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.
© 2000 BGCII Page posted March 2004
