Anyone growing guava?

19 years ago

Is there anyone here growing Guava? I have one large tree in my garden which produces tons of fruit, unfortunately in past years very little of it has been edible due to an insect pest which enters when the fruit is young and rots the core. I have been told that you can prevent this happening by tying a bag over some of the fruit to physically prevent the pest from entering. I tried paper but the first heavIs there anyone here growing Guava? I have one large tree in my garden which produces tons of fruit, unfortunately in past years very little of it has been edible due to an insect pest which enters when the fruit is young and rots the core. I have been told that you can prevent this happening by tying a bag over some of the fruit to physically prevent the pest from entering. I tried paper but the first heavy rain reduced them to pulp, even though they were supposed to be waxed and am now trying polythene. The problem with this is that the bags tend to "sweat" and a drainage hole is needed to prevent them filling with rainwater. I would be interested to know what other growers are doing.

Featured Answer

sunita

19 years ago

Hello Ian, yes I visit this forum too quite often. Here in India we use cotton fabric to make little pouches for the guavas.
Take a rectangular piece of cloth,fold it in half, stitch 3 sides of it and your bag's ready. You can use a piece of string or plastic-wire ties to tie up the top.(If you're feeling really lazy I think a stapler may work too... havent tried it though) You've got to do this early on so the fruit flies dont get a chance to lay their eggs in the developing fruit. Another advantage is that bats, crows and other unwelcome guests dont get a taste of it before you do.
Another way of getting rid of these flies is to tie little bowls/ plastic cups onto branches on 4 sides of the tree. Mash a ripe banana / pinepple and place it in it. Pour some contact insecticide too and mix it with the banana. The flies get attracted to the over-ripe scent of the banana and instead of the developing guavas, they head for the bowl of insecticide-laced banana. So you get a fly-free crop of guavas as well as insecticide-free fruit. We use this method every year for our mango crop too.Though we usually use palm toddy in coconut shells instead of banana. Any powerfully scented fruit would do. (If you have pets, please make sure you keep them away.)After a few days (3-4) replace the banana with another fresh one.

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Comments (13)

dghays
19 years ago
That should be caribbean fruit fly. They seemed particularly crazy about my white guava. so I cut it down. Now I'm trying 'Barbie Pink'. I plan trying the ziplock bags with corners snipped off. If you police up any messed up fruit, it will help disrupt their life cycle. You might pick off all fruit of size and start fresh with bags.

Do you have access to fruit from good varieties of grumichama, jaboticaba, cherry o rio grande etc? I've been looking for someone from Brazil to perhaps trade some seed with.

Gary
Eggo
19 years ago
ifraser, bagging fruit is an easy process. However, most people tend to think you bag the fruit like you would a present, its not like that. You take your square piece of material, wrap the fruit from left side to right side, tie the top. Imagine something similiar to a cow bell, the fruit is the little ball in the middle, the wrapping is the outside of the bell with a wide opening in the bottom. This way there's no problems with sweating fruits. See the link below for some pictures on bagging, courtesy of Ken Love in Hawaii.

Here is a link that might be useful: bagging fruits
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racor_2006
19 years ago
Eggo,

Would small brown paper bags work? Like the ones they use at Taco Bell and other places to bag your order.
floridian
19 years ago
Thank you for the link and the information eggo and sunita. Whow, what a difference! I will try bagging on my mangoes this time for sure. And sunita, I like the idea of the little cloth bags... I sew and always have tons of leftover fabric... great way to recycle!
john_ny
19 years ago
I started reading this post, because I have some guava plants in the greenhouse. They're too small now, but maybe in the future... Then I became interested in the bagging, because I had used plastic mesh (onion) bags to keep the squirrels from getting all my walnuts. I have a question about the bags that are tied around the fruit like a bell, with the fruit being the clapper, and the bottom open. I can see where this may provide some protection from birds, etc., but wouldn't a bug be able to fly in through the open bottom?
whiteleaf
19 years ago
We have a non woven fabric here in the UK that is used as a frost protector and also lets light and moister through that I have used to prevent pests on fruit tied as a lose bag around the stem of a fruit and reused each year. Cant remember the make but is very common here. Like thin felt membrane like.
dghays
19 years ago
Agribon fabric is one, I think PGI nonwovens is the maker, I have the thickest they make, alleged to give 8+ degrees protection. I'd advise a heat source like lights inside it if for more than one night.

Gary
Eggo
19 years ago
Racor, a brown paper bag may work. You could give it a try, I've used just regular newspaper before and the fruit matured nice and evenly on the guavas.

John, I don't know how well this technique may work on very aggressive bugs but I have seen this method used in Southeast Asia and it seems to deter most bugs. Also on some of the pictures of the slides in Hawaii, it appears to use the same wrapping technique with an open bottom and seems the fruit came out fine. Maybe just the way the bugs would have to enter to get to the fruits deter them in some way, I'm not sure.
jhl1654
19 years ago
I have about a dozen asian guava trees. I never had to bag the fruits.I haven't had any problems with the bugs. One tree produces at least 40 large guavas twice a year.
hillel_kitty
17 years ago
I live just north of Indianapolis, and am thinking about building a greenhouse. Are guavas greenhouse hardy? What is the minimum constant temp a guava can withstand? I don't mind bringing the plants in for the winter, but I do keep my house at a rather chilly 65 F. Finally, are there any dwarf varieties? If I'm going to be carting my guavas around, a smaller plant would be nice for my back ;)
User
17 years ago
The tropical guava will have no problem at a balmy 65 F. (chilly maybe for us more cold-sensitive humans). My "Ruby Supreme" seems to be surviving its second winter in a relative cold (but frost free garage). This year, the coldest was 32 F. (when it was around 4 above outside) but temps average from about 38 to 60 over most of the winter. They suffer minimal leaf drop under these conditions but some of the fruit did suffer from "freezer burn" when it approached freezing. I don't know if there are dwarf varieties of the "tropical guava" but the other species that are also known commonly as "guava" (Feijoa I belive) may be smaller and more cold tolerant.
kishor
17 years ago
Does anyone know of mail order nursery that has Ruby Supreme aka homestead guava?