Growing Feijoa At Home

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Let's talk now about one exotic guest in the apartments of Russian florists. Feijoa is used with great success in landscaping premises, where this plant perfectly adapts to home conditions. With knowledge about this amazing plant, you can observe its flowering, and even fruiting in city apartments

Flower lovers know that feijoa is not only an unpretentious houseplant, but also a healthy fruit. Already at the end of the 19th century, feijoa decorated winter gardens, was used to decorate balconies and get tasty fruits. Adapting well to various growing conditions, indoor feijoa will become a decorative center of attention for your household and guests.

Botanical description

Initially a representative of the subtropical climate, feijoa has gone through a difficult path of acclimatization for growing on the windowsills of Russian flower growers. In the wild, feijoa is a huge tree up to 3 - 5 meters high. The tree is covered with leathery, glossy, silvery - light green leaves, pubescent below. The leaves are located opposite, have an oval whole-edged shape. At the end of May, pink-white or red flowers are formed on the branches of the current growth, which have many stamens. Flowering ends with the formation of a lumpy fruit covered with a waxy bloom. The berry is small in size, the weight depends on the variety, it can reach from 40 to 120 g. When you try feijoa for the first time, you do not immediately understand its taste, it is specific. Those who have tried this berry say that it looks like strawberries and pineapple at the same time.

Growing and caring at home

In order for the feijoa houseplant to delight you with abundant greenery and beautiful flowering, provide it with sufficient diffused illumination. Feijoa is quite suitable for the dry air of city apartments, but if there is such an opportunity, then transfer the pot with a flower to the balcony for the summer period. Watch out for the scorching sun rays on the plant. Although feijoa is photophilous, protect it from the intense midday sun.

The temperature of the plant is 18 - 20 degrees, in winter it can be lowered to 10 -12 degrees above zero. Watering must be regular and abundant, otherwise the leaves may fall and the branches of the plant may dry out. Use acidified water for watering. Spray feijoa in low room humidity.

As a soil for feijoa, choose a mixture of river sand, turf and peat in equal parts. Do not forget about the formation of the crown, this should be done when the plant reaches 25-30 cm. Cutting by 2/3 will promote the rapid growth of skeletal branches and a beautiful crown.

Like any fruit plant, indoor feijoa needs and responds well to feeding. For abundant flowering, water feijoa potash fertilizers in the form of an ash extract. Alternate fertilizers throughout the year, it can be nitrogen, phosphorus, and even horse manure.

Reproduction at home

It is best to grow new specimens of feijoa at home from seeds. They should be carefully removed with a knife from freshly picked fruits, washed with a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate and dried.

Fill the sowing container with a light substrate based on leafy soil. It is better not to water the soil before sowing seeds, but to spray thoroughly. Start breeding feijoa seeds in January - March. Do not embed the seeds deeply, a depth of 0.5 cm is sufficient. At a temperature of 18-20 degrees, the sprouts will appear in three weeks.

Remember to have two plants to get feijoa fruit. Moreover, they must bloom at the same time for cross-pollination to occur, and this is difficult to do in an apartment. That is why buy parthenocarpic feijoa varieties.