Feijoa – Acca sellowiana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acca_sellowiana

Sometimes called pineapple guava – this is a very productive long lived cold tolerant large bush or tree.

See my earlier post also – https://www.chickenfish.cc/bio/feijoa/

Coming originally from the Peruvian Andes it is a very cold resistant evergreen plant. I have them growing in a space where there is high wind and they can often get snowed on.

It needs a lot of food to fruit well and a good on-going steady water supply through it’s fruiting period. When you see the flowers form dump as much manure and other related food onto it as possible and then keep it generally well watered underneath near the root system – or at least very heavily mulched. I use 20cm thick layers of Lucerne straw around the base all year.

The flowers and fruit forms on the new growth from the current growing season and tends to be on the outer edges where the sun hits the leaves. For this reason it actually works well as a hedge where you prune different patches of the bush each year to keep it in shape.

Once the flowers have dropped and the fruit is forming it is very hard to spot them till they advance in size. Often you are surprised by the bountiful load of fruit forming in late summer and autumn.

To harvest you basically wait for the fruit to fall off onto the ground. Then wait for it to soften up off the tree/bush. This makes it a very good fruit for transport or storing for a while.

Fruit drop starts in autumn and on into early winter.

It is really difficult to propagate these plants except by cutting or grafting. Best to leave this one to the experts unless you want to punish yourself…

The taste is difficult to explain aside from being very ‘fruity’ and it tastes best when it has fully ripened and is soft to the touch and almost brown inside. When you can basically squeeze it and the centre squishes out – it is at its best. You can also smell the ripe fruit easily… it has a fantastic aroma.

The ripe fruit freezes very well.

Green fruit is truly awful and tastes like chalk and lemon juice mixed.

There are many cultivars and it is worth looking for a good flavoured one. Some large ones are just bland…

The flowers although small are very spectacular and all parts are edible.