Q: I have two pineapple guava trees that are three and four years old. Both trees had many blossoms last year, but less than ten this year. Neither tree has produced any fruit yet. I water and fertilize them regularly. They get full sun in the morning and partial afternoon sun. What can I do to get fruit?
A: Feijoas (or pineapple guavas) are a popular landscape shrub or small tree. They are not especially fast-growing, so it’s easy to keep them small and manageable. They benefit from weekly deep watering, especially during the flowering and fruiting season. If they experience any kind of water stress, they will drop all their fruit in protest.
If your tree is flowering, but not setting fruit, there is likely a problem with pollination. Most varieties of feijoa are not self-fertile. Even if there are two or more trees close to each other, the best route to a good fruit set is hand pollination. You can use a little paintbrush to carefully transfer pollen from one flower to another. Or you can peel back the sepals and rub random flowers into each other. The flowers are bi-sexual (both male and female), so it really doesn’t matter which flower is the pollen source and which is the recipient.
If you don’t feel like playing cupid for your trees, Coolidge and Apollo are two self-fertile varieties to try.
If your trees are not flowering at all, they may need a fertilizer that is lower in nitrogen. Feijoas also benefit greatly from heavy mulching because it protects their shallow roots and minimizes water stress.
Q: About one-and-a-half years ago we planted a hedge with about 40 small Ligustrum Texanum (waxleaf privet). Right after planting, some of them lost all their leaves and we had to replace them. Now, after all this time, we have more and more plants losing their leaves and it doesn’t look like there is any life left in the plants. We keep replacing plants. What can be the cause?
A: Unfortunately, all I can tell from your included photo is that your privet does, indeed, look dead.
Privet is usually pretty hardy, but there’s always some way to kill a plant. (Don’t feel bad, I’ve killed many plants myself!)
The most common problem is overwatering or poor drainage. If a plant’s roots stay soggy for any length of time, they will succumb to fungal disease. We often call this “killing with kindness.”
Likewise, underwatering can happen, especially if you experience a failure in your drip system.
Alternating overwatering and underwatering can stress any plant to the point of no recovery. At this point you feel like you can’t win, huh?
Before planting any new shrubs, I recommend digging some compost or other organic matter into the soil. When you remove the plant from its nursery container, gently loosen the roots so that they will grow out and spread.
Privet also likes slow-release fertilizer, so mix some into the soil when you plant.
Have gardening questions? Email gardening@scng.com.
Looking for more gardening tips? Here’s how to contact the Master Gardener program in your area.
Los Angeles County
mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/
Orange County
ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; 949-809-9760; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/
Riverside County
anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-683-6491 ext. 231; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/
San Bernardino County
mgsanbern@ucanredu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu/
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