Guava Cultivation and supply
Plant information- cultivation
Psidium Guajava - Guava- An interesting fruit plant known for its stringent qualities is grown in some of our grower farms. This treatise helps improve the cultivar and specimens and makes available to the grower the speciality Guava culitvars.
Guava agro practices
Some of the cultivars known for their qualities:
Psidium Guajava Allahabad Safeda , Lucknow, Lucknow69, HongKong Pink, Indonesian Seedless, Waikea sour and Thai Pearl etc
Well know commerical hybrids inlcude:
Beaumont Red - Most popular commercial variety in Hawaiil. Produces very large, green and sometimes slightly yellow fruits with a pink flesh. Some fruits can weigh up to a pound.
Mexican Cream - Medium sized, yellow skinned guava with spicy, cream-colored flesh
Pear - Medium sized, pear shaped guava with yellow or greenish tinged skin. Flesh is orange-pink, well-flavored, usually with few seeds.
Red Indian - Medium sized, yellow fleshed fruit, sometimes with a red tint. Flesh is red, sweet, with many seeds.
Red Malaysian - Red colored guava, with pink-red flesh. This variety is unique not just for its fruit, but its for its foliage, which is tinted a deep red color. The flowers are bright pink. The Red Malaysian guava is often grown for ornamental purposes as well as fruit.
Ruby - Red-fleshed guava with small, but sweet fruit.
South African - Yellow skinned, pink fleshed guava with medium sized fruit.
White Indian - Small to medium sized fruit with white flesh.
Guava is very hardy. It can thrive on all types of soil from alluvial to lateric. However, it is sensitive to waterlogging. It can be grown on heavier but well drained soil. Deep friable and well-drained soils are the best. The top soil should be rich for better stand. Soil pH range of 4.5 to 8.2 is congenial for guava but saline or alkaline soils are unsuitable.
The present trend for maximum production is to practice closer planting with heavy pruning. These closer High density techniques, 3m x 2m planting provide approximately 1000 plants per hectare(2.5 acre). Since dense planting prevent good air circulation and hinder spray penetration, rigid leaf pruning and spraying must be followed to keep disease and insect damage at a minimum.
Guava thrives when the temperature ranges between 18 C - 27 degrees centigrade.
Full sun is necessary for normal growth of Guava. The degrees of shading varies with the cultivar, the age of the plant and the climate under which it is grown. The sun requirements usually range from 80% of full sunlight.
Training of guava trees improves yield and fruit quality. The main objective of training guava plants is to provide strong framework and scaffold of branches suitable for bearing a heavy remunerative crop without damaging the branches . For this, shoots coming out close to the ground level should be cut off upto at least 30 cm from the soil. The center should be kept open, while four scaffold limbs may be allowed to grow. A light annual pruning is necessary in guava as it bears on current season's growth. Experimental evidences support pruning off 75% of current season's growth in May for harvesting good winter crop.
Guava is very responsive to the application of inorganic fertilisers along with organic manures. Soil type , nutrient status and leaf analysis can give better indication for requirement of nutrients. A thumb rule recommendation is considered in this model. NPK may be applied @100, 40 and 40 g per plant year of age, with stabilisation in the 6th year. They may be applied in two equally split doses in January and August.
Spraying the trees with 0.45 kg zinc sulphate and 0.34 kg slaked lime dissolved in 72.74 l (16 gallons) of water cures Zn deficiency. The number of sprays depend on the severity and extent of the deficiency. Pre-flowering sprays with 0.4% Boric Acid and 0.3% Zinc Sulphate increase the yield and fruit size. Spraying of copper sulphate at 0.2 to 0.4% also increases the growth and yield of guava.
Many growers use organic fertilizers such as farmyard manure with about 2 g of 13:13:20:2 per plant per month. Foliar fertilizer may be applied monthly.
The main Guava growing belts are the tropical areas of the world. Among the cultivars that are grown commercially they can be classified into three different regimes.
Grafted, budded or layered guava trees start bearing at the age of 2 to 3 years. Seedling trees require 4 to 5 years to bear. The guava fruit can not be retained on the tree in ripe stage. So, it should be picked immediately when it is mature. Guava is ready for harvest as soon as the deep green colour turns light and a yellowish green patch appears. Individual hand picking at regular intervals will avoid all possible damage.
The yield varies in different cultivars and with care and management of the orchard, age of plant and season of cropping.
The yield per tree may be as high as 350 kg from grafted plants and 90 kg from the seedling tree. A three year old grafted Lucknow - 49 guava tree may yield 55-60 kg under suitable conditions. Yield starts with 4 to 5 kg in the second year . Although the farmers experience a yield of more than 75 kg per tree in HDP of guava, a very modest yield of only 40 kg/tree has been considered for this model.
The micronutrient deficiency, particularly the zinc deficiency could be corrected by foliar spraying with zinc sulphate solution. Alternatively, sheep manure or enriched organic manure should be added liberally to avoid micronutrient deficiency. Farmers can manage pests by practicing sound integrated pest management strategies and application of botanical insecticides also. The pests can be prevented by regular application of rich organic amendments, tank silt and powdered neem cake.