Fans of exoticism learned to grow at home not only bananas and pineapples, but also feijoa. The fruit belongs to the category of an evergreen tree-like shrub, which is a representative of the Mirtov genus. What is feijoa? Feijoa is a valuable fruit crop that benefits the human body and makes up for the deficiency of vitamins B, PP and C.
Feijoa is a fruit or berry
Often lovers of exotic fruits ask questions: what is feijoa, where does the fruit grow? Where did this wonderful plant come from? The homeland of fruitful flowering plants of the Myrtaceae family are:
- South America;
- Colombia;
- Argentina;
- Uruguay;
- Paraguay.
Exotic fruit
Today, agronomists of Azerbaijan, Australia, the Caucasus, western Georgia successfully grow a fruitful flowering plant on their plantations. Recently, shrubs are grown on the territory of Russia (RF).
What is feijoa - berry or fruit? This is an exotic fruit that belongs to the category of fruit.
Feijoa is a fruit that will not leave indifferent even the most sophisticated gourmet in the world. The shape of the fruit resembles the shape of an egg. Fruits are painted in a green shade. The pulp is characterized by increased juiciness, aroma and sweetish flavor. Feijoa tastes like notes of apple, mint, fig and pineapple. Many people think that it looks exactly like pineapple. The granularity of the transparent jelly-like pulp vaguely resembles a guava.
What does feijoa look like? The peel of an exotic fruit is dense and tart. The pulp contains a small amount of seeds. The fruit can be eaten completely without removing the peel.
Note! Most often, lovers of exotic fruits choose only the flesh, not suspecting that it is the skin that contains the main percentage of useful elements. Some housewives dry the skin in the fresh air and in winter add it to tea with grated ginger.
How does feijoa bloom? Feijoa blooming season lasts almost 60 days. During this period, the plant becomes a real decoration of the apartment / garden. Bright feijoa flowers are endowed with an amazing aroma. The fruit ripens on the 20th of October. In the feijoa ripening season, you can remove fruits from the tree and eat immediately.
Benefit and harm
Feijoa - what is it and how useful is the fruit, not everyone knows. Among the main useful properties that an exotic fruit has, a large percentage of the content in the fruits:
- B vitamins;
- Vitamin C
- vitamin PP;
- iodine and calcium;
- potassium and sodium;
- magnesium and phosphorus;
- iron and copper;
- zinc and manganese;
- malic and folic acid;
- Strawberry and Pineapple Essential Oil.
Due to the easy absorption of proteins and fats, which are concentrated in the pulp of ripened fruit, the fruits are often used in the diet by adherents of proper nutrition. Often, for weight loss, nutritionists recommend replacing an evening meal with a small amount of fruit. Such a dinner will provide an opportunity not only to reduce body weight, but also to fill in the deficiency of useful elements.
Shrub growing in Crimea
Important! It is worth considering that the percentage of iodine content in feijoa exceeds its amount in any seafood. Due to its being in a water-soluble state, the body can easily absorb it.
Doctors recommend including citrus in the daily diet for people with pathologies:
- thyroid gland;
- gastrointestinal tract;
- kidney and liver.
Note! In Georgia, feijoa is used to make Natakhtari lemonade - a national drink that is in great demand among local residents and tourists. And in Russia, young people love the energy of Darkside with feijoa, which has an indescribable taste and aroma, and also charges with energy.
Cachetin and leukoanthocin contained in the composition act on the human body as a powerful antioxidant, which helps prevent the occurrence of malignant tumors. The presence of vitamin C in the composition makes it possible at an early stage to cope with the common cold, the symptoms of acute respiratory illness and flu.
Note! Feijoa is an excellent immunomodulator that grows in nature.
Despite the abundance of beneficial properties, the fetus can be harmful to human health. A large percentage of sugar in the composition of the product negatively affects the health of people who suffer from:
- obesity
- diabetes mellitus;
- heart disease
- ulcerative pathology;
- individual intolerance to the fruit;
- hyperthyroidism.
If you feast on a daily basis with a large number of exotic fruits, you can provoke the occurrence of:
- anxiety
- nervous breakdown;
- "jumping" temperature;
- heart palpitations;
- decreased performance;
- depressed state.
To avoid stool problems, it is best to abandon the combination of cow's milk and feijoa. The fruits can only be eaten fresh! After 6-7 days of storage, the product deteriorates and can cause poisoning.
Growing feijoa at home
To grow an exotic plant in your own home, you need to prepare the seeds. For this, fresh fruits should be purchased. Seeds of overripe fruit are poor in germination. To extract the seed, you need to cut the fruit from the side of the tail. The jelly-like flesh is squeezed out. With the help of a fine sieve, it is enough just to get rid of the jelly and get the seeds. The seeds collected in this way are washed in a manganese solution and dried thoroughly.
Shrub cultivation
The process of sowing seed material:
- First of all, they begin preparing the soil mixture. Peat and fertile soil are combined in equal parts, a small amount of sand and sheet soil are added.
- The resulting soil is poured into containers.
- Seeds go deep into the soil to a depth of 0.6 cm from the soil surface.
- Soil is carefully moistened from a spray. This will prevent the leaching of seed material.
- Containers are exposed on window sills. The temperature in the room should be between 17-18 ° C.
- After 3-4 weeks, the first shoots will appear. After another 14 days, you can see the first foliage. After the formation of the eighth leaf, the seedlings are transplanted in separate pots. This time you will need to slightly change the composition of the soil. In equal amounts, the combined turf and leaf soil are poured into a container filled with a small amount of sand and humus.
Important! The bush does not apply to frost-resistant crops.
Lighting
When planting a feijoa tree on its site, it is important to consider that the plant belongs to photophilous crops. When landing near the house, you should give preference to a place located on the south side. Adult exotic feijoa plants that are planted in apartment conditions must be placed on the southern windowsill or insulated balcony / loggia. It is very important to illuminate the culture in the cold season. For this purpose, a 20 W fluorescent lamp is installed near the fruit tree.
Note! Even those bushes that are grown in open ground need additional lighting. Therefore, near feijoa you can install additional light, however, this is not a prerequisite for successful cultivation.
Pick
As soon as 3-4 pairs of leaves are formed on the seedlings, you can begin to pick on individual small containers. To do this, it is recommended to use self-prepared soil, consisting of:
- humus leaf;
- rotted manure;
- soddy soil;
- coarse river sand.
Picking accelerates the development of the feijoa root system. Despite the rapid increase in green mass, you can enjoy the first fruits only six years after planting seedlings in pots.
Humidity and temperature
How feijoa grows at home, and what temperature is acceptable to him in the room? Feijoa is a plant that is not picky about the temperature regime. The tree will tolerate fairly well the cool temperature in the range of 12-13 ° C and hot weather in the range of 28-33 ° C. The only thing that is important is that in the cold season the temperature does not fall below 8 ° C.
Note! Properly caring for the plant and timely moistening the soil, you can grow a healthy tree that will delight every year with juicy fruits.
When growing feijoa in apartment conditions, containers with trees should be exposed in the summer to the courtyard or at least to the unglazed balcony. Throughout the year, it is important to maintain indoor humidity in the range of 78-80%. Experts recommend systematically spraying green mass and the root system of an exotic fruit.
Watering
In the sultry heat and in the growing season, it is necessary to moisten the soil abundantly, while not allowing fluid to stagnate in the wells. After sunset, feijoa are sprayed with warm water. Exposure to sunlight on wet foliage can cause sunburn. It is necessary to moisten the soil as the soil dries in the container.
Note! It is important to systematically check the soil in the pot, since very dry soil leads to the subsidence of the green mass of the plant. At the same time, roots and branches die.
Exotic plant in the house
Top dressing
In the first 24 months, an exotic tree does not need fertilizer. Transplanting a young plant every season into a new soil, you can make up for the deficiency of beneficial elements and vitamins. Two years after planting a seedling, you can think about making fertilizing. It is advisable to use fertilizer in the spring and autumn months. Specialists recommend foliar top dressing on the crown.
Spring fertilizer application:
- April 1 to add fertilizer containing nitrogen;
- April 15 fertilize with phosphorus fertilizer;
- On April 30, add potassium top dressing.
Organic fertilizers are often used as nitrogen fertilizing. A small amount of decomposed horse manure diluted in rainwater is perfect. Such fertilizer contributes to the active growth of exotic crops.
It is systematically necessary to introduce granular superphosphate. It can be embedded in the ground. If you need to use liquid fertilizer, then superphosphate (1 tbsp.spoon) is combined with 2 liters of water. The resulting solution was brought to a boil, left to cool, and then exotic trees were abundantly watered.
In order to stimulate the development of fruits, you can make potassium top dressing in early autumn. It is advisable to use an ash extract. For every 2 liters of standing water add 2 tbsp. tablespoons of ash of a deciduous plant or straw. The solution should be infused for 5-7 days. After straining, liquid top dressing can be used as fertilizer.
Note! Any top dressing should be applied to wet soil. Therefore, before using fertilizer, it is advisable to water the plant abundantly.
In winter, top dressing is not used.
Pests and diseases
An exotic plant rarely gets sick if the gardener properly cares for the crop and timely fertilizes the tree. In the absence of high-quality care and violation of the irrigation regime, feijoa can suffer from gray rot and leaf spotting. To cope with fungal infections, experts recommend using:
- Bordeaux liquid;
- abigo peak;
- home;
- cuproxate;
- oxychoma;
- polychome;
- Ridomil;
- an acrobat;
- soon.
Important! The areas affected by gray rot are cut out. In this case, a small portion of healthy tissue should be captured. After this, abundant treatment with an effective fungicide is carried out.
Among pests, exotic fruit is most often harmed by a pseudoscutum and a red spider mite. The latter destroys young foliage and shoots. To cope with the pest, experts recommend using dissolved (2 g) celtan in 1 liter of water. Using a solution, the plants are treated after sunset. The active components of the celtan are able to affect the exotic culture for about five weeks. For preventive purposes, it is advisable to systematically wash feijoa in the shower. The spider mite tries to escape from moisture.
False shield settles along the central veins of the upper side of the foliage. It is possible to cope with the pest through the use of karbofos, previously dissolved in standing water (6 g of the drug will be required for 2 liters of water). The emulsion is used to process the green mass of the plant. Each leaf must be moistened on both sides in a liquid. The recommended number of treatments is 3 times. The interval between them should be six days.
Diseases and pests
Feijoa breeding
Exotic tree refers to cross-pollinated crops. In order for the fruits to form, it is necessary to plant a couple of feijoa not far from each other. However, even this can not be a guarantee of abundant fruiting. Experienced gardeners recommend purchasing partenocarpic seedlings for planting. It is these green spaces that are endowed with the ability of self-pollination.
To propagate the plant, it is recommended to use:
- seed way;
- cuttings.
Cuttings are carried out on the 20th of April. Cuttings are cut from young shoots. It is very important that each has three internodes. The lower sections of the cuttings are treated with a growth stimulator. For this purpose, it is advisable to use:
- root;
- humate;
- epin.
After processing the lower sections, the cuttings are planted in a greenhouse with light soil containing a small amount of vermiculite and sand. In order for the cuttings to take root, it is important to ensure that the temperature in the greenhouse exceeds 28 ° C. It is worth considering that in this way only 50% of seedlings take root. The plant is quite finicky, so reproduction is not such an easy process.
Flowering of young cuttings begins 36 months later. With seed propagation, the process of flowering feijoa occurs only in the sixth year. Feijoa flowers are quite lush and bright. Unfortunately, not every tree can be fruit tied.
Feijoa belongs to the category of unpretentious plants. However, when growing it at home, it is important to strictly adhere to the recommendations of experienced gardeners. This will allow you to grow a healthy, abundant fruiting tree.
