Do feijoa trees self pollinate?

Standing in my orchard here in San Diego, surrounded by the silvery-green foliage of my Acca sellowiana trees, I often get asked the same question by visitors staring at the spectacular red-and-white blossoms. They ask, “Do I really need two of these to get fruit, or will one do the trick?” It is the single most confusing aspect of growing this plant.

Emily Rodriguez

You might know this fruit as the Pineapple Guava, Guavasteen, or simply Feijoa. Regardless of what you call it, the answer to the pollination question is rarely a simple yes or no. In my early years farming on this plot, I made the mistake of assuming the nursery tag "self-fertile" meant "guaranteed heavy harvest," but I learned the hard way that nature prefers company.

Here at Exotic Fruits and Vegetables, we’ve found that understanding the specific pollination mechanics of your Feijoa variety is the difference between harvesting a handful of marble-sized runts and filling crates with egg-sized, aromatic fruit. Let’s dig into the reality of how these trees reproduce and how you can manipulate the system for a massive yield.

The Mechanics: Birds, Bees, and Biology

Feijoa flowers are structurally unique, featuring a cluster of bright red stamens topped with golden pollen, surrounding a single, longer central style. In their native South American habitat, these trees aren’t primarily pollinated by bees; they are pollinated by birds—specifically fruit-eating birds like tanagers and thrushes—that land on the flower to eat the sweet, fleshy white petals.

The scientific name for this plant is Acca sellowiana, though it was formerly classified as Feijoa sellowiana. In its native highlands of southern Brazil and Uruguay, it is a staple food source, yet here in California, it remains a misunderstood exotic gem.

In San Diego, we don’t have the specific bird species that co-evolved with the Feijoa. While mockingbirds and scrub jays occasionally peck at the petals, they rarely do the efficient job required for heavy fruiting. Honeybees will visit the flowers to gather pollen, but they often work the outer stamens without touching the central stigma, resulting in failed pollination.

Ever wonder why your Feijoa flowers have those thick, fleshy petals? They are actually evolved to be edible bait for vertebrates, not insects.

This is where the concept of “self-fertile” vs. “self-sterile” gets tricky. Some varieties, like the popular ‘Coolidge’, are genetically capable of accepting their own pollen. However, even these self-fertile types suffer from what I call “lonely tree syndrome,” where a lack of cross-pollination leads to low genetic diversity and smaller fruit.

Do not trust a label that says “Self-Fertile” implicitly. While the tree may set fruit alone, a single ‘Coolidge’ tree isolated from others will typically yield 40% to 50% less fruit by weight than one planted near a ‘Mammoth’ or ‘Triumph’.

Comparing Popular Varieties

To help you plan your orchard, I’ve compiled data from my own planting trials. I track the performance of these trees based on whether they are planted in isolation or in mixed blocks.

My breakthrough came when I discovered that planting a Mammoth right next to my ‘Apollo’ triggered an explosion in production. The ‘Apollo’ acted as the pollen donor for the ‘Mammoth’, and the ‘Mammoth’ reciprocated. Suddenly, I wasn’t just getting fruit; I was getting fruit that weighed 3 to 4 ounces each, rather than the puny 1-ounce fruits I harvested previously.

How to Hand Pollinate for Maximum Yield

If you only have space for one tree, or if your local bee population is lazy, you need to take matters into your own hands. Hand pollination acts like an insurance policy for your harvest. It sounds tedious, but you only need to do it every few days during peak bloom, which usually hits us here in May or June.

The best time to hand pollinate is mid-morning, around 10:00 AM, after the morning dew has evaporated but before the afternoon heat dries out the stigma.

I view hand pollination like making a direct deposit into your bank account; you are guaranteeing the transaction rather than hoping the check arrives in the mail. Here is the exact method I use to ensure nearly 100% fruit set:

1. Gather your tools: You don’t need fancy equipment; a small, soft artist’s paintbrush (size 4 or 6) or a simple cotton Q-tip works perfectly.
2. Collect the pollen: Find a flower that has freshly opened; the yellow pollen on the tips of the red stamens should look powdery and golden, not brown or dried out.
3. Locate the target: Move to a flower on a different tree (if possible) or a different branch and identify the stigma, which is the single, slightly longer stalk in the absolute center of the red burst.
4. The transfer: Gently dab the pollen-covered brush onto the tip of the stigma so you see a small yellow spot deposited on the sticky tip.
5. Repeat: Do this for 10-15 flowers per branch, as you don’t need to do every single flower since the tree naturally sheds excess fruit it cannot support.

Environmental Factors That Mimic Pollination Failure

Sometimes, you can have perfect pollination and still lose your crop. I once ruined an entire batch by misdiagnosing the problem; I saw tiny fruits forming and then dropping off by the hundreds in July, so I assumed it was a lack of pollination.

Feijoa trees are drought tolerant only when it comes to survival. For fruit production, they are extremely thirsty. If the soil dries out completely while the fruit is the size of a jellybean, the tree will abort the crop to save itself.

Through our work with Exotic Fruits and Vegetables farm, we realized that consistent moisture is just as vital as the pollen itself. In our sandy loam soil, I apply approximately 15 gallons of water per mature tree every week during the summer. If we get a Santa Ana heatwave where temperatures spike above 95°F, I increase that to twice a week.

If you see fruitlets turning yellow and dropping 4-6 weeks after flowering, it is almost always a water deficit, not a pollination failure.

My Personal Strategy for Success

If you are planting today, forget the idea of a solitary specimen tree. Treat Feijoas as social creatures. I plant my trees in high-density hedgerows where, instead of spacing them 15 feet apart, I plant them 5 feet apart. This creates a “pollen corridor” where bees and birds are forced to cross variety lines simply by hopping a few inches.

Planting high-density hedgerows with alternating varieties (e.g., Coolidge, Mammoth, Apollo, Coolidge) increases cross-pollination rates naturally by over 60% compared to isolated planting.

Another factor is nutrition. Pollen viability decreases in nutrient-poor soils. I don’t use heavy chemical fertilizers; instead, I top-dress each tree with 2 inches of composted chicken manure in February, right before the spring flush. This provides the nitrogen needed for growth and the micronutrients (boron and zinc) that are essential for pollen tube growth.

The Edible Bonus

While waiting for the fruit to set, don’t forget that the petals themselves are a crop. As I mentioned earlier, birds eat them for a reason: they taste like cotton candy mixed with pineapple.

• Harvesting petals: You can pluck the fleshy petals without damaging the reproductive parts of the flower.
• Culinary use: Toss them fresh into fruit salads for a sweet, floral crunch.
• Pollination indicator: If the petals are naturally falling off, the flower is nearing the end of its receptive phase.

Plucking the petals carefully does not harm the developing fruit; in fact, it removes the attraction for petal-eating birds that might accidentally knock off the young fruitlet.

Final Thoughts

Can a Feijoa tree self-pollinate? Technically, yes, if you choose the right cultivar. But asking a Feijoa to self-pollinate is like trying to clap with one hand—you might make a little noise, but you won’t get a round of applause.

Our passion at Exotic Fruits and Vegetables drives us to push for the best flavor and highest yields, and that invariably means diversity. Plant at least two varieties, or if you only have room for one, graft a branch of a different variety onto your existing tree.

“The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow, but the best pollinator is a diverse neighborhood.”

For the absolute best results, plant a ‘Mammoth’ and an ‘Apollo’ side-by-side and keep the soil consistently moist from June through September. Do this, and come autumn, you won’t just be eating fruit; you’ll be giving it away to neighbors by the bucketload. Happy growing!