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Pineapple Guava / Feijoa

by Gene Joyner, Extension Agent I

IFAS Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

If you're looking for an attractive shrub with beautiful flowers and delicious fruit, you might try growing the feijoa or pineapple guava Feijoa sellowiana. This shrub is native to South America and grows about fifteen feet high and fifteen feet wide under Florida conditions.

The stiff shiny green leaves are lighter underneath and the attractive flowers are produced from April through May. Flowers have thick white petals and scarlet stamens and are quite showy.

Once pollinated, fruits develop quickly and are gray-green in color and often pickle shaped. When mature, the fruit drops from the plant, making harvesting easy if you don't have other plantings beneath these. Usually, the fruit season is August through October.

Plants grow well in a wide variety of soil types, but prefer slightly acidic conditions. The biggest complaint is that often some people don't get large numbers of fruit, but there are varieties sold at nurseries that are heavy-fruiting. There are some named varieties available and often buying named varieties if you're growing these for the fruit is recommended.

Most of the time in extreme southern Florida plants set few fruit and no one is sure why, but it may be a pollination problem. Seeds are the usual form of propagation, but superior varieties are grafted. Growth rate of the feijoa is slow, but it is cold hardy and will take down to 14°F without serious damage. Also, if you're close to salt water, salt tolerance is very good.

The fruit can be used fresh, but it also makes an excellent jelly and has a guava-like flavor. If you haven't experienced this fruit, it occasionally seen in the supermarkets, mainly imported from California, where it is grown commercially.





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