Q: Can you please give me some advice on pruning my feijoa, which is about four metres high? It has only been pruned once, right back to bare branches and since then has grown madly It fruits, but I would like to improve the yield.
A: Apart from pruning, one of the factors that influences yield in feijoas is whether your plant is a named cultivar (like ‘Apollo’) or an unnamed seedling. For many years most of the feijoa plants sold in garden centres were seedlings, some of which fruit well but many don’t. Nowadays there’s a good range of cutting-grown or grafted trees available which have been selected for good yields and sizeable fruit.
Another factor is pollination. Some feijoas fruit better if fertilised with pollen from a different cultivar growing nearby. Pollen is transferred by birds as they feed on nectar. Pruning, however, does also have a significant effect on fruiting. The more you cut the less fruit you’ll get. Cutting hard back causes strong new growth which remains in a vegetative phase for quite some time. Fruit is borne on the outer reaches of the tree where the branches get plenty of light.
Lack of light inhibits flowering. So for the next few years, I recommend you resist the temptation to prune, except perhaps to cut out any obviously weak or broken branches, or those that are low down and severely shaded by the upper parts of the tree. The ideal shape for a feijoa tree to fruit well is rounded, like a lollypop.
- 9 years ago
Hi – My fejoa trees needing pruning (a chainsaw will be needed and I dont trust myself) can someone please recommend someone who can do this – thanks so much