Pineapple Guava Pollinating ??'s

15 years ago

Hi, I also posted this question at the Fruit and Orchards forum... Can someone please tell me how to best pollinate the flowers. I have a standard tree and a bush, but only the tree is flowering so far, don't see any flower buds on the small bush yet. Can I use the flowers from the same tree to pollinate each other, or will I need to use pollen from one tree and pollinate the other tree? In other words, will it be worth trying to hand pollinate these flowers that I have from the same tree? And where exactly do I brush the pollen to? I tried doing this last year and it didn't work...I did not have a single fruit!

here's a picture of the few buds that have opened up

{{gwi:126023}}

Thanks so much for any help.

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Comments (12)

slothbr
15 years ago
Hi, the main polinators of this plant in Brazil where its native are birds, they eat the sweet petals and fertilize it, i never had this plant but i read it in these sites,there a lot of info , if u cant understand just try a tradutor, good luck!

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-29452001000300055&script=sci_arttext

http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v7n2/pt/fullpaper?bn01907022007+pt
slothbr
15 years ago
Well, i just read that this plant are self-ferile, but to get more fruit production you need 2 or more plants., the Cherry of the rio grande too need more plants to good production.
If this is the first time your plant are fowering its normal that it not hold any fruit, lack of humidity affects negatively the flower too.
To hand fertilizer these hermaphrodite flowers you just need to bring the polen from these numerous filaments to the filament on the middle(the longer one,feminine part) with a brush. Also insets ferilize this plants, i guess wind do the trick too. Good harvest!

More info and images:
http://frutasraras.sites.uol.com.br/accasellowiana.htm
http://picasaweb.google.com/Amezzomo2002
http://e-jardim.blogspot.com/
http://www.e-jardim.com/produto_completo.asp?IDProduto=49
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puglvr1
Original Author
15 years ago
THANKS SLOTHBR!! I will read up on the links you provided, and will try hand pollinating a few of them also. This is actually the third year that this tree has bloomed for me. But only less than five blooms last year, with NO fruits... right now our humidity is around 30%-40%...but in another two weeks that will change dramatically to around 60%-70% and higher! Heat and humidity we don't lack in summer here in FL!

Appreciate the help!
Nelson E.
15 years ago
I dont believe all Pineapple guavas are self Fertile, my feijoa bloomed for the first time this year and I hand pollinated it but most of the flowers fell off about a week later I still have about 7 Tiny fruits on the tree but I dont think they will make it.

as you can see on the pic I transfered pollen from the antlers to the stigma not sure if Your supposed to put it on the style as its labeled on the above pic.
puglvr1
Original Author
15 years ago
Nelson, thanks for the picture, that is very helpful! I will try spreading the pollen all over and try to cover the whole stigma/style and see what happens, but I am not getting my hopes up. I was hoping to see birds or insects on the blooms, but I haven't seen any?

Good luck with your small fruits!
Nelson E.
15 years ago
No prob puglvr, I just got to work today and most of the little fruits are gone and I just noticed that I have scale again on the tree. Have you had any issues with your Tree with scale?
puglvr1
Original Author
15 years ago
Hey Nelson,

My tree has suffered from this orange(rust)thing on some of the leaves and have seen some occasional scale...very mild form. When I had this issue, I sprayed it with some Fungicide and also used some mild soap/alcohol solution(for the few scales). I haven't seen any scales now, and the rust thing seems to be under control. Last year, I didn't water the tree as well as I should have(it was drought stressed) and I lost a lot of the leaves...from lack of water I'm guessing? The tree was very bare looking. I decided to go ahead and trim some of the top, shaped it and decided to take care of it better this year, watered more often and fertilized it in early March and it seems to have paid off. This is the most blooms its had since I bought it 2 1/2 years ago!

Here's a picture of the tree now...
{{gwi:1313532}}
Nelson E.
15 years ago
Wow really nice looking tree, how long did your flowers Last from when they were in full bloom? My flowers started to fall off about 4-5 days after full bloom.
puglvr1
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks nelson! 4-5 days sounds about right for me also. I never saw a single fruit "set". The petals falls off one at a time and then the whole thing falls off :o(

Very discouraging!! I'll let you know if I see any fruits this year, but I'm not optimistic,lol...Let me know if you have any also.
Nelson E.
15 years ago
My last flower fell off about 2 weeks ago 3 of the little fruits i had on there fell off over night only two left but it does not look like these two will last long. Oh well maybe next year
puglvr1
Original Author
15 years ago
Sorry to hear that :o(

I have a feeling, that's exactly what's going to happen with mine also...There's always hope for next year?
Nelson E.
15 years ago
Well if my plant survives my last escapade lol. I had spraid it with soap water the other day to see if I could kill the damn scale. Well my dad used the spray bottle and put windex in it, I spraid the whole thing down and noticed it smelled different I hope my little baby survives the Windex If not I guess I will have to buy another one.