Indian White Guava

I bought an Indian White Guava last year from Home Depot. I grew it in a 15 gallon pot and it filled up with roots just about right. I planted it last evening.

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Nice tree! How long does it take to fruit?

It set a few flowers last year but no fruit. This year it is setting some buds again. Lets see.

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Hey Vinod, how long does it take for a guava fruit to ripen? I’ve got flowers on my potted guava for the first time and I’m wondering if I could actually get fruit in my short summers. Thanks

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I bought guava from WalMart and i felt like i was going to break my molars from the seeds? Are they all like this?

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It greatly depends on species, cultivar, and climate.

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if it is any consolation, cracking the seeds is the only way the omega 3’s will be released.
If you like guavas but don’t like the seeds, the baseball-sized white-pulped guavas are the way to go.

those have more pulp, less seeds(per unit volume), and thick, crisp rinds that are so refreshing when eaten half-ripe.

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It’s a Ruby Supreme guava. I’m in the Northeast, just west of Boston.

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So the guava that you get in tropical fruit mix (say Dole) in a can…is that a different type? I think most of those mixes come out of Thailand…so i’d imagine it must be grown on a large scale.

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Ruby Supreme is a standard cross cultivar of P. guajava. My next door neighbor has a similar cultivar – which is flowering and setting fruit right now. The fruits will be ripe at the end of summer. However, that tree is in the ground in zone 10b. Do not take this as an indication of what will happen in a pot, outdoors and indoors in your location.

It varies. Dole has guava farms in Hawaii, Mexico, Thailand, and elsewhere. White Indian is a popular commercial choice though.

That cultivar originated in India. It is available in southern CA from CRFG members and immigrants who smuggle them in to grow at home.

Guava seeds also contain a small quantity of a sedative, which if consumed in significant amounts on a daily basis can lead to addiction and/or coma. But don’t be afraid of guavas. It would take a shoebox full of seeds ground into a tea and consumed on the same day to induce a coma.

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dole seems to be using the big white-pulped variety on their canned tropical fruit mix. What you see in the cans are the thick rinds, and none of the inner ball of pulp.
as with most fruits, fresh ones are so much better than canned ones, radically different in taste and texture.

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Yes…i’ts so difficult to get anything other then your average fruits around here. I did notice our grocery store had big chunks of Jackfruit the last time i was in there…so that was a first. Noticing more dragon fruit too.

I need to go and live in Thailand for a year :wink:

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below are the thick-rinded white-pulped guavas we buy in large amounts, since these are not often available. These are not the biggest, but were the only ones available. The variety could attain the size of large-round grapefruit.
You’d notice that the inner ball of pulp is not as densely seeded as the smaller guavas

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Yes … in Oaxaca.

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Hi Steven, my guava plant set about 5-6 fruits last year but as with most zone pushed plants it was pretty late in the first year. It tried to ripen in December and well it didn’t. Hopefully this year it sets early. I’ve had similar experience with Poms.

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The guavas that I had in my earlier years in India all had hard seeds. Now I expect them to be that way! :smile:

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So the key is to just get those pumpkin size ones and eat the exterior.

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Not sure if you watch “Mexico one plate at a time”…but everytime i see Oaxaca i think of Rick Bayless. The guy must live down there half the year… (He’s a chef from Chicago if you don’t know who he is).

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I don’t have time for television. :slight_smile:

you could eat the exterior, but may also eat the pulp, by shaving away the seeds, which are generally situated at the periphery of the pulp ball. The pulp is sweeter than the rind.

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