Author Topic: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?  (Read 3703 times)

BonsaiBeast

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Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« on: January 12, 2018, 08:57:13 PM »
the tree gets plenty of morning sun, but some afternoon shade. I've heard that guava trees will not fruit unless in full sun.

Does anyone have experience with this?

spaugh

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2018, 09:09:15 PM »
They should fruit for you in partial shade.  I have a neighbor with about 30 of them tightly spaced and shading each other into a canopy on the north side of a hill.  They sell theirs at market.   Have another neighbor that lives on the north slope and has several guava trees also in a packed orchard with partial shade. 

I have a few but mine are in full sun.  We have been eating guava since October.  The trees are very productive at a young age.  We got about 100 larget fruits off of each of our 1 year old trees and we had thinned the fruit set.   You can probably get better production in your shade area if you do heavy thinning.
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Goyo626

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2018, 11:33:08 PM »
There was an old guava that was already planted on my property when i moved in. It was heavily shaded by the house eastern side and a wall on the west, especially after pruning. By the end of the growing season it would be slightly higher than the house. It always fruited heavily, although the quality was terrible. The fruit tasted like toothpaste to me.  im not sure if ithe poor quality was because of the shading or because the previous owner planted a seedling that bore poor quality fruit.

knlim000

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2018, 11:37:09 PM »
goyo, it's because they need full sun to taste sweet,acidic, with good flavors.    If you don't give it full sun, it will taste like blend cardboard.  My mom move her tree to a shaded area, and quality of fruits is blend.  I don't even want to eat it.  I keep telling to move it back to full sun as it was tasting very good when i was in full sun.  Give it morning sun if you can. 

Goyo626

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2018, 11:51:34 PM »
goyo, it's because they need full sun to taste sweet,acidic, with good flavors.    If you don't give it full sun, it will taste like blend cardboard.  My mom move her tree to a shaded area, and quality of fruits is blend.  I don't even want to eat it.  I keep telling to move it back to full sun as it was tasting very good when i was in full sun.  Give it morning sun if you can.

I think that may have been a problem, but I wasnt completely sure if that was because of the shade or just a bad seedling (i could not detect a graft/bud union on the trunk). it was an old in ground tree so moving it was not an option. I was just letting the OP know that it will definately fruit but the quality may not be good. I ended up taking it out but those root suckers are a pain to deal with.

ILoveCitrus

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2018, 01:25:32 AM »
I have a guava tree that grew wild in between coconut trees, it's 90% shaded but still bears a lot of fruits. knlim000 is right its fruit is acidic, dry and have a bitter taste the fruit also never ripen it just drops from a tree.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2018, 01:29:19 AM by ILoveCitrus »

shinzo

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2018, 10:18:31 AM »
I have a few but mine are in full sun.  We have been eating guava since October.  The trees are very productive at a young age.  We got about 100 larget fruits off of each of our 1 year old trees and we had thinned the fruit set.   You can probably get better production in your shade area if you do heavy thinning.
Nice crop. Could you post a pic of this 1 year old tree.
When you say you have been eating guava since october, does the tree ripen fruits all over that period (3 months) or all the fruits ripen at the same time andd you harvest all the crop at once and you freeze it?

spaugh

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2018, 10:37:37 AM »
We are still picking guavas.  Ate one last night.  The trees did a few fruit sets and there has been a steady supply of fruit coming for months now. They do not all ripen at once.  I think you will have better luck with shaded guavas in san diego than in northern CA. 

We planted 3 trees.  2 of them make excellent fruits, the 3rd one is terrible and is getting removed.  The one tree with bad fruit makes green fruits that never ripen and taste like cardboard but its sitting in full sun next to the others.



« Last Edit: January 13, 2018, 11:00:45 AM by spaugh »
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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2018, 11:50:53 AM »
i have a Mexican guava that produced a ton of excellent fruit.
i planted a Muntingia about 6ft away from it, and by year 2 it stole all the morning sun
The guava still got full sun after noonish, but it fruited a lot less
and the fruit want sweet.

I had also gotten 2 large size Asian
1 pink and 1 white.
the pink one was planted in an area that got shaded in early morning and late evening
it did get about 4-5 hours of noontime sun
the White was near the street, it full sun.
the white had the best tasting guava i ever had.
the pink was barely edible and fruited less also.

shinzo

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Re: Will tropical guava tree fruit in partial shade?
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2018, 01:49:36 PM »
When a spot receives sun from 7 am to 2 pm in the summer, it is considered full sun or not?