The first feijoa was discovered in Brazil. And like all South American flora, this plant cannot grow without moisture and heat. But lovers of exotic plants will not find it difficult to grow feijoa. The main requirements for its care are spraying and warmth. It was possible to breed domestic varieties: Crimean aromatic, Adler large, Nikitsky aromatic. At home, the easiest way to grow Akka Sellova (in some sources it is called Zellova).
Some amateurs breed this plant not only because of the very tasty fruits: the pulp is sweet to taste, with sourness and a pleasant aroma of strawberries mixed with pineapple. Feijoa is a very special plant with a very beautiful flowering. The flower is rather complex, consisting of dark red stamens against a background of white (edible!) Petals, with a pink inner side and stipules of a bright burgundy color. Flowering begins in May, there are many flowers, and most of them do not give ovaries. Since the plant is a relative of myrtles, in an adult state it takes the form of a beautiful tree with a rounded crown and brownish bark on lignified branches. The leaves are tough, with a beautiful glossy surface, and rough and even slightly pubescent on the underside.
The fruits are plum-shaped and green in color. Outside, the fruit has a bright green bumpy surface, like a lemon. The final ripening occurs only in late autumn - early winter. To make them even tastier, they are allowed to lie down in a cool place for several days. In addition to vitamins C and P, feijoa fruit contains malic acid and iodine. It is the high iodine content that is the reason why this plant is recommended to be eaten for thyroid diseases or instead of products containing this element.
Home care and cultivation
Temperature and lighting. For tropical plants, to which feijoa can be safely attributed, the temperature and lighting must correspond to the "tropical" standards. In winter, when natural growth slows down and the plant needs rest, it is better not to increase the temperature to more than 14 degrees. And in summer, the feijoa tub can be kept outdoors or on an open balcony. Hot weather with temperatures up to 30 degrees will not harm him (although experts recommend not to exceed the daytime temperature above 20 degrees), but it is better to beware of direct burning sunlight so as not to burn its very beautiful and bright foliage.
Watering and humidity.On especially dry and hot days, you will have to take care of proper watering and maintaining the level of humidity. At such a time, frequent spraying of not only the entire plant, but also the soil will create ideal conditions for feijoa for abundant flowering and rapid growth. But if the plant even in summer has to be in a room with poor lighting, then its permanent place should be illuminated with artificial lighting. To keep indoors in the warm season, the temperature should not be lower than 18 degrees with sufficiently frequent spraying (and not only in the summer). This is especially true for rooms where the air is always dry. For the permanent location of Feijoa, a room with windows to the south or southeast is better suited.
Top dressing. In addition to observing high air humidity and timely watering, feijoa loves frequent feeding. For better assimilation of each of the dressings, it is better to carry them out in stages. To do this, every two weeks, enrich the soil with liquid fertilizer, consisting, for example, only of a nitrogen base. For this, bird droppings (1:15) or mullein in a ratio of 1:10 are quite suitable. After another two weeks, you can apply a potash type of fertilizer. To do this, you can take simple ash in an amount of no more than one teaspoon, which is infused for a week in a liter of water. The third feeding in the next two weeks may consist of regular superphosphate. Its preparation will require one liter of boiling water per teaspoon of superphosphate. After cooling, this solution will have to be diluted with another two liters of water. Any of these three dressings can be applied only after the main watering.
Transfer. To transplant feijoa, you will need soil, which should include: peat, humus, sand, leaf and sod land. All components are taken in equal proportions, one part at a time. Since this plant is a fast-growing plant, the transplantation of young feijoa representatives - up to three years old, should be carried out every year. After three years, this operation can be performed much less often - no more than once every two years. When transplanting, it is not necessary to completely clear the roots of the old soil (except for those cases when it is necessary to remove a sour lump or a diseased plant is transplanted). You can transplant by ordinary transshipment (without removing a clod of earth from the roots). And, since the branches of the feijoa are very fragile and brittle (even in an adult plant), the transplanting process should be carried out very carefully with the assistance of assistants.
Reproduction. For feijoa, the best propagation methods are cuttings and root shoots. In the first case, you will have to spend time looking for the uterine feijoa. If such a plant is found, then you need to choose a fairly large part of the crown - at least eight centimeters, and remove almost all the leaves, leaving only the top pair. For better rooting and rapid formation of a large number of roots, the cutting should be spent at least 16 hours in a heteroauxin solution. Only after that, plant it as deep as possible - leaving one third on the surface, and plant it with a slope in a mixture of humus and sand, the ratio of which is maintained as one to one.
A very important point: the prepared soil must be disinfected before planting! And since the planting process should take place in the fall, when there is a serious lack of light, you will have to take care of additional lighting. Do not forget about observing the humidity level. For plants such as feijoa, this level is close to 90%. To meet all conditions, you can use a simple spraying with warm water, and cover the cutting with a glass jar or other material that allows light to pass through. Rooting usually lasts about a month at temperatures between 26 and 28 degrees.
It is not difficult to get root shoots for planting. Feijoa belongs to fast-growing plants that give rich shoots, which must be removed in a timely manner. To do this, you just need to carefully remove excess processes from an adult plant during transplantation.
Like many other plants, feijoa propagates by seed, which must be fresh (not last year!). Unfortunately, the store can sell them of poor quality. But if you choose the entire inner part from the ripe fruit yourself, you can get reliable material for planting. This requires an immature fruit. Washed and dried - for at least 6 days, the seeds are spread on the surface of the ground and sprinkled with a layer of no more than 5 mm. The planting mix should contain two pieces of leafy soil, one piece of sand and two pieces of peat.
Since the seeds are very small, watering should not disturb the top layer (5 mm of soil mixture).You can achieve this careful watering by covering the ground, for example, with a simple paper towel. This method of irrigation will not only preserve the top five millimeter soil layer, but also prevent excessive deepening. You can wait for the first shoots in a month (for winter planting), and the summer one will give the long-awaited shoots in two weeks. Plants obtained from seeds will give the first fruits in six years, and cuttings or root shoots will speed up the process at least twice.
Pests. For feijoa, the main pests can be considered the red spider mite and the false shield. Young shoots can be especially harmful spider mite... But by dissolving 2 grams of celtan in one liter of water, you can easily cope with this problem (the effect of the drug lasts at least 40 days). Treatment with this agent is dangerous to carry out on a sunny day - you can get a serious burn not only of young shoots, but also of leaves. With a brown false shield, you can only fight with karbofos, which is diluted in a proportion of 6 grams per liter of water. Treatment is a thorough and generous spraying of the entire plant. Such treatments will need to be done at least three times with a break of one week.
Those who decide to breed feijoa in order to get a harvest should take into account that this plant, as a rule, is only cross-pollinated. Therefore, you should start several plants or at least two. If this is not possible, then it is worth purchasing only self-pollinating varieties, for example, Crimean early or Nikitsky aromatic (from domestic hybrids).
The second condition for the creation of a fruiting plant is a complete rejection of the usual pruning (allowed only once when reaching the 30-centimeter level of the longest shoots). This is because flowers can only form on young shoots. Only pinching of some of the tops is allowed to stimulate the growth of additional shoots.
