Cropping

• Guava flowers twice a year, first in April-May for rainy season crop and then in August – September for winter season crop.
• The flowers are borne on the current season growth in the axils of leaves.
• The flowers are solitary or in cymes of 2 to 3.
• The current season growth takes one or two months to bear flowers. The floral buds require 38- 42 days for full development. Layers generally take 2-3 years for fruiting.
• Generally, 3 types of cultivars are seen.

• Some practices are followed to avoid flowering and fruiting during rainy season so as to get large sized fruits of better-quality during winter season.
• They consist of

1. Bahar treatment – consisting of root exposure and or root pruning before the onset of monsoon.
2. Deblossoming of rainy season crop – spraying NAA 200-400 ppm and
3. Withholding of water and removing the soil from around the upper roots during rainy season and covering it again with soil and manure mixture

Harvesting and yield

• Depends on the variety grown. Generally, hybrid varieties take less time to reach harvesting stage.
• Plant propagated through air layering bears fruit in 2-3 years and attain full bearing capacity at the age of 8-10 years.
• Sickle or fruit plucking machine can be used the pick the fruits.
• On an average, it yields 25 tonnes/ha.