Over 10 years ago a friend asked if I wanted to come pick guava’s on her property. My son and I spent several hours picking guava’s. I came home, made guava butter and gave it all away. I never tasted a guava and never tasted the guava butter.
Several years later my friend gave me a guava tree. I promptly planted it and it hardly grew but I watered it and watched it for years. Whenever it would produce guava’s I would let the birds come eat them all.
What was I thinking?!?! Two years ago my guava produced quite a few fruits and I decided to try one. Boy were they good! I am bad at describing taste but they are a little like a cross between an apple and pear. There are probably 5-8 tiny seeds in the middle and the skin is much softer than an apple so you don’t have to peel. Mine is the strawberry variety which produces red skin with a somewhat white flesh.
In doing some research there are many varieties of guava’s and some sites list up to 24. The fruit can be from 1 1/2″ to almost 5″ in diameter and the taste varies with each different type of tree.
Most guava trees are cold hardy. I live in Florida and I lost all but one of my citrus trees during 2 years of hard freezes and it never bothered my guava.
The sites I looked at said propagation by seed may not be true to the original tree. I, however, have grown 3 plants from the seeds of the original tree and the guava taste the same. Yehovah is most amazing.
The guava is full of vitamin C and A and an excellent source of fiber. Here is a website that lists 12 uses of the guava.
My guava tree is dying and I’m sad. The leaves are just falling off. It’s about 2 years old and only gave fruit once. Any suggestions please?
Susan, sorry I have been on vacation for almost 4 weeks. Here is a website that has some info.http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pg133. I have never had issues with mine. My friend said they don’t transplant well but I transplanted one before I went on vacation and it is doing good.