Feijoas

Pet starts with ...
I have two feijoa trees from Daleys. They are about a year old and have developed a brown colour on the leaves. I sprayed with White Oil and now some of the leaves are falling off. Can anyone help please

Pet says...
Thanks Kert, can you tell me the best remedy for this problem.

Pet says...
Thanks very much, I am a bit worried about the falling leaves. I also had pests on my citrus trees and sprayed them with white oil also and some of their leaves are also falling.
I have come to the conclusion I have mould on the plants and also I have overfertilised them. Taking too much care I think as most of the leaves have the dark brown stain (like they have been burnt) and are falling off.

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Pet says...
Hi Amanda
Hope you can see the leaves in the photos these ones were on the ground. The citrus trees leaves were being eaten by aphids I think. I sprayed them with the same white oil. It is one I made up myself 1cup oil to 1/4 cup sunlight dishwashing liquid. I sprayed both the citrus and feijoa trees and both are loosing leaves. The feijoa more than the citrus trees.

amanda says...
Hi Pet, yes the feijoa leaves are burnt hey. What did u feed them? If u suspect mould then u may need to use an anti-fungicide not white oil (like Bordeaux, Kocide or Anti-Rot)
(The reason I asked about the temp is that guava leaves can "bronze" when it's cold enough - but feijoas usually pretty tough)
Maybe wait until it's getting new growth before feeding it anymore.

Your brew should have been ok on the citrus (did u further dilute it before use?)

amanda says...
Oh..that may be the problem Pet - I don't have a white oil recipe myself - but someone here will....? I think it needs to be diluted out with water.
In the meantime just give your trees a wash off..they will survive.
Good luck! :)

J says...
Pet, I've had a similar problem with my Mammoth Feijoa I got from Daleys. Major amounts of leaf drop suddenly. However the leaves aren't brown and I don't have soot or anything on them. I have been applying white oil tho. At amanda's suggestion I have stopped. Keep in mind none of my other feijoa's from daleys have dropped leaves even though I have applied the same amount of white oil to them.

J says...
About three weeks ago. I spray the citrus mostly with white oil and natural insecticide for the caterpillars. I don't put much white oil in the spray for the feijoa's. I spray my trees because the hills can get quite damp and pests and fungus etc abound if I don't pay attention. I also use iron chelate snail bait that is apparently not harmful to animals and disintergrates into the soil after a few weeks.

J says...
Pet my mammoth Feijoa has stopped dropping leaves thankfully and is now just sitting there with half its leaves. Springs a couple of weeks away so I'm assuming it should be back to normal soon.

Olga says...
I have similar problem with my 1 year old feijoa. It started loosing leaves about 6 months ago. The coldest temperature was above +10 C. I had to use insecticides because of plenty of different kind of pests and I also used iron chelate last summer. Specialists of two garden centers told me to check water hardness, but it was normal smth about 200-300 ppm. What can it be?
I do apologize for my English :)

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Olga says...
Hi Amanda! Thank You for your kind reply.
-No they didn't test saltiness.
-water hardness about 300 ppm(don't remember exactly) is normal for human consumption. It is what we have from the water tap. Should I use filtered water for my feijoa?
-if i'm not mistaken, there is no chloride in water in Cyprus.
-Yes, i have other plants (hibiskus, honeysuckle. Two feijoas are the only fruit trees i have) with some leaves problem. Later i'll add some photos.

amanda says...
Hi Olga - salinity is a bit of a pain to deal with :-( (We are coastal and our tap water salty too...) It would be worth getting your tap water tested - and your soil - for sodium and chloride.

What has worked for me is - never wet the leaves of your plants with this water. I use dripper irrigation and microsprayers and practice deep long soakings rather than short waterings.
Gypsum is needed to help flush the salts out of the soil. Works very well - except that the chloride is harder to dislodge...
Don't use any fertilisers with a high chloride or salt content (eg potassium chloride) I have found that if my trees get some liquid nitrogen now and again - they cope with the salt better.
Liquid Seaweed fertiliser also helps.

Do you have sandy or clay based soil?
I have 50,000 rain water tanks - I use this water on my trees towards the end of summer when the salt really starts to cause problems due to the heat and dryness here.
What is your annual rainfall in Cyprus?

amanda says...
Hi Olga - I am not much good with clay soils - maybe another member can shed more light for you...?

There are some advantages with clay in this situation though. But gee - that rainfall is not much better than mine here....
Some good compost would be helpful for you too. You can buy liquid seaweed fertiliser.

Are these plants are in the ground yes?

amanda says...
Hi Olga - I try to get my solid fertilisers out when the first rains come, and through winter, as the rain helps to make them work (eg: manure, compost, slow release pelleted chook manure) I have many trees and water is very expensive so I don't have the luxury of being able to waste much in summer - only to keep the trees alive and maintain any fruit.
It's quite warm here over winter so I can get good growth on the evergreens this way. I have sandy soil - so bulk organics can be a problem for me.
I use liquid fertilisers in summer so that 2 jobs done and the nutrients quickly available to the plants.
I liquid fertilise every month - but often not - as I try not to get too much new growth as it just gets fried in the hot winds (40oC+).
Winter is my time for building better soil :)

Try to get some good compost for your clay - it will help a lot. Water quality may be one of those things that is decline in many semi arid zones like ours...I am guessing this will become more of a problem for more people as time goes on. If only plants had kidneys too!?

Rowan says...
Hi Piedy, the fruit drops off naturally before it is soft - just place them in a bowl for a few days until they smell fruity and soften then enjoy.

Julie says...
Was it fruitfly? Or something else?

Sudeep says...
Can someone suggest the best place to get grafted Feijoas (Apollo or Duffy) in Perth, WA.