Abstract

Feijoa sellowiana is cultivated as a food crop in New Zealand, Colombia and France and is well known for its high dietary value fruit. F. sellowiana was firstly introduced into Shanghai Botanical Garden during the 1980s. Four varieties of F. sellowiana (‘Mammoth’, ‘Triumph’, ‘Unique’, ‘Coolidge’) were introduced to Hunan in 2007. However, little is known about their biological characteristics and phenology reaction in our climate. Through the introduction and cultivation test of F. sellowiana in Hunan, the biological characteristics about phenological phase, shoots, leaves and fruits growth were determined from 2008 to 2010. The results are showed that the budding and leafing of ‘Mammoth’ were earlier than the other three varieties. The time of shoots start growing of four varieties were relatively concentrated in early April, while the time of shoots stop growing were inconsistent. ‘Mammoth’ has the strongest growth potential, followed by ‘Triumph’, ‘Unique’, ‘Coolidge’. There was only one rapid growth stage in the whole leaf area growth process and in the order of mature leaf area size was ‘Triumph’> ‘Mammoth’> ‘Coolidge’> ‘Unique’. Four varieties growth dynamics of leaf thickness were similar, from early May to mid-June and the growth rates of leaf thickness were nearly the same. Initial bloom stages of four varieties were in early May, fallen flower stages were from late May to early June. There were two rapid growth periods during the whole fruit growths, which were after the fallen flower to early July and early September to early October, respectively. ‘Mammoth’, ‘Triumph’ and ‘Unique’ took 170 days to ripe, while ‘Coolidge’ took nearly 180 days. Based our results, four varieties of F. sellowiana acclimatize to Hunan province.

Keywords:

Biological characteristics, Feijoa sellowiana, introduction, phenological phase,

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