Feijoa Tree Growing Guide NZ: Planting, Pollination and Harvest

Updated October 2026

New Zealand's best-loved backyard fruit, a tough evergreen that doubles as a hedge, with a regional climate selector and clear variety and pollination advice

What it looks like as it grows

Feijoa is as Kiwi as it gets. Known botanically as Acca sellowiana and also sold as pineapple guava, it is one of New Zealand's best-loved backyard fruits, found over the fence in gardens from Northland to Southland. It is a dense evergreen shrub with grey-green leaves, silver undersides and showy red-and-white flowers in late spring, and it crops in autumn, broadly March to May and later in the south, with fragrant green fruit that tastes like a blend of pineapple, guava and pear. When the feijoas start to drop, you know autumn has truly arrived.

What makes feijoa so worth a spot is its versatility. It handles frost once established, copes with wind and coastal salt, grows happily in a large pot, and clips into a productive hedge. This guide gives you a climate suitability selector to check your region, then walks through pollination, planting, feeding, pruning, hedging, harvest and the named varieties worth seeking out.

🌱 Plant profile: Feijoa, with sowing times for your region, companion plants and common pests.

Is feijoa right for your region?

The short answer for most of New Zealand is yes. Feijoa thrives across the country, with the heaviest, most reliable crops in the temperate and coastal districts of both islands. It also fruits well in the subtropical north and is hardy enough for the cool south, where established plants shrug off frost and the harvest simply runs later. It even fruits in a pot on a balcony. Pick your region below to see how well feijoa suits you and whether you need a second variety for pollination.

Not sure which you are? Use Find My Region to match your postcode to a climate zone.

When to Plant Feijoa in Your Region

Feijoas are planted in autumn or spring in the warmer regions and in spring after the frosts further south. These are the planting months for each of our nine New Zealand regions, straight from our planting data. Each region links to its vegetable planting calendar, and the Feijoa plant page has spacing, companions and care notes for your region.

Northland, Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, Wellington and the lower North Island, and Nelson and Marlborough can plant feijoas in autumn, from March to May, or in spring in September and October. The colder regions plant young trees in spring only, after the frosts: the central North Island and Canterbury in October and November, Otago and Southland in November and December, and Central Otago in November. Established bushes are hardy, but cover young plants on hard frosts, and in Canterbury choose a spot sheltered from the nor'wester. Central Otago is marginal for feijoas: established bushes take the winters, but frosts from late March can catch the fruit, so choose early ripening varieties there and in Otago and Southland.

Do you need two plants? Pollination explained

This is the question that trips up most first-time feijoa growers. Feijoa is mostly pollinated by birds in its native South America, where they eat the sweet petals and carry pollen between flowers. In a New Zealand garden, that means fruit set can be patchy unless you give the plant a hand.

The simple rule: some varieties are self-fertile, but almost all feijoas fruit better with a second variety nearby. Self-fertile varieties such as Unique and, to a good degree, Apollo will set a crop on their own, which makes them the right pick if you only have room for one plant. Varieties like Triumph, Mammoth and Den's Choice reward you with much bigger, more reliable crops when a different variety is planted within a few metres for cross-pollination.

Planting feijoa

Plant feijoa in autumn or spring in the warmer regions, and in spring after the frosts in the central North Island, Canterbury, Otago and Southland and Central Otago, as the table above shows. Choose a full-sun position for the best fruit, though feijoa tolerates part shade at the cost of a lighter crop. It is not fussy about soil as long as drainage is reasonable, and it copes with a range from sandy to clay-loam. It prefers a slightly acidic to neutral soil.

• Spacing: a free-grown bush wants two to three metres of room. For a hedge, plant one to 1.5 metres apart.
• Hole: dig twice as wide as the pot, tease out circling roots, and plant at the same depth it sat in the pot.
• Water in: firm the soil, water deeply, and mulch with about five centimetres of organic mulch kept clear of the trunk.
• First summer: water regularly through the first warm season while the roots establish.

Growing feijoa in a pot

Feijoa is one of the better fruit trees for containers. Use a pot at least 50 centimetres wide with free-draining quality potting mix, and choose a self-fertile variety like Unique if it will be your only plant. Keep it watered through flowering and fruiting, feed it through the growing season, and pot up a size every couple of years. A potted feijoa stays naturally compact and takes light pruning well.

Feeding and watering

Feijoa is not a heavy feeder, but a steady supply keeps it cropping. Feed in early spring and again after fruiting with a balanced organic fertiliser or a citrus-style blend, and top up the mulch each year. Liquid seaweed or fish emulsion through the growing season suits potted plants well. Keep water up during flowering and fruiting, as dry stress at this time causes flowers and small fruit to drop. An established plant in the ground is reasonably drought tolerant once mature, but consistent moisture means a better crop.

Pruning and hedging

Feijoa fruits on new season's growth, so a light prune just after harvest, or in late winter before the spring flush, keeps the plant productive and tidy. Thin out crowded inner branches to let light and birds in, and shorten leggy growth to encourage bushiness.

Because it is dense, evergreen, wind-firm and salt-tolerant, feijoa makes a first-class edible hedge or windbreak, which is one reason it is planted around so many New Zealand sections. The trade-off is fruit: hard, frequent clipping removes flowering wood, so a tightly sheared hedge crops far less than a free-grown bush. If you want both a hedge and a good harvest, clip lightly and accept a slightly looser shape, or grow a hedge for screening and keep one or two plants free-grown for fruit.

Harvesting feijoa

Here is the trick that surprises new growers: feijoa tells you it is ripe by falling off the plant. Ripe fruit drops naturally, usually over a few weeks in autumn. The easiest harvest is to collect windfalls every day, or lay a tarp or net under the plant and give it a gentle shake. Fruit picked while still firmly attached will soften off the plant but never reaches the same perfume and sweetness as tree-ripened, dropped fruit.

Ripe feijoa is fragrant and gives slightly to a squeeze. To eat, cut in half and scoop the jelly-like centre with a spoon. The fruit does not store long, so eat within a few days, refrigerate for up to a week or two, or scoop and freeze the pulp for smoothies, baking and chutney. A mature plant can produce a generous crop, so it pays to have a plan for a glut.

Pests and problems

Feijoa is refreshingly trouble-free, and is one of the easiest fruits to grow in New Zealand. The main issues to watch are:

• Guava moth: in the warmer north, guava moth can tunnel into the fruit. Net where it is a known problem, pick up and dispose of fallen affected fruit promptly, and harvest windfalls daily so larvae cannot complete their cycle in the fruit on the ground.
• Poor fruit set: usually a pollination problem. Add a second variety, encourage birds, or hand-pollinate.
• Birds: they love the ripe fruit and the sweet petals, so netting helps if you are competing for the crop.
• Scale and mealybug: occasional only, treat with horticultural oil if they build up.

Beyond guava moth in the north, feijoa is otherwise very pest-free, and New Zealand's mainland is largely free of the fruit flies that plague feijoa growers in some other countries.

Feijoa varieties for New Zealand

Always buy a grafted, named variety. Seedlings are cheaper but slow to fruit and unpredictable in quality. These are the standout cultivars to look for at New Zealand garden centres.

A proven pairing for a strong crop is a self-fertile variety such as Unique or Apollo planted alongside Triumph or Mammoth, which gives you cross-pollination plus a spread of harvest size and timing.

When does feijoa crop in New Zealand?

Feijoa flowers in late spring (around November to December in most regions) and the fruit ripens and drops in autumn, broadly March to May, with the cooler south running later into May and June. Exact timing shifts with your region, and in the warm north the season can start a little earlier. For dates tuned to your spot, use Find My Region or open the Planting Season app.

Frequently Asked Questions

See also: Low-Chill Fruit Guide, Unusual Fruit to Grow, How to Grow Figs and How to Grow Persimmon

See also: Feijoa in the Plant Library