Strawberry Guava

Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleyanum) is an edible hedge. It reaches about 3.5m tall and 2.5m wide, holds glossy evergreen foliage from the ground up, and carries small dark red fruit with a sweet strawberry and guava flavour you eat skin and all. Planted 1.5m apart it gives a screen that feeds the household as well as blocking the neighbours.

Why you'll love it

• Fruit you will actually pick. Round red fruit about the size of a cherry, sweet with a little tartness, eaten fresh or cooked into jam.
• A hedge that earns its keep twice. Dense to the base for screening and productive at the same time, unusual in a plant this size.
• Very hard to kill. Drought, heat and salt tolerant and comfortable in humidity, so it copes with coastal blocks and a hot western fence line.
• Safe for pets, popular with birds. Not toxic to cats or dogs, and the fruit brings in birds if you leave any on the bush.

Where it works best

Hedging, screening and coastal gardens. Plant 1.5m apart in a single row for a dense screen to around 3m. It clips well, so you can hold it at 2m if the sightline matters more than the crop, and salt and wind do not trouble it.

One important caution. Strawberry guava self seeds readily and is regarded as an environmental weed in parts of coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales. If your property backs onto bushland or a creek line there, plant something else, or use a pot and collect the dropped fruit.

Growing strawberry guava in Australia

Position and climate. Full sun gives the heaviest crop, and part shade is fine if you mostly want the screen. This suits tropical, subtropical and warm temperate gardens. It takes light frost but not hard frost, so cold districts want a sheltered warm wall or a pot.

Soil. Adaptable to most soil types as long as water moves through. Work compost into the bed, mound it on heavy clay, and mulch 75mm deep clear of the stems.

Water and feed. Deep soak twice a week through the first summer so the roots go down, after which it becomes genuinely drought tolerant. For fruit rather than foliage, water consistently while the fruit swells and feed a citrus fertiliser in spring and midsummer.

Pruning. Fruit forms on new growth, so prune right after harvest rather than in spring. Hedges take two trims a year, and because it reshoots from old wood a neglected plant can be cut back hard.

What to expect when it arrives

This one is grown as tube stock. Each plant arrives as a young single stemmed seedling, well rooted but small, the affordable way to plant a long hedge line. Expect two to three seasons before it screens, and three to four years before the first crop worth picking.

Plant into prepared ground rather than unimproved clay, because that first season of root growth sets the pace for everything after it. Plants are delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95, and every plant carries our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• Planting and caring for backyard fruit trees
• Browse the full fruit tree range
• Feijoa Pineapple Guava for an edible hedge that suits cooler gardens
• Compare other edible plants and productive shrubs

Common questions

Is strawberry guava a weed?

It self seeds readily and is treated as an environmental weed in parts of coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales. In an urban garden away from bushland it is manageable, particularly if you pick the fruit.

How far apart should I plant it for a hedge?

One and a half metres apart in a single row. Any closer and the lower branches shade each other out, which is the last thing you want in a screen you also intend to harvest.

When does it fruit, and do I need two plants?

It flowers in spring and fruits over summer into autumn, and it is self fertile, so one plant crops on its own. Planting two usually improves the yield.