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Fruit & Orchards garden

10+ year old pineapple guava never produced fruit..... until now?!

2 months ago

I have 4 pineapple guava trees planted along my fence that were planted 10+ years ago. They produce tons of flowers every year but have never produced fruit. I have tried to hand pollinate them with no luck.
I live in a part of California where I see these planted everywhere so I know they grow here.
Anyways, I have been out of town the last few weeks and noticed today that two of the plants have a bunch of small fruits starting to appear.
Is this normal? What can I do to try to make these produce fruit again? Isn't it the wrong time of year?

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Comments (3)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 months ago
I'm not sure one can state much about the fruiting of pineapple guava/feijoa that IS normal!

While subtropical in origin, they are quite cold tolerant and are grown here successfully in zone 8. But while they need a certain number of chill hours to produce fruit, too cold a winter will limit fruit production. Conversely, so will too high summer temps - periods in excess of 90 degrees. Drought can also be a factor. Ideally, most reliable fruiting will occur if located coastally or in a fully Mediterranean climate. And with any necessary irrigation

Then there's the pollination issues. Some cultivars are self fertile......most are not. Do you know what cultivar(s) your 4 trees are?

Depending on climate and type, feijoas can flower from mid spring into early summer and fruit can ripen anywhere from four to seven months later. Fruiting in midwinter is not unheard of.
Ryan Donahue
Original Author
2 months ago
I am located in zone 8B....I think? I'm in Paso Robles, CA. I see lots of them locally that produce fruit so I know I'm in a zone that can.

No clue what cultivar the trees are from. I bought them all at the same store so I assumed they were not self-fruiting and the 4 trees were all from the same location and just clones of one another.

I bought them as 5 gallon trees so it just seems really odd that after 10 years they finally decided to do something. The other odd thing is there hasn't been any flowers on them since the spring.
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I have never grown guava from seed......However, from my notes given in the Sub Tropical Fruit class I took years ago, we were told that the time from seed planting until first fruit is 1-3 years. So, yours is on the more precocious side of the average. It is also far less seedy than the average (I know I am not telling you anything new with this). My notes indicate that the average quava has between 100 and 500 seeds. That's what I didn't like about the fruit. I was able to get an Indonesian White Seedless variety years ago from Hopkins Tropical Fruit Nursery. However, like all of the guavas that I once had, they eventually went into decline and died. Here in Florida, I don't think these trees have a long life....or maybe they just didn't like my yard with its periodic flooding and mucky soil.
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Embothrium
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
Have a look at this: Feijoa – California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc. (crfg.org)

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