Feijoa, Pineapple Guava Seeds (Acca sellowiana)

🌿 Feijoa, Pineapple Guava Seeds (Acca sellowiana)

💰 Price: Package of 5 seeds

🌿 This shrub is a showstopper in any garden, with grey-green leaves, white-felted beneath, and most attractive and rather unusual flowers with crimson and white petals and numerous prominent crimson stamens. 🌸 During hot summer months, egg-sized and shaped berries appear, edible and having a Guava-like flavor. 🍈 Not only are the fruits edible, but the flower petals also have a rich, aromatic flavor. ☀ Almost hardy, this plant prefers a warm, sunny position. Native to Brazil, it thrives in temperate climates. 🌎

🌱 Acca sellowiana, a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, is native to the highlands of southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina, and Colombia. 🌿 Widely cultivated as a garden plant and fruiting tree in New Zealand, it can also be grown in Australia, Azerbaijan, western Georgia, southern Russia, and South Africa. 🌎 Common names include feijoa, pineapple guava, and guavasteen. The German botanist Otto Karl Berg named feijoa after João da Silva Feijó, a Portuguese botanist born in colonial Brazil.

🍏 Fruit matures in autumn, green and ellipsoid, approximately the size of a chicken egg. Its sweet, aromatic flesh is juicy, divided into a clear gelatinous seed pulp and a firmer, slightly granular flesh near the skin. 🍴 Picking the fruit before it falls helps prevent bruising. The pulp, similar to guava, has a gritty texture. 💧 Some natural cosmetic products use it as an exfoliant. Feijoa emits a distinctive, potent aroma due to methyl benzoate and related esters. 🌸

🌞 This plant grows best in warm-temperate to subtropical regions but can tolerate the tropics. ❄ A minimum of 50 hours of winter chilling is required for fruiting, and it is frost-tolerant. 🌬 When grown from seed, young feijoa plants grow slowly during the first one to two years. Although cold tolerant, they can be sensitive to high winds. 💨

🛒 New Zealand produces large quantities of feijoa fruit, available from March to June. Outside cultivation areas, the fruit is rare and often expensive. 💰 Hardier varieties thrive in the Russian region of Buriatia. To consume, cut the fruit in half and scoop out the pulp. 🍹 It can also be used in smoothies, wine, cider, and feijoa-infused vodka. The flavor is complex, aromatic, and reminiscent of guava, strawberry, pineapple, with a subtle wintergreen aftertaste. 🌺 Edible flower petals, slightly sweet with hints of cinnamon, are commonly added to salads. 🥗

🌿 Some grafted cultivars are self-fertile, though most require a pollinator. Seedlings may vary in quality and fertility. 🌱 Feijoas can grow into large shrubs, but they can also be maintained as container plants. 🪴

🌱 Sowing Instructions

🌱 Propagation: Seeds
🔹 Pretreatment: Optional scarification
❄ Stratification: 2–4 weeks in fridge 2–5°C recommended
📅 Sowing Time: All year round indoors; spring outdoors
🌱 Sowing Depth: 0.5–1 cm in seed compost or well-draining potting mix
☀ Location: Bright, sunny position; protect seedlings from frost and wind
🌡 Germination Temperature: 18–22°C
⏳ Germination Time: 3–6 weeks
💧 Watering: Keep compost evenly moist, not waterlogged
🪴 Transplanting: Move seedlings to larger pots when 5–10 cm tall; harden off before planting outdoors
🌿 Planting: Space 2–3 meters apart; tolerates partial shade but fruits best in full sun
🐝 Pollination: Some cultivars self-fertile; bees, bumblebees, and birds improve fruit set
💦 Care: Regular watering during fruit maturation; mulch to conserve moisture; prune lightly after fruiting

Internal Links:

• Fruit Seeds Collection 🌿

• Guava Seeds 🍈

• Shrubs & Ornamental Plants 🪴

External Link:

• Feijoa Wikipedia 🌎