I purchased a sellowiana feijoa treeling today but my neighbour said I need two varieties for pollinating even though the tag says self fertile, pollinated by bees. Do I? And do they need to be planted close together or anywhere on my quarter acre will do?
linda61,
Jan 31, 4:22am
Older trees did need two trees for pollination. Newer varieties are self pollinating. Miss our old trees. Love em!
sonja2,
Jan 31, 1:07pm
It also depends on where you live - if you live in an area of quarter acre sections where other people have feijoas, you should be able to share in the cross pollinating going on, according to the lady at my garden center. I am on an acre, so bought three young trees to be sure - and because I love feijoas. I bought different kinds though, so I should have a long season, when they do start fruiting. According to my garden center lady the cross pollinating works the same with different types of feijoa - so if you do get another, you could always go for a different type. That is, assuming that my lady at the garden center knows her stuff lol.
mrscat,
Jan 31, 1:35pm
I have a really old feijoa tree on my back lawn, had the same on the front lawn. I removed the front lawn one, did not produce much fruit, and kept the back lawn one. The remaining tree still fruits copiously, but the tree across the road belonging to a neighbour has stopped fruiting.
lilyfield,
Jan 31, 2:26pm
my self pollinating one only ever after years of growing produced about a dozen fruit. in spite of the right cosseting.
but on a previous property was an amazing productive bush. Same variety.
groovie1,
Jan 31, 6:19pm
mmm i'll check out the neighbours but in googling, the sellowiana is the original feijoa which bred some of the newer varieties so despite the self pollinated by bees label and going by the comments maybe i need another one anyway, first i'll check out the neighbours. That's interesting Mrscat at least I've got an idea of distance.
dibble35,
Jan 31, 9:24pm
The feijoa sellowiana is grown from seed and usually brought to use as a hedge as theres no guarantee that it will produce fruit or what size fruit. The named varieties such as mammoth, Gemini, triumph, unique, etc are grown from cuttings or sometimes grafted so you know you'll get fruit that gets to such and such a size, fruits early/late, how big the tree will get. Some such as 'unique' are self pollinating, the others I mentioned you do need 2 trees to pollinate each other. And somebody correct me if i'm wrong but I thought feijoas were pollinated by birds not bees. I know many years ago I planted a hedge of the feijoa selloiana at my mums farm and she didn't get a single fruit off of them. Probably a mix of them being seed grown , not looked after and the cattle eventually eating them.
venna2,
Jan 31, 9:51pm
I recommend the Tagan variety. They grow quickly and have large fruit. I'm in Wellington.
Yes, I believe feijoas are mostly pollinated by birds, maybe particularly blackbirds. Some varieties are self-fertile but they usually benefit by having another not too far away, preferably one that flowers around the same time.
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