped together as feijoa flowers often are. Slugs/snails can make great pollinators, only issue with slugs/snails is if the plants are not self fertile.
Great work on spotting the hover fly!
Cheers,
Gav.