Acca sellowiana - Feijoa, Pinapple Guava, Guavasteen

The Pineapple Guava (Acca sellowiana), also known as Feijoa, blooms richly in May or June with eye-catching flowers with a size of 2.5 to 3 cm. They consist of sturdy sepals and petals with a dense bunch of red filaments in the center. The petals are edible and taste sweet. In New Zealand, the world’s leader in cultivating Pineapple Guava, also birds love to eat them. The flowers are self-pollinating, so that one plant is sufficient for pollination and a further plant will only increase the harvest. Fruits differ very much in shape from oblong-oval and pear-shaped to round. Even when mature, the fruit’s skin stays bluish-green. The fruits’ aroma and fragrance is unique, the white pulp is granulous, juicy and sweet. The taste is similar to Guava, Pineapple or Strawberry, hence its name Pineapple Guava. After ripening 18 to 24 weeks the fruits can be harvested in autumn. Grafted varieties like ‘Triumph’ or ‘Mammouth’ garantee high quality fruits and a rich harvest even with young plants. With their grey and entire leaves Pineapple Guava is attractive throughout the year and despite its South American origin harmonises well with mediterranean design terraces or conservatories. Pineapple Guavas will normally have no problems with insect pests when in a sunny place with sufficient water supply. They tolerate heat as well as wind. In nature, Pineapple Guava grows as multi-stemmed shrub. It can therefore easily be pruned into shape as a standard or half-standard tree or kept down in shape by rigurous pruning in March. Pineapple Guava is a rather hardy plant and can be placed outside allready early in the year and has to be brought back into its winter quarter not before November.

Quality: attractive red-white brush-like flowers with edible petals; delicious fruits; evergreen; compact growth; robust and easy-care; tolerates pruning
Use: in pots from April to October/ November outside on balcony, terrace and in the garden- during winter in an unheated winter quarter; all year in an unheated or heated greenhouse; possibly planted into the garden