Feijoa sellowiana - has anyone grown this?

[targui]

Feijoa are commonly grown as a hedge in the New Zealand north island, and take hard pruning but still
manage to flower and produce fruit. They must flower on the new growth. I did not know Feijoa are
supposedly dioecious, because I have seen stand alone individuals flower and fruit. Over
the years there has been new cultivars introduced here which produce larger and superior fruit. They seem to
thrive on applications of potash and grow without problem in a variety of soils. Overall Feijoa
are very undemanding in their requirements. They are grown commercially in some areas.

[otorongo]

Each individual flower seems to last for about a week, but they open at different times, so it looks like the flowering season overall is going to be much longer. Most of my flowers haven't even opened yet, and the tree is already teeming with colour.

Re fruit - some varieties are self-fertile, some aren't. I don't know if mine is, but the first flower has fallen off already (or was pulled off by a bird?)

[Las Palmas Norte]

A very easy shrub to grow.

Cheers, Barrie.

[otorongo]

Mine still has flowers on and more are coming. That's 40 days of flowering now.

And some of the flower bases have swollen, could that be a sign of fruit starting to form?

[otorongo]

Had my first fruit today It wasn't fully ripe, but the frost had knocked it down, so I had no choice. It wasn't even very sour, it tasted like pineapple really. Looking forward to more fruit next year - it's in the ground now, so should develop a stronger root system and hopefully yield more fruit.

[Addictedtopalms26]

Did you take a picture Otorongo before you ate it? lol These look like a good plant which I'll research more

[otorongo]

Did you take a picture Otorongo before you ate it? lol These look like a good plant which I'll research more

Not today, but here is one from 11th November:


And fruit I saw in Northern California in October this year:

The leaves on that one were bigger too.

If you're after the fruit, get a self-fertile variety. But even without the fruit (which is sort of hit-and-miss in our climate anyway), it's worth getting one for the flowers.

[Nigel Fear]

There's a quite large on in my local park planted up against a sunny wall, it's tree-shaped and about 12ft. tall with a similar spread.
I walked past it this morning, but didn't see any fruits on it [ or I would have tried one], but it still had a fair few flowers at various stages of development.

[otorongo]

There's a quite large on in my local park planted up against a sunny wall, it's tree-shaped and about 12ft. tall with a similar spread.
I walked past it this morning, but didn't see any fruits on it [ or I would have tried one], but it still had a fair few flowers at various stages of development.

Wow, mine only flowers for several weeks. Maybe the one you saw was dioecious and hadn't been pollinated, and that may as well have been the reason it was still flowering?

[Nigel Fear]

Wow, mine only flowers for several weeks. Maybe the one you saw was dioecious and hadn't been pollinated, and that may as well have been the reason it was still flowering?

Could be, but considering your's started flowering mid-summer, I'm quite impressed by the potential long flowering period, even so.

Have you had significant growth in the time you've had yours?

[otorongo]

Have you had significant growth in the time you've had yours?

I've only had mine for less than a year, should have said "flowered" rather than "flowers"

It was in a pot until a week ago, when I planted it in the ground, having found the roots were coming out the drainage holes and growing into the ground underneath. It has put on decent growth though since Jan 2012 when I bought it, despite the limited root space.

[Nigel Fear]

OOPS.

[Nigel Fear]

Sounds like it's a good 'do-er' then.
I'll put one on my xmas list, should be a good alternative to Metrosideros, which I tried and killed once.

[Nigel Fear]

Sounds like it's a good 'do-er' then.
I'll put one on my xmas list, should be a good alternative to Metrosideros, which I tried and killed once.

[otorongo]

Mine is in the ground in a rather shaded spot; it gets morning and maybe midday sun, but should also get some afternoon sun one it's grown a bit taller. Has been there since around Feb - March, and its first flower of the season opened yesterday

Last year I only got one fruit of edible(-ish) size, hope I get more this year thanks to the better summer.