Complete Guava cultivation/farming guide

Guava is a tropical and sub tropical fruit cultivated in many Nations and sold to every part of the world.

Guava is an oval/round shaped tropical fruit that has hard green shell when unripe and soft yellow shell when riped with whitish or reddish sweet tissue/membrane and tiny seeds in the middle.

It is a very good cash crop as it is exported to many countries of the world like USA, Canada and Europe etc,. The major producers of the great fruit are India, Nigeria etc.

This fruit is cultivated/farmed because of how useful it is, and how lucrative and long lasting and financial sustainable it is

According to research, this fruit is said to have 4 times the number of vitamins contained in Orange, this is so great and very perfect for health, it is one of the things that made guava fruits very healthy for the body and also very highly demanded in almost any country one could think of.

In this article, we are going to learn about how to cultivate/farm guava trees successfully, types of guava, care of the guava trees/farm, harvest, storage, Uses/Importance of guava.
Please I advise you to read this article comprehensively and follow it step by step for easy understanding and best results.

Types/Varieties of Guava

There are so many different types of Guava, here are some of the most popular among them.:

Lalit: This variety of guava fruits grow in saffron yellow colour with reddish flush on the body while pulps are solid and pinkish.
It tastes very awesome it has a combination of sweet and sour and having large amount of vitamin C at 250 mg/100 Grams.
It is good for table and processing. It has the potential yield as high as 100 to 125 kg per plant annually. Lalit is categorized as the largest yield producing in it’s group.

Allahabad Safeda: This variety of guava grows round shaped with white flavorsome flesh, soft skin, and weights 180-200 Grams with medium size. It contains less seeds inside and this variety of guava is very popular. It normally yields up to 20 to 25 tons and posses greater stability.

Arka Mridula: This type/variety of guava fruit is round shaped and weight nearly 180g. It has yellow smooth skin and the inside is white and sweet. It’s TSS is found to be 12.0 Brix. it has soft seeds which makes it quite stable and Best for both table and processing.

Baruipur: L-49 Lucknow, It has Green yellow fruits with rough surface and milky white sweet pulps.
The Skin is very thick and posses smallest amount of soft seeds in it’s center. because of its sweetness and small number of seeds, they are on high demand in many places. It has the potential to yield 25 tons of guava fruits

Sweta: The fruit has thick skin and weighing nearly 200 to 225g on average. the Pulp is white in colour and has a combination of sugar and acid. TSS ranging from 12.5 to 15.0 Brix and contains vitamin C of about 300mg/ 100g, it offers a yield nearly 90 kg/ per plant yearly.

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Chittidar: this type of guava has many similarities to Allahabad Safeda and is differentiated with their pinkish dots on the pinhead point of the fruit surface.

How to cultivate/farm Guava trees

To cultivate guava trees could be some how complicated to some people who have zero knowledge about it, especially on how to go about with the seed germination.

Although I would recommend going for the already germinated seeds or just buy the small growing ones and transplant to your guava farm to save yourself from the stress of germinating the seeds which could go wrong and have all your work deterred.

Seed germination

To germinate guava seeds, here is how to do it.
First of all, get your seeds from good breed of guava or get riped Guava fruits, (I will tell you where to order your seeds below) eat them or peel off the surface, leaving only the seeds, take a polyten bag filled with loamy sand and place the seeds in them, and mix substance like NAA 500 PPM OR IBA 500 ppm to help them germinate, leave some openings in the bag and keep them on a safe side with normal temperature. Within 25 to 30 days, they will start germinating.

Once they have germinated and strong enough to transplant without breaking them, then it is time to transplant them.

Planting

Before they could be transplanted, first, the farm land where they will be planted should be kept ready.

First of all, locate/site the land, the land should be according to the size you want and the amount of guava you want to be turning out.

The farm land should be in a good environment that has good amount of sunshine, good amount of rainfall and no erosion and waterlogging.
Check the soil nutrients and if low, improve it with organic manure or fertilizer.

Now you have your land, it’s time to prepare it!. To do this, you need to clear the farm land with either machine or manually, depending on the size of the farm land.

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When you are through with that, make holes of about 8 to 15 inches, depending on the size of the guava plants, so make the holes according to the size of the plants, and give them a space of 8 to 12 feet from each other, so that they could have enough space to grow, suck their soil nutrients alone and have enough sunshine.

When you have done all these, take the germinated guava seeds and plant.
To do this, first of all, consider how matured or small they are and be careful on how you handle them or they break/cut, so the best way to do it is to carry them in their bags and put or pour them into the holes careful with their sand, avoid getting them out when they are little or they will be damaged!.

Now cover the holes with sand after planting all of them and leave the stem and the leaves up on the surface and water them.

The best time to plant this fruit is in the morning or late in the evening and avoid doing so under the hot sun as it might increase their death rate, and the best month for this is from July to November.

Care of Guava trees

When the guava trees have started growing and maturing, there are many cares to be give to them at their different stages which are:

Fertilization

fertilizer is very is very necessary for this plants as it helps them grow fast, healthy and also have good yields. At the seed stage, a fertilizer is applied to the seeds to make them germinate, fertilizers like NAA 500 PPM OR IBA 500 ppm.

When you have transplanted them to their permanent place ( farm) it is important to apply some fertilization on them, although I love organic manure like the cow dung, pig, goat, fowl dung etc, but fertilizers could be applied if possible, this depends on the quality of the soil.

The farmer will have to consider another dosage of fertilization from 7 to 10 years of the plants to fertilize them again with either organic manure at 30 to 40 kg, at 1000 to 1250 grams, SSP at 1500 to 2000 grams and MOP at 1200 to 1500 grams per tree.

Apply 50% of the dose of fertilizer in May or June and the remaining 50% in September or October.

To produce good yields, you have to consider spraying the trees with Zinc Sulphate at 4gram + Boric Acid at 2gram per liter of water and Urea at 2% during their fruiting period.

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Also it is advisable to pile up a good amount of sand and heap them on the bottom of the trees to facilitate them to be growing more healthy. This is done when the trees have lasted for many years and have started growing old, at 15 or more years is the best time to do this so as to refresh the trees.

Weeding

Weeding is necessary at the early stage of the trees, but are not necessary once they have grown and matured.

This is very stressful as guava does take time to grow before they could beat the weeds, so weeding continuous till they have grown and this could take about 2 years or more, depending on the breed of guava you planted.

To do the weeding, it’s either you do it manually with weeding tools like hoe etc or weed killer spray will be also good and saves you more time and work.

Diseases and Pest Control

Guava is not exempted from Pests and disease attack, if not controlled adequately will result to damages or poor yields or even stunt growth.

Pests and diseases attack this plant at different stages in time starting from the seed till when they start bearing fruits and they still attack the fruits. here are some of the stages and the pests.

Seed stage, this is when the seeds have not germinated, at this stage, the pests that attack them are rats, cocroaches, and Insects. This normally happens when the seeds are not kept in a good and secured position.

When they germinate and are planted, goats, sheep and some domestic and non domestic animals do eat them, including ants which might eat them from their roots and kill them.
In this situation, the best solution is to guard the farm round with net and give the seeds the necessary treatments before germinating them so that ants won’t go near them even when planted.

When the guava trees have fruits and they become riped, this is when you will see all manner of pests like butterfly, bat, many types of birds, etc.
They are attracted to the sweet smell and sweet taste of the fruits.
The only solution to this is to pluck the fruits in time before they over ripe.

Talking about the diseases, the diseases are far more worst compared to pests as they could destroy the whole trees in the farm if not properly taken care of, some of them are:
WiltVery severe disease of Guava trees. this causes wilting and makes the leaves of the guava to turn yellow and thereby causing the drying of the plant due to fast infestation.

Do make sure that the guava farm is properly drained, and in case of flooding, pump out logged water immediately!.

Remove already infected trees and destroy them.

Crop the land and drench the soil with Carbendazim at 25gmor Copper oxychloride at 30gm per 10Ltr of water and spray in the farm.

Dieback or AnthracnoseBlack or Brown are typically seen on plant shoots as well as on fruits also. Dieback is a fast growing disease which can rot fruits within 2 to 3 days once infected.

Discard fruits even those having 1% infection to avoid epidemic. Keep the land well cleaned and avoid water logging under all circumstances. Undertake a pruning session and use spray Captan at 300gm mixing with 100Ltr water. Continue spraying those plants and infested areas of the plant for 15 days without any interruption. Spraying of Copper oxychloride at 40gm/10Ltr water can also be considered to drench infected trees.AphidA common pest of Guava plantation that sucks the juice within the plant and dries them. Infestation typically deforms young leaves while curing them.For absolute management, fresh leaves need to be sprayed with Methyl Demeton at 20ml or Dimethoate at 20ml/ 10Ltr.

Irrigation/Watering

Irrigation or watering is another great important need of guava trees for effective growth and yields.

As guava tree takes time to grow, this means that even if you plant them in the rainy season, they won’t still grow before the dry season. Infact they will have to pass many seasons many times before they could have to be self sustained, so irrigation or watering is still unavoidable.

To irrigate, lay pipe to the nearest stream, if there is any and take it to your farm, dig a bore-hole or supply the water on a tanker to your farm and have the water filled into your farm tanks or you can be watering them with watering can if the farm is small.

Any method that works for you is good, for the fact that the plants are well watered! and also avoid water-logging the land with over watering as it might destroy the plants and breed diseases.

The best time to water the plants is early in the morning before the sun becomes hot or late in the evening when the sun is down or cooler and avoid doing this in the afternoon when the sun is still active.

Pruning

Pruning is a great important care to give the guava trees, but unfortunately, many farmers don’t even do this, which is so bad.

This is the act of treating the trees by removing the old, dying or infected parts of the trees so that the rest of the trees could grow healthy and have good yields.

This act starts immediately the trees start growing, from time to time, check the unhealthy parts of the trees or the diseased parts and remove them in order to save the rest of the trees from being infected.

To do this at early stage, use hands to break them and when they are matured, use saw or sharp Cutlass.

How to harvest Guava trees

Within about 4 to 8 years of planting the guava trees, they will start having fruits. Although this depends on the type and breed of the guava trees and also how they are taken care of matters too.

In their first yield, they will have very small number of fruits an this will improve as time goes by.

They will first of all start by forming a whitish flowers which will later develop into very tiny guava fruits and will start getting bigger and more bigger as time goes till they ripe.

When they start showing signs of getting ripe, it is advisable to pluck them before they ripe, if not, some pests like bat or birds will feast on them thereby incurring loss to you.

To pluck/harvest, you will need a farm ladder on which to climb up with and take the guava fruits and put them into whatever you want to pick them with.

If the type you planted are the dwarf ones, good for you, as you can pick them up right from the ground without any ladder.
Or harvester could be used if possible.

How to store Guava

Guava fruits can be stored for 1 to 2 weeks at a time attire of 18° to 23° C in a polybags or plastic containers with ventilation 0.25%.
To extend shelf-life up to more time, harvested fruits require low temperature of about 5° to 6º C with 75 to 85% relative humidity.

Although the storage time varies,for instance, storing unripe ones will tend to last far more longer than storing ripped ones.

Uses of Guava fruits

Guava fruits have many uses, for instance like I mentioned above earlier, this fruit has been proven to be far more nutritious than orange in vitamins.
It also has fiber, calcium and many more nutrients.

Companies use it to make soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, etc

Not only it is eaten raw, it is used to prepare many delicacies like jam, jelly etc.

Guava Cultivation is very great as the market/demand is always high and large stores and supper markets buy them in large quantities.
Also the farmer will have to be harvesting them for a very long time before they could die.

For some types of guava that grows tall and big, they are good for plank making and also for fire wood.

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Conclusion

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