feijoa / pineapple guava

Photo: Gabriel Collares — CC BY 4.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Feijoa — aromatic pineapple/guava with wintergreen notes; granular pulp. Very good (better flavoured in cool regions) Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Autumn — drops when ripe

Mature size

Shrub 2–4.5 m; EXCELLENT in containers, takes hard pruning

Light

Full sun; tolerates partial

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (acid–neutral; dislikes chalk)

Environment

Subtropical highland

Native range

Southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná highlands), eastern Paraguay, Uruguay and adjacent north-east Argentina

Status

Cultivated

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, short-petioled, thick and leathery, bluntly elliptical, 2–6 cm long and 1–3 cm wide — glossy grey-green above, conspicuously silvery-white felted beneath, which is the quickest field character.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, concentrated in the top 30–40 cm. Resents disturbance, so do not cultivate around the base; mulch instead. The shallow root plate also makes it drought-sensitive while fruit is sizing and worth staking on windy sites.

Fruit description

Ovoid to oblong green berry 4–7 cm long, often faintly blushed, with a waxy bloom and the dried calyx lobes persisting at the tip. Granular white pulp around a clear jelly-like centre holding small seeds; flavour is aromatic pineapple-guava with a faint mint edge. Does not ripen well on the tree — fruit drops when ready, which is the normal harvest signal.

Propagation

Seed is easy and germinates readily from fresh fruit, but seedlings are variable and slow to fruit. Named cultivars are raised from summer cuttings, which root poorly by the standards of the family (rooting rates are the recognised bottleneck in commercial propagation), or by grafting and layering.

Pollination

Partially self-fertile — much better with a 2nd cultivar

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.