Thanks for the pictures larry.Is that just one plant that fruits?What's the variety?
My two are still in containers while I decide what to do with them.One is suppose to be a Coolidge from One Green World and the other an unnamed from a local Seattle nursery.They probably grew about eight inches this year. Brady

Those are nice-looking young plants, 8 inches of growth is a good sign. Mine was about that size when purchased and fruited two years later when shoulder-high. The next hurdle will be having them bloom.

I have just the one plant, pictured above. The closest ones I am aware of are six blocks and perhaps 15 blocks away. My plant was not sold as a varietal, but simply as a generic pineapple guava.

I would recommend planting yours at least six feet apart.

The one on the left came from the Seattle nursery and is a bit older.There were two or three flowers and I tried touching all of them to spread the pollen but nothing took.Is a paintbrush better?I watched a video where the guy was using about a two inch brush and going at it on the same plant.Will all Feijoas respond with fruit from their own flowers,like yours? Thanks,Brady

I have used a small brush, but lately have been simply using both hands as you can go twice as fast. Pollen from the anther tips is abundant. There is no obvious stigma as the style tapers to a point at the tip. Just get pollen onto the entire central style. The trick is of course to use fresh, viable pollen; by the time the filaments begin to fall off, it is too late.

I don't know about the ...all Feijoas respond... question, it works for mine. Different cultivars will be variably self-fertile.

Mine is a freakish plant compared to most I have seen. To keep the plant from dominating the yard, I pinch twice a year after every 12 inches of new growth. Harvested 4 pounds of fruit today, perhaps one-tenth of the crop.

Don't forget to eat the occasional petal, they are very tasty.

That's a nice plant. I would love to see a crop like that on mine, but will feel lucky to just see some fruit on it some day. My plant doesn't flower every year and I don't know why not. It's been in the ground for quite a few years and it is slow growing. I have a smaller one in a pot too, but haven't figured out where to put it yet.

While giving away fruit, I learned that the bush a few blocks away (variety Nazemetz) had made about 20 usable fruits, and about 20 more that did not fill out. The only bush of three in that yard to fruit.

I have had one for about 7 years. It was in a gallon pot when I started and now it's about 7x7', sited in a very sunny and sheltered spot. It flowers every year, but I have never seen any sign of fruit. I do eat some of the flowers and they definitely get pollinated. Other than the novelty, it isn't that exciting of a plant and sometimes I even think about giving it the old heave-ho.

The flowers are regionally unique and the leaves are silvery beneath. But it burns in cold winters.

Yes, temps in mid-20s cause leaves to dull and many to fall after a few weeks; temps in the teens may defoliate the whole plant. Below 15 degrees is said to kill next year's flower buds. Fully re-leafed by the following July.

Just passed 40 harvest pounds yesterday.

Then there's those years when it gets below 15 degrees F. I only see specimens of any vintage quite near salt water, up here minimum temperatures fall right off as you move inland. Tables of temperature records indicate Willamette Valley is colder than up here, with it getting worse (-15 degrees F. etc.) as you go down the Valley, through Salem to Eugene. Plant will be likely to be responding to hotter summers down there, but will also be at risk to occasional temperature plunges, same as up here.

The problem I had with mine in Olympia was that there wasn't enough heat in summer to ripen the fruit before winter zapped them. Bloom was late, since our springs are late too, and fruits were just forming when frost came. I wouldn't consider them a fruiting plant up here, but you could harvest all the flower petals you want. Petals are good, and it's an attractive-enough plant, but I'd need a lot more garden space and a better heat trapping microclimate before I'd bother with one again.

Oregon gets a lot more heat in summer than we do. Linda on Denman Island may be having a heat-accumulation problem too.

That might be...I would be happy just to see flowers every summer. I think it's a beautiful shrub in full flower and the petals are tasty.

I've never seen fruit around here. One thing I noticed about the photo starting this thread was the amount of flowers all present at the same time - not what I have seen here.

Vancouver area summers are cooler than in Seattle, with Portland in turn being warmer still. The rather far-reaching influence of the Fraser Outflow extends well south of the international border, with paper birch groves coming down the I-5 corridor as far south as the vicinity of Marysville. Plants I can grow just north of Seattle don't last on Camano Island. Likely outcomes in SW BC depend on how much a particular site is affected by this phenomenon.

It was another 1,000-blossom year here, perhaps half of those open at one peak time. About half the blossoms developed sizable fruit. A few laggard blooms opened in early Oct.

bboy, I'm about a mile from you and similar distance from salt water and at a similar elevation. I rarely look at my plant close-up since its a bit of a scramble to get to, but I remembered that fruit was developing about two months ago, so today I decided to brave the rain and climb up there for a look. There are six fruits approaching 2" long, the largest nearly 1" wide, so I picked it. Its hard as a rock, I'll let it sit on the counter for a few days near other ripening fruit and see what happens.

The plant did bloom quite heavily. I built a raised bed from concrete chunks in a warm SW facing corner up against two existing concrete walls, seems to like it there.

Interesting. And you do have to get right up to the bush to notice some scattered fruit. 2x1 fruit could be usable, 3 days at room temperature should soften them. I don't pick mine when rock-like, but you may be running out of time before a hard freeze.

The final score here was 618 fruits weighing 63 pounds, harvested from 3Nov to 8Jan.

larry gene,
That's great!If mine produce a tenth of that one year,I'd be ecstatic. Brady

The harvest total on my bush for 2013 was 83 pounds. Another 15 pounds were discarded due to rot, runts, or predation.

This is a similar yield to that of some commercial plantings.

It looks like it gets better every year Larry.That gives me some hope.Thanks,Brady

You can grow the plants in the NW, like a Loquat, but I doubt you will get any fruit.

says the man who clearly didn't read the whole thread.

Hi! I grew up in CA and had access to a Feijoa farm for many years. I live in SW WA now and purchased a few plants a few years ago from a nursery in Portland based on your article above. (the encouragement that these fruits CAN be grown here. :) ) While I haven't gotten any fruit, I DID get 2 flowers this year. Woohoo! I can't seem to time my trips to CA correctly so haven't eaten any Feijoa's in at least 5 years - bummer!!! Does anyone know where I can purchase some locally? Any chance the author, larry_gene has a surplus this year? :)

Danny, you can contact me through any of the business emails listed on the Contact page of the www dot ledress dot com website. There is a fair crop this year that will begin ripening in about 2 weeks. Use the word feijoa in the email title.

This topic was started 4 years ago, so for plants bought after then to have started blooming is about right.

Keep an eye on smaller grocers such as QFC, they have had seasonal feijoas in SW Washington in the past.

Enjoyed a second year of harvest here in Salem, Oregon, 500' elevation. Have built frost protection for each plant with Christmas lights to provide heat during sub-freezing days. So far, this method has worked to keep trees viable without major leaf drop.

That is a fine effort, I did the same in year 2 (1994), but the plant then grew too big. I did put a 250-watt heat lamp near the base a couple of years during periods of no wind.

2017 crop: 726 fruits weighed 60 pounds, 3 ounces. Small fruits averaging only 1.3oz. Only one fruit weighted > 3oz. Photo is from January 2017. All leaves dropped by April.

Amazing White Christmas pic! Something to look forward to as the trees in my yard grow. My initial 4 plants were planted in 2012, they lost all their leaves that winter, so dug them up and potted them to try to bring them back. Brought them inside the following two winters, then replanted them in Spring of 2015. First flower on June 15, 2015, 13 fruit the following summer of 2016. This Fall of 2017, harvested about 60 fruit and still picking, though I don't know if the ones still on will ripen. Made Feijo jam and a couple of crumble dishes. Wondering about how to make future crops available New Zealanders living in the PNW who might crave a taste of home.

Loss of feijoa leaves here to cold weather has not caused a proportional reduction in harvest. Below +15 may cause sparse or late blooming in spring; June 15 is a bit late for first bloom but anything blooming by 1 July should result in fruit. Fruit left on until the New Year tends to desiccate and turn brown and leathery inside, even with no apparent external change. Fruit that is not still rock hard will ripen indoors.

Feijoa fans seem to come out of the woodwork. I have donated fruit to a local CSA for distribution to the members. Main problem with feijoa locally is it ripens so late that other fruit and festivals, even farmer's markets, are long over.

If you are at 500 feet (downtown Salem is 150'), that must be the South Hills area, otherwise it seems you would have to go to Stayton for that elevation. I would recommend winter mulch once plants are in-ground because you have much colder nights than Portland. If you have a dehydrator, consider thin-slicing (1/8" max) with peel intact, this makes very tasty chips.

Your input and experience with these little gems is greatly appreciated. I will definitely pick the late commers tomorrow and bring them in to ripen. Thanks for your suggestion on drying them. It will provide a great way to extend their usefulness. I was introduced to this tasty fruit by my son's Kiwi in-laws, and acquired a taste for them while visiting down under.

Coolridge and Nikita variities were planted, plus propagated cuttings from the same. Also have some unknown varieties started from seed...20 plants in all. I plan to remove those which prove to be unfruitful. Thanks also for the suggestion to mulch their base. Do you think late blooming is due to cool ground temperature here? Perhaps the cover of dark mulch may also help resolve that issue!

The late blooming of my feijoa bush simply follows the trend of other plants in the yard/neighborhood, the variance is no more than 2 or 3 weeks, but those weeks can be critical to the eventual sizing/ripening of the fruit at this latitude and climate.

Of the several plantings in the Portland area I am aware of, only the most mature plants produced fruit this year after the previous harsh winter. A plant that puts out over a thousand blooms just has a better chance of fruiting in a marginal year.

I had two three year old trees that were cold weather protected produce fruit for the first time this past summer...total of 5! It was worth the effort to tent them. I understand that as the trees mature they can be more cold weather tolerant.

Seattle (windy Ballard neighborhood) has been mild this winter, with only a few nights below freezing and the lowest temperature around -25 F degrees at my house. My 10-yr-old feijoa bush still has a few small fruits that drop occasionally. Summer 2017 was a fabulous flowering year, producing a light spring flush and a heavy mid-summer flush. The spring flowers did not form fruit (absolutely NO honeybees this year), so I hand-pollinated the summer flowers several times by touching robust flowers to other open flowers and got probably > 200 fruits. I had read that hand pollination is abut 95% successful, whereas natural pollination is poor (maybe 25% successful).

By November, I had harvested about 5 ripe/75 unripe fruits that I washed and stored in the fridge, and air-ripened in small batches on the counter. Most stayed very sour, with a sweeter interior that reminded me of those pastel Smarties candiess (the US candy, not the UK chocolate kind). Only a few fruits achieved that creamy, ethereal floral-scented pineapple-strawberry-kiwi taste that I remembered from New Zealand, but it was enough to inspire me to make earlier hand-pollination efforts this year. It is my favorite fruit, after tomato.

One thing I have noticed is that despite the leathery leaves and apparent drought tolerance, my feijoa needs a lot of water when fruiting—like a good soaking every few days—for the fruit to form normally. Otherwise they produce small fruits about the size and shape of my outer thumb joint without much moisture or flavor.

I bagged my feijoa fruit with homemade small frost cloth bags, secure the bag to a branch with a clothespin. This is in addition to providing frost covers for the plants as a whole. Knowing how easy this fruit bruises, catching the fruit when they disconnect from the branch in these bags works great. We had a couple of mild weather weeks in January, and was surprised to find some ripe fruit in a couple of bags still left on the tree. For pollinating this coming season, try using a couple of cutips taped to a stick, a soft small paint brush, or even a feather. I potted a couple of plants, and after a few months of chill, brought them into the sunshed. One plant is starting to bud out already!

Glad to hear of edible success up north. Low temps here this winter was +21.7F and a handful of 25's, so defoliation should be minor. I have materials on hand to do air-layering this spring; cuttings the past two years did not pan out.

Perry, what zone are you in? Do you think bags made from nylon stockings would work for frost protection? Do you fertilize your feijoas?

We are in Zone 8a. It can get down to 16F sometimes here at 540' above sea level. DeWitt Ultimate 2.5oz. Frost Freeze Protection Thermal Blanket is the material I would recommend for tenting your plants. I also would put a layer of clear plastic over the frost cloth to double insulate, plus Christmas lights around the base of the tree which should come on when the temp goes below freezing.

I Fertilized with 16/16/16 and add a high Phosphorus blooming fertilizer as well. Here are photos taken from Feijoas Origins, Cultivation and Uses by Grant Thorp and Rod Bieleski purchased while in New Zealand. Their August is equivalent to our March-April

I understand that once the trees are well established, such frost protection may not be needed. But I would rather err on the side of caution and provide some protection when temps here stay in the teens.

I am crazy about feijoa/pineapple guavas and am looking for a source of fruit to purchase. Anyone have any? I am in McMinnville Oregon and am willling to drive or pay for shipping.

I have 3 varieties planted but have had very little harvest.

Hopefully, these bagged feijoas will be ready for market in November-January here in South Salem. The bags catch them as they fall to prevent bruising. How old are your trees? When did you plant them?

I'd cool it with the phosphorus applications, as it says in Table 6.1 in your above picture you should be testing before adding much more fertilizer. And if you used a 16-16-16 formulation AND a "high phosphorus blooming fertilizer" you applied a double dose of the P.

https://puyallup.wsu.edu/lcs/

2019 crop totals: 467 fruits weighed 58 pounds. The fruits were larger this year, averaging fully 2 ounces with 32 fruits 3 ounces or heavier (there were no 4-ounce fruits). Harvest was from 25Oct > 25Nov.

Last June, several small birds (chickadees, finches?) tore off over 600 blossoms when eating the petals. This may have helped bump up the average fruit size.

We will be eating them for another 10 days.

Other plantings in SE Portland and just west of Portland bore fruit this year.