Feijoa fruit - growing an exotic plant at home. Feijoa - is it possible to grow a southern tree

Feijoa is a unique fruit and ornamental plant. It was first discovered a century and a half ago by the German naturalist Friedrich Zello. The specific name - Akka Sellova - the plant received by the name of the discoverer, and the generic name - feijoa, in honor of the director of the Museum of Natural History in Brazil, whose name was Juan Feijo.

In 1890, feijoa first appeared in France. And the triumphal procession of the plant around the world began. 1900 - Yalta and Sukhumi. 1901 - California. 1913 - Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Then feijoa was received by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. Interestingly, this subtropical plant, which categorically refuses to grow and bear fruit in the tropics, has perfectly adapted to growing conditions in the Crimea, where it even tolerates frosts down to -11 ° C. In many countries, feijoa is successfully grown and bears fruit well as houseplant.

plant description

The genus Feijoa belongs to the Myrtaceae family. There are only three species in the genus, of which only one is cultivated. The plant is an evergreen shrub, no more than three meters high, with grayish-yellow branches and stiff, pubescent leaves. The leaves are green above and silvery gray below. They have a strong characteristic odour. Feijoa blooms very beautifully with crimson-red flowers at the base, with large white-pink petals.

The most main value feijoa plants are its fruit. It is a green berry with a slight reddish tinge. The shape is oval or oblong. Diameter 4-6 centimeters. Length - up to 10 centimeters (depending on the variety). One feijoa fruit weighs from 30 to 50 g.

Feijoa value

Even ripe, these fruits do not look appetizing at all. They remain green (rarely red or brown) and inconspicuous, similar to unripe plums with a short tuft-tail. But inside the feijoa there is a surprise - a dense, juicy, pleasantly sour pulp with an amazing aroma and taste of strawberries, bananas and pineapples at the same time. There are also seeds there, but they are faintly felt, and do not interfere with enjoying the exquisite taste.

Feijoa pulp contains a lot of vitamin C, and the more mature the fruit, the more it is. The fruits also contain sucrose, five amino acids, fiber, pectins and proteins. The fruits have a fairly high acidity. And they have the most valuable property - to accumulate in themselves soluble iodine compounds, perfectly absorbed by the body. In this regard, feijoa is far from all other fruits and berries, even persimmons.

Feijoa is a subtropical, heat-loving plant, therefore, in gardens middle lane you won't meet him. The fruits of this tree appear on sale in winter, they are used to make a very tasty, fragrant jam, which has a lot of useful properties. You can simply grind the berries with sugar, or you can use them fresh. Feijoa fruits are also used in the wine industry.

How feijoa grows and blooms, what its fruits look like (with photo and video)

feijoa (Feijoa) belongs to the Myrtle family, its homeland is South America, where it grows as an undergrowth in tropical forests.

The homeland of feijoa is subtropical regions in South America: southern Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay. In its wild form, this plant is common in the forests of South America as an undergrowth. This is a typical subtropical plant, and all attempts to grow feijoa in the tropics have ended in failure. This unique fruit and ornamental plant was first discovered in the middle of the last century by the botanist Sellov, from whose name the specific name of the plant comes. And the generic name of feijoa comes from the name of the director of the Museum of Natural History in San Sebastiano (Brazil) - Joani de Silva Fejio.

Watch a video of how feijoa grows in its natural habitat:

This is a small evergreen shrub with oval-shaped leaves, pale green on the upper side and silvery gray below, pubescent. The bark is rough, light brown. special attention the plant deserves at the time of flowering, when very beautiful, bisexual flowers appear on its branches Pink colour, with bright crimson stamens, fleshy petals. Flowering is long (May - June). Feijoa blooms on the shoots of the current year.

As you can see in the photo, feijoa fruits are oblong green berries with a slightly bumpy surface, weighing 30–40 g:

There are varieties in which the fruits are larger - up to 120 g. Their taste resembles both pineapple and strawberries.

Feijoa Sellova (F. selloviana), or acca (Assa selloviana), is the only species grown in the subtropics of Russia. In more northern regions the plant can be grown indoors.

In terms of frost resistance, it is much superior to citrus fruits and painlessly tolerates temperature drops to -10 ° C.

These photos show how feijoa blooms:

The shrub is suitable for landscaping winter gardens, greenhouses, residential and office premises. On the Black Sea coast grown as a fruit plant. Feijoa fruits are used fresh, and also prepared from them unique jam, juices, jams, wines. Fine liqueurs are obtained from flower petals.

Feijoa is famous for the special taste of its fruits and their medicinal and dietary properties.

When describing feijoa, one cannot fail to note the main advantage of this plant - rounded fruits of bright green color, unique in taste and aroma, ripening in November. Average weight they reach 30–50 g. Feijoa fruits combine the taste of strawberries and pineapples and contain many vitamins, primarily ascorbic acid, as well as organic acids, a large number of pectins, etc. The composition of the pulp includes iodine, the taste of which is clearly felt.

Feijoa fruits contain: 5.12-10.46% sugars, 1.5-3.6% malic acid, about 2.5% pectin, 2.06-3.9 mg of iodine per 1 kg. The fruits are used fresh and processed (jam, wine); they are stored for no more than a month. In home cooking, feijoa fruits are consumed fresh, they can be rubbed with sugar in a 1: 1 ratio and stored in the refrigerator. From feijoa, you can cook preserves and jams, prepare compotes, preserve juices. Feijoa is eaten fresh, peeled.

Doctors recommend using feijoa for thyroid diseases and atherosclerosis. It is also useful to eat feijoa for gastritis, beriberi. Patients with atherosclerosis are recommended to use berries rubbed with sugar or boiled. In dermatology, doctors use the oil made from the fruit as an anti-inflammatory medicine.

Here you can see a photo of what feijoa looks like at the time of fruiting:

Conditions for growing feijoa from seeds at home (with video)

Feijoa is propagated by seeds. Sowing seeds is carried out in January - March to a depth of 0.3-0.5 cm. The first shoots at a substrate temperature of 20-25 ° C appear after 2 weeks.

At home, the easiest way to get seedlings of this plant. For the cultivation of feijoa, seeds are extracted from fully mature, freshly picked fruits. In overripe and long-stored plants, the seeds often turn out to be germinated and are not suitable for sowing. To extract them, with a sharp knife, it is necessary to cut off approximately 1/5 of the fruit from the side of the stalk, carefully squeeze out the jelly-like pulp, which contains a few seeds. Then rinse them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate), trying to completely clear the sticky pulp. The selected seeds are dried. Sowing and caring for seedlings is the same as for most fruit-bearing plants.

Although cuttings are more reliable way retaining the qualities of the mother plant, it is generally less commonly used to propagate feijoa.

Feijoa can also be propagated by grafting and root shoots. But the vaccination almost did not become widespread due to the thin bark and poor survival of the eyes during budding. Propagation by shoots is used mainly in industrial horticulture. Good results are obtained by air rooting of the branches of a fruit-bearing tree.

Location. Feijoa is a photophilous culture, so it is best to place it on a south or southeast window. In the autumn winter period The plant sheds quite a lot of leaves. To eliminate this phenomenon, additional illumination is necessary.

Temperature. Mature plants withstand temperatures down to -12 ° C, resistant to drought. In winter, the plant is best kept in a cool, bright room with a temperature of 8-12 ° C. In the summer it is good to take out to the garden or to the balcony.

The soil. The plant is undemanding to soil conditions, the usual flower substrate is suitable.

As shown in the photo, for a feijoa tree, the best substrate is a medium alkaline flower soil:

In the first 2–3 years, due to the active growth of the root system, transplantation should be carried out annually. When transplanting, be sure to keep the soil lump and do not bury the plant. Subsequently, a transplant should be done once every 3 years.

Watering. Feijoa is a moisture-loving plant. Overdrying an earthy coma leads to the loss of leaves, drying of branches and part of the root system. After watering, the water accumulated in the pan is not removed - after a while it will be absorbed into the earthen clod. AT winter time when the humidity in the house is low, when caring for feijoa, it is useful to spray the plant with lukewarm water. In summer, abundant watering is recommended, in winter - moderate.

Top dressing. Feijoa is very picky about top dressing during flowering and fruit set. During the year, feijoa is fed every 15 days, alternating nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Use horse manure (1:10), superphosphate and ash extract. Superphosphate is poorly soluble in water, so first boil 1 teaspoon of fertilizer in 1 liter of water. The cooled solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:1. To obtain potash fertilizer, 1 tablespoon of hardwood ash is infused for 1 week in 1 liter of water. Before feeding, the plant is watered with plain water.

Transfer. In the first 2-3 years, feijoa should be transplanted annually into a fresh nutrient substrate. Adult plants are transferred to a large bowl, filling only the space between the walls of the pot and the root ball with a fresh substrate. Roots emerging from the drainage hole should be trimmed.

In order for fruits to set, it is necessary to have two plants that must bloom at the same time. This in room conditions difficult to achieve. It is better to grow parthenocarpic (self-pollinating) varieties in the house, such as Crimean early or Nikitsky fragrant. Feijoa seedlings begin to bear fruit in the 5-6th year, and trees obtained from rooted cuttings - in the 4th. The fruits ripened in the room are no different from those grown in the garden.

Watch a video of growing feijoa at home, which shows all the basic agricultural practices:

. The most common pests are scale insects, scale insects, and from diseases - gray rot and leaf spot.

After reviewing the photo and description of feijoa care, it is important to learn about correct formation shrubs.

Feijoa shrub pruning: photo and description

Feijoa plants undergo minimal shaping and pruning, and in practice in the subtropics of Russia they are cultivated without any pruning. Feijoa should be formed as follows: after planting in a permanent place, and it is best to plant 2-year-old seedlings, they shorten 1/3 of the entire aerial part. AT young age plants bear fruit well and give a high yield.

Pay attention to the photo - in the feijoa shrub, with age, the lower skeletal branches bend strongly and become almost creeping or semi-creeping and, accordingly, poorly productive and undecorative:

On such bushes, the yield is sharply reduced, work on care and harvesting is difficult.

Research scientists have shown that the most in a suitable way Feijoa pruning is a method in which the plant is given a low stem shape. Spend it for 3 - 4 years. In this case, in the first year in March, all the main stems should be cut 30 - 45 cm from their base to create the main skeleton, and all weak growths from the lower part of the bush should be removed on the ring. As a result of such pruning in July - August, well-leafed shoots are formed, from which one strong shoot is selected and shortened by 15 - 20 cm.

On the 2-3rd year, lateral growths (future skeletal branches) located above the trunk are left at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other in a spiral. Branch angles from the trunk should be 45-60°, and between branches - 90-120°.

In some forms of feijoa, which are characterized by strong growth and a tendency to form a too spreading crown, the shoots are cut to V3 length. In subsequent years, the crown of the formed bushes is only periodically thinned out, while fat and damaged shoots are cut off.

AT winter gardens and others enclosed spaces with poor ventilation and insufficient lighting, the crown thickens quickly. In this case, it should be thinned out periodically, removing weakened and diseased shoots.

See how feijoa pruning is done in the photo below:

Feijoa is exotic for a Slavic person, and the inhabitants of the tropics are a familiar fruit, often eaten. grows fruit tree in a subtropical climate, it is used not only for food, but also for medicinal purposes. If you know beneficial features and contraindications of feijoa, then you can enrich the body with valuable substances. The population of South America, New Zealand, Brazil knows this, and they often eat fruits in their diet.

Today, there are more places where feijoa grows. The tree was cultivated in the southern regions of Russia ( Krasnodar Territory), Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia. Therefore, these healing berries have become more accessible and closer.

Feijoa fruit is an oblong-shaped berry with a smooth, dense green rind. Soft juicy pulp resembles a combination of several fruits: strawberries, kiwi, pineapple. The fruit is edible in its entirety with the peel, but not everyone likes its taste. By color, you can determine its maturity: if the pulp is white, the fruit is not ripe, if it is brown, then it is overripe. Ideally ripe fruit has a transparent core.

The chemical composition of feijoa fruit

• Microelements and macroelements necessary to maintain immunity and the normal course of all chemical processes in the human body. Feijoa is especially rich in iodine elements necessary to maintain thyroid function, as well as iron involved in oxygen transport, magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc, and phosphorus.
• B vitamins that support work nervous system.
• Vitamins C and A, which strengthen the walls of blood vessels.
• Amino acids (arginine, tyrosine, aspartic, glutamic) involved in the formation of proteins in the human body.
• Essential oils and tannins.

Useful properties for women and men

For women, the fruit is especially useful during pregnancy, when the expectant mother's body needs a lot of iron, folic acid, calcium, and magnesium. All trace elements are found in feijoa. In addition, for the development of a healthy fetus, a sufficient amount of iodine is necessary, which favorably affects the functioning of the thyroid gland and the formation of the child's nervous system. With its deficiency in the body of a pregnant woman and a newborn baby, congenital hypothyroidism (low function of the thyroid gland) may develop. A complication of this disease is dementia. At the same time, the fruit belongs to low-calorie and does not add excess weight future mother.

For men, feijoa is useful for prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate gland). Thanks to healing properties Feijoa fruits can prevent inflammation of the prostate, so they are used to prevent male problems. At the same time, erectile function in men also improves.

Medicinal properties of feijoa

• Compensates for the lack of iodine in the human body, which is especially necessary for diseases of the thyroid gland, to maintain its function.
• Improves the functioning of the nervous system.
• Normalizes sleep.
• Strengthens immunity. Thanks to the vitamins and microelements included in the composition, the fruit stimulates the formation of immune cells - leukocytes.
• Fights anemia. Due to the large amount of iron, feijoa is effective for iron deficiency anemia, strengthens the immune system.
• It lowers cholesterol in the blood, so the fruit is useful for people suffering from atherosclerosis.
• Improves the functioning of the digestive tract: the content of an increased amount of vegetable fiber helps to increase peristalsis and cleanse the intestines.
• Natural antiseptic. The tree bark, leaves and fruit peel have a disinfecting effect. A decoction of them is used for inflammatory diseases of the mucous membranes - periodontal disease, cuts, inflammation of the kidneys.

How to choose a mature feijoa?

Its benefits depend on the degree of ripeness of the fruit. The more ripe the feijoa, the more nutrients it contains. For transportation, unripe fruits are collected, so when buying, you should pay attention to such nuances:

1. Set aside hard fruit for several days. This will allow him to ripen and become softer. Most useful feijoa, which has a jelly-like pulp.
2. Overripe fruit is not worth buying. It is difficult to control the start of fermentation processes, and purchased feijoa will be unfit for consumption.
3. The peel of the fruit should not have visible damage. They indicate that the beneficial qualities of the fruit are reduced. The reason may be mechanical damage during transportation. It is better to set aside the fruit, even with small dents, so as not to doubt its freshness.
4. Large fruit is always preferable. It contains more sugars and vitamins. But, this is not the main criterion. Depending on the variety, feijoa have a different fruit size.
5. If you need to purchase a ripe fruit, then lightly press on it. It should be soft, and the peel should not be completely smooth. Cut open the feijoa and examine the flesh. The unripe fruit has a white pulp color, overripe - brown. Unripe fruit can be put on ripening, overripe - not suitable for use.
6. The fruits should not have a stalk. It indicates that the feijoa was cut from the branch without waiting for the harvest time.
7. The aroma of mature feijoa is reminiscent of the smell of pineapple. It is used to judge the maturity of the fruit.

Sales season in Russia. Prices

Feijoa fruit ripening time is the end of October-beginning of November. Fruits are imported to Russia from Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, they are grown in Sochi and the Krasnodar Territory. The price of fruits is not high - it fluctuates around 50-100 rubles per kilogram. Therefore, you can and should afford to eat at least a few feijoa fruits a day during the cold season.

Feijoa calories

100 grams of fruit contains a small amount of calories - 50-55. This fruit belongs to the diet. Most of all in its composition of carbohydrates, namely sucrose. The fruit is quickly digested and absorbed.

How to store?

By preserving feijoa for a long time, we provide a supply of vitamins for the body. store useful fruit different ways.

The most famous options are storage:

• fresh;
• in the form of jam (with and without heat treatment).

Which method to choose, you need to decide depending on the desired shelf life. On average, feijoa fruits remain fresh for 10 days after harvest. If we take into account the period of transportation, packaging, preparation for sale, then it is better to use a mature feijoa immediately or keep it in the refrigerator for several days. The unripe fruit lies until spring with proper storage parameters - temperature regime and good ventilation. It is enough to place it in the compartment of the refrigerator designed for storing fruits.

How to eat feijoa? Recipes

This fruit can be consumed both raw and cooked. Raw feijoa fruits have a specific taste reminiscent of pineapple, kiwi and strawberries at the same time. Only the pulp is tasty, the skin is dense and not very pleasant in taste. But it is in the skin that contains most of the beneficial substances. Therefore, in order not to lose them, they prepare jam or jam from the fruit along with the peel.

Recipe for Raw Feijoa Jam

Many housewives prefer jam - a reliable way to enjoy the taste of feijoa long time. The minimum loss of the vitamin value of the fruit is provided by “live” feijoa jam. Prepare it for classic recipe for berries. Sugar and fruits are taken in a ratio of 1: 1 and ground into one mass. The amount of sugar can be increased - this will extend the shelf life of the jam, but deprive it of the specific taste of feijoa.

The preparation steps are simple:

1. The fruits are washed, the tails and stalks are removed.
2. are crushed convenient way- in a blender, meat grinder.
3. Spread the mass in an enamel bowl and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Stir until sugar crystals dissolve.
5. Lay out the sweetness in a pre-prepared glass container. Lids and jars are thoroughly washed with soda solution, rinsed and poured over with boiling water.
6. Store jam in the refrigerator for no more than 2.5 - 3 months.

There is a recipe in which sugar is replaced with honey. It is a natural preservative and should not be exposed heat treatment. Therefore, it can also be used for "live" jam.

If the composition (with sugar) is thermally processed, then the shelf life increases to 1 year. In this case, 1 cup of water is added to the above components, which is poured into an enameled container and brought to a boil. Then sugar is added in parts and dissolved. Fruit puree is transferred to syrup and mixed with a wooden spoon. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes, regularly removing the foam. Jam containers are thoroughly washed and sterilized. The finished jam is laid out in jars, rolled up and sent for storage in a cool place. The jam is used throughout the year.

Many housewives like to add a twist to the classic composition. For feijoa jam, this would be lemon juice, cranberries, pear, orange pulp with peel, or ginger root.

Feijoa jam

For cooking, take 600 grams of raw feijoa fruits, wash them, remove dry tails, cut the fruits in half. Grind in a blender, add 0.5 kilograms of sugar, juice and zest of one lemon, 3 tablespoons of grated ginger. After that, add half a liter of drinking water, put it in an aluminum bowl and cook until thick jam. Ready feijoa jam is transferred to sterilized jars, rolled up with lids.

Feijoa medicinal use. What do we treat and how?

The main areas of application of feijoa fruits in medicine are endocrinology (treatment of diseases of the thyroid and pancreas), cardiology (treatment of hypertension and purification of blood from cholesterol) and immunology (treatment of reduced immunity and beriberi).

Thyroid treatment with feijoa

Use jam from raw feijoa fruit or puree. You need to take a tablespoon 30 minutes before meals 2-3 times a day. The course of treatment is at least a month. It should be remembered that only ripe fruits are used for medicinal purposes.

An infusion of dry feijoa fruits is also used. To do this, pour 3 tablespoons of fruits with two cups of boiling water, insist overnight. The next day, drink in 3 divided doses. So continue every day for a month.

Feijoa for diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a disease of the pancreas in which there is a violation of the absorption of glucose by cells. At the same time, blood sugar levels are elevated. Violation of the diet and the use of foods containing a large amount of sugar aggravates the course of the disease, leading to an even greater increase in blood glucose. Therefore, feijoa is not used for the treatment of diabetes, given the sugar content in its composition, but it is acceptable to consume in minimal quantities.

What else

Feijoa is also used in the treatment of the cardiovascular system. It cleanses the blood of cholesterol, stimulates the formation of blood cells, prevents the formation of blood clots pure juice from feijoa fruits. A tablespoon of juice is mixed with 50 grams of water and taken once a day.

To strengthen the walls of blood vessels, you can use jam with oranges. For cooking, take a kilogram of feijoa fruit, 2 kilograms of sugar and the juice of two oranges. Cook jam and take 1 tablespoon 2 times a day. The combination of a large amount of vitamin C in an orange and a complex of trace elements and vitamins in feijoa strengthens blood vessels.

Feijoa in cosmetology

The fruit has an anti-inflammatory effect, so it is used to combat acne. Anti-aging, softening and nourishing properties help withering and aging skin maintain a healthy appearance. The simplest recipe is to apply the crushed pulp of the fruit on the skin of the face and leave for a few minutes.

Before using any mask, you need to conduct a skin test: place a small amount on the inner surface of the forearm and wait 10-15 minutes. If there is no reaction, you can safely apply a mask on your face.

There are several feijoa face masks:

• Thanks to the large number essential oils and antioxidants the fruit is used to strengthen the skin and hair. Beauticians recommend using the following face mask every 3 days. Prepare a decoction of chamomile (1 teaspoon of herbs per cup of boiling water), cool, add a tablespoon of oatmeal and two tablespoons of feijoa pulp. The mixture should be infused until the flakes swell. After that, add a teaspoon of almond oil and can be applied to cleansed face skin.
• The pulp from several feijoa fruits is crushed in a blender until smooth. To it add 2 tablespoons of fatty cottage cheese, one yolk chicken egg and a tablespoon olive oil. Before applying, cleanse the skin of cosmetics and sebum. Apply the mask on the face, rinse with warm water after 20 minutes.

Growing feijoa at home

Growing feijoa at home is possible and is becoming more common in Russia. This tree is loved not only for useful fruits, but also for beautiful flowers. The plant is grown in two ways.

1. Growing from seed. For harvesting, ripened fruits are taken (important - not overripe!), The pulp is extracted from them along with the seeds. The pulp is washed in a weak solution of manganese, the separated seeds are dried and sown in the soil. At first, you can use small pots, and then transplant the sprouted seedlings into larger containers.
2. Growing from cuttings. Take cuttings 8-10 cm long, leave one pair on them top leaves. They are deepened by 2/3 of the length at an angle into the soil. The soil is shed with a warm weak solution of manganese. To keep moisture in the soil (feijoas love it), you can cover it with plastic. The lighting should be intense, but the light should be scattered. Rooting of cuttings occurs in 1.5-2 months. After that, they can be planted in the ground.

Contraindications

Abuse of any of the products can cause irreparable harm. Therefore, you should always carefully consider the properties of the foods you eat. Feijoa fruits are no exception. The benefits and harms of the fruit should be taken into account in the presence of certain diseases in humans.

• Hyperthyroidism. This is a disease of the thyroid gland, in which the content of hormones is increased. Due to the high content of iodine in feijoa fruits, they should not be consumed with hyperthyroidism.
• Allergic reactions. People who are prone to allergies should use feijoa with caution. Due to the large amount of essential oils, the fruit can cause allergies.
• Diabetes. Feijoa contains a lot of carbohydrates, which can affect the blood sugar level of a diabetic.

It should be remembered that any useful fruit can also be dangerous. So, for example, an overdose of feijoa can lead to anxiety, increased body temperature, increased heart rate, or, conversely, depression, weakness and lethargy. Therefore, before using the fruit for medicinal purposes, you should definitely consult a doctor.

Growing exotic fruits indoors is always of interest, it's nice to get a harvest of unusual fruits. Lovers successfully grow citrus fruits, pomegranates, figs, kiwi and many other fruit plants, including feijoa, on the windowsills. In room culture, the Feijoa selloviana Berg variety takes root better, which, when proper fit and proper care is able to bring annual yields. In the photo, feijoa looks like a sprawling tree with pubescent leaves. This article is all about the maintenance and reproduction of culture at home.

A guest from South America: feijoa - varieties and varieties

Feijoa grows naturally on the South American continent, the plant belongs to the Myrtaceae family. The plant was first described in the 19th century by the Brazilian botanist de Silva Feijo, and the plant was named after him.

The feijoa genus includes only three natural varieties of the plant, only one variety of them - Feijoa selloviana Berg, is widely cultivated for obtaining useful fruits of an unusual look and taste. Medium-sized fruits have bright emerald-green flesh, which tastes like pineapple with strawberry flavor at the same time. Feijoa fruits are rich in minerals and vitamins, they are used to treat a number of diseases.

Feijoa selloviana Berg

Feijoa in nature reaches a height of 4 meters. The spreading crown of the tree is covered with hard glossy leaves, with dense felt pubescence on the reverse side of the leaf blade. Somewhat lower than its counterparts is the feijoa species (akka zellova), which, thanks to its small growth, allows you to get a crop of useful fruits in a room culture.

Feijoa Planting for Indoor Growing

Feijoa planting and transplanting should be approached with particular delicacy. Numerous tree branches, even if they are already mature, break easily under the slightest load. Transplantation of young plants is carried out annually, starting from the third year after planting - 1 time in 2-3 years.

Important! Capacity is selected with a slight increase in volume.

Plant a tree immediately big pot unacceptable - small root system unable to master the entire earthen room. When watering a plant, water stagnates in a pot, wet soil negatively affects the condition of the roots.

When transplanting a healthy plant, it is not necessary to carry out complete replacement nutritious earthen mixture, it is enough just to transfer the plant into a larger pot with the addition of fresh soil. Diseased plants, especially if the supply roots are damaged, must be removed from the old pot, the acidic soil removed from the roots, and the diseased parts of the root system cut out.

Feijoa sprouts: 10 days after planting

For transplanting feijoa prepare a special land mixture: in equal proportions they take turf, leaf and humus soil with the addition of peat chips and coarse river sand. It is useful to put a layer of drainage at the bottom of the pot. It is most convenient to use ready-made expanded clay, which is sold in flower and garden stores.

Important! The root neck of a feijoa tree should be located strictly above the ground; it is not allowed to bury the seedling during transplantation.

Care for indoor feijoa trees

Look at the photo of indoor greenhouses - healthy feijoa trees serve as decoration for a home garden. The culture grows well and bears fruit in the apartment, providing the plants with certain conditions:

Light-loving culture requires good lighting. Akka zellova develops beautifully on south and southeast windows.

Advice! In winter, plants must be provided with maximum lighting, if necessary, illuminated with photo lamps.

With insufficient lighting, the tree quickly begins to shed its leaves, the consequences of such stress cannot be quickly overcome.

feijoa flowering

A pot with a plant must be periodically shed well - even a slight overdrying of an earthen coma can lead to the death of the root system, leaf fall.

Advice! It is most convenient to water the tree from above, while watering until water appears in the pan. Water from pallets should not be poured out, the plant will quickly absorb it through the drainage hole.

Spraying feijoa on the leaves gives excellent results, it is especially important to bathe the crown of the tree in the dry summer months.

In the first years, with the annual transplantation of plants into fresh soil, the tree has all the vitamins and nutrients necessary for nutrition. Additional nutrition must be provided to the plant from the third year of life.

Top dressing is applied in spring and autumn, it is allowed to use foliar top dressing along the crown.
Starting in spring, fertilize plants, adhering to the following scheme: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium alternate every 15 days. Great for nitrogen supply organic fertilizers(for example, decomposed horse manure). In liquid form, top dressing is prepared from manure, diluted and infused in water. The ratio is 1:10.

Superphosphate for top dressing can be used in granular form (embedded in the soil), as well as in liquid form, for which 1 tsp is dissolved. superphosphate per liter of water. The solution is heated to a boil, after cooling it is diluted with water, bringing the volume of fertilizer to 2 liters.

Potash top dressing stimulates the development of fruits, therefore they are timed to coincide with the fruiting period. The best results and complete safety for plants are noted when using a special solution for feeding - ash extract. For 1 liter of water add 1 tbsp. l. wood ash from deciduous trees or straw. The solution is infused for about a week, then filtered and used to fertilize indoor plants.

Advice! Any fertilizers are applied only to moist soil, for which the plants are pre-watered (about 1 day before the application of nutrients).

In winter, fertilization is stopped before the start of the growing season.

Feijoa breeding: how to get new plants

It should be remembered that two feijoa trees are required to form fruits - the plant is cross-pollinated. But even under this condition - the presence of two adult specimens, pollination is very difficult to achieve. When grown indoors, you will need to purchase seedlings of parthenocarpic varieties that pollinate themselves.

Feijoa can be propagated by cuttings and fresh seeds, while it is worth remembering that the tree belongs to the Myrtle family, all plants of which take root during vegetative propagation with great difficulty. You can start cuttings in the second half of April. Cutting cuttings is best not from old shoots, as their coarse branches are not suitable for rooting. But too young branches with soft bark are also not suitable for cuttings.

Feijoa can be propagated by seeds or cuttings.

Suitable feijoa branches are cut into cuttings with up to 3 internodes. The lower cut for better rooting is treated with growth stimulants for accelerated root formation, Kornevin is suitable; "Humate"; "Epin".

The treated cuttings are planted in a greenhouse with fertile light soil (a mixture of nutrient soil, sand, vermiculite or perlite).

Advice! When rooting feijoa cuttings, it is important to ensure a constant high temperature - not lower than +25 C.

Do not be upset if less than half of the cuttings take root - the culture belongs to difficult-to-root houseplants. And of course, you need to be patient - the rooting of cuttings does not last for one month.

Young cuttings bloom in the 3rd year, but may not set fruit. Seed propagation is an even longer process - seedlings can bloom in 5-6 years.

Treat the crop regularly for pests

Akka zellova in room culture: diseases and pests

Healthy feijoa trees are pleasing to the eye, with diseases and pests, the leaves of the plant quickly fall off. Take a look at the photos of diseased plants, how quickly they change appearance. The red spider mite is especially annoying to the culture, which is bred with insufficient air humidity, especially in summer period. It is possible to prevent the disease, for which it is worth observing all agrotechnical measures for the care of trees. The destruction of the tick is carried out using special preparations: "Neoron"; "Aktellik"; "Fufanon"; Fitoverm.

Another pest that feijoa suffers from is the false scale insect. The pest settles throughout the plant, sucks the juices from the leaves. The Actellik drug will help get rid of the scab, which needs to be sprayed several times on the crown.

How to grow feijoa at home: video

Growing feijoa at home: photo

Relatively recently, with the advent of autumn, very nondescript green fruits began to appear on the shelves of our stores, outwardly similar to kiwi.

This is an exotic berry and it is called acca (feijoa), home care for it is simple, so many began to grow the plant in their backyards. Feijoa is very useful for our health, it contains a lot of iodine, and the main amount of vitamins is in the peel, which is also edible.

Feijoa - basic information about the plant

Feijoa is a tree-like berry evergreen shrubs and belongs to the Myrtaceae family, genus Acca. South America is considered the birthplace of the plant, although trees are often found in Brazil and Colombia.

The tree was first described by the Portuguese botanist Silva Feijo in the 19th century, after whom it got its name. Some prefer to call the plant Akka. In the same century, European travelers brought the tree to other continents and it gradually spread throughout the world. Among the people, you can hear another name for Akki - “pineapple grass” because of the similarity of fruits in taste.

Feijoa prefers to live in tropical and subtropical climates. The culture is grown in the southern part of our country, also in many Asian regions. The trees reach a height of 3-4 m. The trunk is covered with brownish-green bark. The leaves of the crown are oval, dark green, dense with a glossy sheen.

The flowering of the tree begins in the spring. Large pink or white flowers contain a dense bunch of long stamens in the middle. During the summer, fruits ripen on the plant - oval berries with a dense dark green skin, yellowish flesh and seeds inside.

The taste of acca is somewhat reminiscent of a mixture of strawberries, pineapple and gooseberries. The peel has a slightly astringent taste.

Only ripe Feijoa berries will seem tasty, those that have not yet ripened are bitter and strongly knit. The fruit is eaten in its pure form, and all kinds of jams, marmalades and other sweet preparations are also prepared from it.

The akka tree is quite large, it is grown mainly in open areas. But culture can winter only in regions with a warm climate. We have feijoa grown on the street in the Crimea, Krasnodar. In other areas, it is recommended to plant the culture in a large flowerpot and bring it indoors for the winter. Some keep "pineapple grass" indoors all year round or grow it in winter gardens.

In nature, there are only three varieties of feijoa. At home, only one species is grown - Feijoa selloviana Berg. Breeders have bred and continue to bred different varieties from this species, differing in size and color of fruits, shades of taste, and resistance to artificial conditions. But some significant differences these varieties do not.

Akka as a whole is not capricious and does not require any special conditions for care. by the most important nuance is the air temperature - after all, the plant came from warm countries and does not tolerate frost.

So, let's look at the basic rules for caring for this amazing tree-like shrub in the open field or indoors.

Location, lighting

"Pineapple Grass" is very fond of abundant lighting. But in the summer midday hours, it is better to shade the tree. Too hot rays can scorch the crown. In the open field for the plant, you need to select a place where there will be a lot of light in the morning and evening, and during the day it will be shaded by the crowns of other, taller trees.

In the feijoa room, you can choose southeast and southwest windows.

You can keep the flowerpot on the south side, curtaining the windows with a light curtain. It is not recommended to place the plant on the north side, it will not have enough light.

If for some reason a large amount does not enter the room solar lighting, the culture is illuminated with special phytolamps.

Air temperature

In the cold season, the tree is able to tolerate low temperatures down to 0 ºС. But even with a mild winter, it is recommended to insulate the roots of a tree growing on the street.

In the home environment, it is desirable to create temperature conditions for the culture in the winter within + 5-8 ºС. Although if you grow accu all winter at a higher temperature, nothing bad will happen, it can simply bloom earlier or vice versa, later than usual.

Air humidity

Feijoa comes from a tropical climate, so it needs high humidity air. Trees growing outdoors are sprayed only in summer. In winter, the atmosphere is quite humid outside.

Instances living indoors need additional moisture constantly. They are sprayed with spray bottles every other day or placed near flowerpots with water trays. Today there are automatic humidifiers that solve problems and eliminate manual labor.

If the microclimate is too dry, the tree will begin to wither and shed its leaves.

Watering

Akka is a plant that needs abundant watering all year round. The soil between irrigations should dry out by about 60-70%. But in no case should it be possible to swamp the soil either, this will inevitably lead to decay of the root system.

In winter, watering a houseplant can be slightly reduced and wait until the substrate dries out almost completely.

Trees growing in open ground are not watered during the cold season and if the weather is rainy.

In a warm, dry autumn, the plant must also be watered regularly.

top dressing

Home care for feijoa involves the mandatory fertilization of the soil from spring to late summer. Organic fertilizers can be mixed into the soil or solutions can be made from mineral compounds.

The culture is suitable for complex top dressing for fruit plants. Fertilizer is applied a couple of times a month.

Transplantation, soil selection

Outdoor plants do not require repotting, but it will be beneficial to refresh the soil around the root system annually. Trees growing in the house need periodic transplantation - about once every 2-3 years.

A young plant that has not yet reached its maximum growth is advised to replant every year.

The soil for acca is chosen neutral in acidity, loose. You can buy a universal substrate for home plants in the store or prepare the soil mixture yourself: mix leaf and sod land, add 1 part of sand and a little peat to it. A layer of drainage material must be laid at the bottom of the pot.

When transplanting, you need to be very careful with the roots, they are fragile and quickly damaged. You can transplant a tree by transshipment, but experts still recommend cleaning the roots from old, acidic soil.

reproduction

Accu can be propagated at home by crown methods: cuttings, shoots and seeds. Reproduction by seeds is not the most popular option, since the fruits will appear on the plant only after 5-6 years.

cuttings

Among amateurs, the method of cuttings or seedlings by layering is more used. Cuttings from young shoots are cut in early spring and rooted in a soil mixture of sand and peat. Containers with cuttings must be kept in stable heat and in good light.

In a month, the sprout will take root and it can be dived into a flowerpot. A rooted cutting is transferred to open ground only when warm weather has already set in the street.

layering

For propagation by layering in an adult tree, the lowest branch is cut, pressed to the ground, secured with something, and sprinkled with moist earth on top of the incision.

After 2-3 weeks, roots should appear in the incision area. Then the branch is completely cut off and planted in the soil.

Diseases and pests

Feijoa extremely rarely suffers from pests, and can only get sick from improper care.

The most basic enemies of the tree are scale insects, spider mites, mealybugs.

• Fungal infections practically do not affect street trees, but can start on the surface of the soil in domestic ones. Fungicidal preparations, which are also sold in flower shops, help to quickly get rid of the fungus.
• From over watering or drought acca sheds leaves.
• Excessive sun can leave burns on the leaves in the form of yellow spots.
• With insufficient lighting, the culture will grow poorly.
• If you leave the plant in severe frost, it may die.

Akka (feijoa), the home care we reviewed, contains substances in its fruits that prevent the growth of cancer cells. If possible, include this berry in your diet. But as home plant, "pineapple grass" has a very attractive decorative appearance, exuding a delicate sweet aroma throughout the area when flowering.