I wish I could give you some insight or explanation, but I am still trying to figure out why mine didn't even flower after all the cold weather we had. Go figure.

Harry

I have 6 Feijoa's planted about 6' apart (no grafted cv's, all from seed). I have anywhere between 2-6 fruits on each plant. Mine are all pretty small, probably between a marble and golf ball.

They are making some good growth, so I am hoping thatI get more next year.

Hi Harry, that is very strange that you didn't get blooms especially with all the cold weather we had...maybe you are just a little too far south?

Jb, good to know I'm not the only one with only a "few" fruits. At least its good to know seedlings are capable of fruiting. I sure hope my tree is just waiting to get more mature.

I have been volunteering at the J C Raulston Arboretum here in Raleigh, NC for the past 5 years. We have several PG, one of which is quite large and at least 10 years old. About 4 years ago it was loaded with flowers and fruit, but the past 2 years it has bloomed but set only a few fruit. Part of the problem is that the only other two PG trees are some distance from this one, and it may not be getting pollinated? If so, I cannot explain why it fruited so heavily 4 years ago. This plant was selected by a group of hort. students at N C State Univ from a large number of seedlings and was named 'N C State Hardy'. In my opinion its fruit tastes as good as the PG I have bought at the local supermarket that were shipped in from Cal or New Z. I currently have about a dozen 3-year old plants that are seedlings of this 'N C State Hardy'. Does anyone have a guess re how large they have to get before they are likely to bloom? They are planted in 4-gal pots and are about 2 feet tall and almost as wide. I originally had a lot more seedlings, but these are the ones that survived outside the past two winters (plus swapped several others).

Nancy:

You might think the southern latitude is the issue. However, one of my fruit buddies (who actually bought my tree for me and one for himself as well) flowered his and he is two miles south of me on the exact same longitude. He didn't get fruit because he ate all the flowers.

Harry

Ralph, I wish I could help you out...PG is pretty new to me also. If you go by my tree, and I'm going to assume mine is a seedling as well... I bought it quite large in a 15 gallon pot...and its been in the ground for almost 4 yrs. You see I only have 3-4 very tiny fruits out of the hundreds of flowers I had. I really doubt this will mature. Sounds like this variety is very temperamental, its a good thing the tree is attractive even w/out fruits...its a nice looking tree. Good luck with your seedlings and keep us updated once they fruit.

Harry...LOL! Too funny! I did try a couple of flowers, it was pretty sweet but I decided to leave mine on the tree in hopes of fruiting( you see how well that turned out) :o) Oh well, we may never solve this mystery. Keep me updated next year if yours blooms. Thanks!

Maybe they need pollination? Just got 20 seeds on ebay, and I see little green heads poking up. If there is green, there is a plant. I put 5 seeds in 4 containers, hoping to get one each. The strong will live, and the others will get pulled.

Suzi

Hi everyone,
I have two PG, one is "Mammoth" and the other "Triumph". In my experience they need hand pollination, and they yield a lot since I do that. I take pollen from one cv using a soft brush and do pollinize the other cv, and doing so I gather pollen from cv two, then return to cv one, and so on... daily over the flowering period. This way my two plants can yield 30Kg of fruits every year.
The fruits usually remain very small and may look mis-shaped all along the summer, but they swell just before ripening and reach the size of a Kiwi fruit, 60 to 100 gr.
some people say they are pollinized by wind, but this only occur when two plants grow close together, so that the flowers brush each other in windy days. I love very much this plant, the only sub-tropical fruit that is actually hardy here, a chilly corner of Italy, and in a frost pocket as well! Last winter we had snow and temperatures dropped to - 15�C for several days, and after that they flowered even more than ever. Now they have many fruits.

Thanks Luigi...unfortunately for me the hand pollination thing did NOT work! I hand pollinated all the blooms on that large see I posted above...one ONE fruit is on the whole tree,lol...

My other tree (bush) PG, has about 8 or 10 on it...

Luigi, if you ever read this please contact me at pkubele(at)hotmail.com

I have few questions regarding your Feijoas. Thanks Paul