Last year I can remember getting very excited when I saw my feijoa trees flowering like this. The year before they had flowered a bit and we had got our first fruit - about 5 in total. Unfortunately despite all the flowers we still only got about 5 feijoas in total last time too. I know there is a shortage of bees at the moment and I am fairly sure that is the reason for the failure to fruit. I have followed all the other "rules" - planting two different varieties close by etc. so pollination failure is all I can think of. As I was admiring the flowers again this year I kept thinking "if I had all day every day to potter in the garden I'd get out with a brush and ensure pollination occurs" .....and then my alarm went off to tell me it was time to jump in the shower and get to work. Maybe next year!
The other thing that had its first fruit on it this year was the apricot tree. Again lots of blossom in spring, but a total of only 5 apricots.... most of which are split due to the heavy rain lately. I was so excited to have my own apricots though that I munched through one today - wincing at its sourness, but enjoying the novelty of our very first apricot from our garden...There is a huge increase in the number of butterflies in the garden this year so I'm hoping they are doing more pollinating than egg laying....
I asked Masaaki what the name of the fruit was in Japanese and he didn't know...I mean...he didn't know if it was Ume or momo. Those are not ume..are they?? If I had all day to potter in the garden I would be in heaven!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm just getting my feet w bit wet right now. Do you know of any good resources (in English) where I might begin to learn about Japanese agriculture..??
wow. I had to google fejoia and according to wikipedia there's a LOT that can stop them fruiting- delicate little guys!
ReplyDeleteIf I just plant one tree will it still blossom? I like them but aren't too fussed either way about eating them but LOVE the flowers.
ReplyDeleteI have a whole hedge of feijoa trees here in Kumamoto. They're about 9 years old. They are in full bloom now, but the rain and wind have done a job on them. They seem to have good fruiting years and not so good ones. We planted alternately with 3 different types, and while they're not there for the fruit, we do get disappointed when there aren't many. I wanted the feijoa after I saw a hedge online where the leaves were all showing up silver - the underneath. Beautiful plants, beautiful flowers, the fruit can be sweet, bitter, or indifferent.
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