Feijoa trees

.jillybeen., Jul 29, 8:48am
My feijoa trees are totally out of control. Is it possible to prune them right back ?. If you take them back how long does it take for them to start fruiting again?
zak410, Jul 29, 10:48am
Yes, they can tolerate a hard pruning and survive well.
colin433, Jul 29, 10:55am
If you want fruit next season, only prune one half, if that's possible.
My father pruned his right down to the ground one year, and within two years he was getting a great crop again.
Do you know that they fruit on the new wood, so a prune each year keeps them under control, and gives you as much fruit as you would have got if you'd left them
lythande1, Jul 29, 12:39pm
They are a weed, yes chop it severely, it won't bother it.
dollydot, Jul 29, 1:17pm
Yes they tolerate a good prune to keep them tidy and provide some gaps for birds for pollination for the varieties that are not self fertile. Just not in the late spring/summer when they are flowering ready to prepare their fruit in autumn.
articferrit, Jul 29, 1:52pm
You could prune it to open it up this year and reduce the height next year.
morticia, Jul 29, 1:57pm
The neighbour pruned one that grew all over and under the fence with a chainsaw and I followed it up with roundup in the cross-hatching in the trunk on our side. He hates it as much as we do. The one on the other neighbours fence is in for a very hard prune in line with the fence with the pole saw.
.jillybeen., Jul 29, 4:36pm
Thank you for the answers I think a good prune is in order. thin first may be height next year. thanks articferrit. So what do i feed them with to give them a good boost?
dollydot, Jul 30, 2:22pm
We use citrus/fruit tree fertiliser every change of season. Seems to keep them happy although out of seven feijoas we still have two that don't fruit even though we have a mix of varieties and a neighbour has two as well. Ours have been in the garden about 4 years and were the larger grade plants of the two sizes available so perhaps they'll still mature and fruit in time.
cameron-albany, Jul 30, 6:59pm
OMG I wish mine were out of control *sobs quietly in a hurricane-wind zone*. I planted about 20 and around 15 are doing semi-ok - they have leaves at least. And are a little bigger than I planted them 2 years ago.
freebutterflies, Jul 30, 8:45pm
We planted a hedge of them. 20 i think. They were $5 each from the warehouse, about one foot tall. They took around 4 years but the trees are now 6 ft and had so much fruit this year they were rotting on the ground, and everyone who came took boxes of them too.
kaylin, Jul 31, 7:35am
Can you prune now? Google says late autumn early winter and I know it's not that, but my tree (which didn't fruit much last hear anyway) is spindly and open, and causing huge shade. I'd like to be able to cut back now or will I kill it? It's sheltered a little under an overhanging tree up a bank, but frosts are still around I'm sure.
wheelz, Jul 31, 3:13pm
Feijoas can stand temps down to - 10 'C.
They benefit from an annual prune, as they fruit on new wood.
They need to be open, so that blackbirds can easily get amongst them to pollinate the flowers. Maybe cut back the overshadowing tree as well, they need the light to flower and fruit well.
I've pruned as hard as back to the trunk. nearly impossible to kill them, didn't even miss a years fruiting! Reduced amount, but what fruit was there was huge.
aloha3, Jul 31, 3:56pm
Prune it so a sparrow can fly through it.
arabelle, Aug 1, 9:32pm
If they really are out of control then chop back to the one metre high level , then I do alternate years of sides then tops keeping them about 2 m wide and 3-4 m high as I want them as wind break. The bestest manure is to get ducks or hens to live in that patch they really love bird manure. but any manure will do. Shallow root system, so take care. mulch well in early spring and water well during summer, big soaks once a week are better than 5min every night
borolad, Oct 6, 5:52pm
I’d like to prune mine back hard but this would remove most of not all of the leaves. How will it tolerate such a hard prune ?