Psidium guajava is the guava tree well known for the canned fruit we have in our Christmas fruit salad, or in Swahili, Mpera. I always get my Swahili vowels mixed up so I might say, Mpera which is a hose!
Psidium guajava origins from South America and is grown for its fruit in India. In Tanzania it is a very useful tree because it tolerates a wide range of conditions but does not like wet feet.
Guava fruits readily and at a young age with vitamin rich fruit. Actually children tend to take unripe fruit - hard and sour and I have no idea of the vitamin content.
Description: A small evergreen tree less than 8 metres high. With no apical dominance. Bark is smooth and light brown with older pieces flaking off. Young shoots are four-sided. Leaves are opposite and oval 15 cm with defined veins. Underside is hairy. Flowers are white 1-3 together, with many stamens. 2 cm across. Fruit yellow when ripe, rounded and 6 cm long the calyx lobes remain on the fruit. The flesh is sweet and gritty with many seeds. Pink when ripe.
Uses: Fruit, soil conservation and shade. The other uses mean the tree will be cut down and that is not ideal but it is goof for firewood, and posts. There are some medicinal uses.
Propagation: There are about 500 000 seeds per Kg although the seeds are hard, they can be direct sowed without and treatment or nicking. Mostly I would sow direct into a pot [2 seeds] and cover with sawdust and some marram to hold it down.
Trees begin to fruit in 2 years with a long lifespan. Throughout the world there are cloned and improved varieties. I preferred the unimproved as it is a stranger tree. The difficulty is finding ripe fruit in private yards is best because they do not utilize the whole crop.
The wood is not eaten by termites.
Guava tends to have a root system that does not allow other crops to grow closely. It is an easy nursery crop and the village people are happy to grow the tree for its fruit.
I thank Fausta who had a very good tree on her property and gave me as much fruit as I needed. The seed is easy to extract and the fruit has a sweet smell.
Psidium guajava origins from South America and is grown for its fruit in India. In Tanzania it is a very useful tree because it tolerates a wide range of conditions but does not like wet feet.
Guava fruits readily and at a young age with vitamin rich fruit. Actually children tend to take unripe fruit - hard and sour and I have no idea of the vitamin content.
Description: A small evergreen tree less than 8 metres high. With no apical dominance. Bark is smooth and light brown with older pieces flaking off. Young shoots are four-sided. Leaves are opposite and oval 15 cm with defined veins. Underside is hairy. Flowers are white 1-3 together, with many stamens. 2 cm across. Fruit yellow when ripe, rounded and 6 cm long the calyx lobes remain on the fruit. The flesh is sweet and gritty with many seeds. Pink when ripe.
Uses: Fruit, soil conservation and shade. The other uses mean the tree will be cut down and that is not ideal but it is goof for firewood, and posts. There are some medicinal uses.
Propagation: There are about 500 000 seeds per Kg although the seeds are hard, they can be direct sowed without and treatment or nicking. Mostly I would sow direct into a pot [2 seeds] and cover with sawdust and some marram to hold it down.
Trees begin to fruit in 2 years with a long lifespan. Throughout the world there are cloned and improved varieties. I preferred the unimproved as it is a stranger tree. The difficulty is finding ripe fruit in private yards is best because they do not utilize the whole crop.
The wood is not eaten by termites.
Guava tends to have a root system that does not allow other crops to grow closely. It is an easy nursery crop and the village people are happy to grow the tree for its fruit.
I thank Fausta who had a very good tree on her property and gave me as much fruit as I needed. The seed is easy to extract and the fruit has a sweet smell.
No comments:
Post a Comment