best tasting guava ?

[greenman62]

i have several guava, most are still small
2 fruiting trees
tste is good, but, im not experienced enough to know what is really good for a guava.
i got 2 plants from Home Despot. $3 each (couldnt pass it up)
on was called Mexican White, the other was Asian red (or, Hong Kong red , or Mayla red - i forget)
they are almost 4ft tall now.

I am looking for a sweet guava
although i am fairly happy with mine, "sweet" is not an adjective i would use to describe it.
i also love the aroma.

i hear Jalisco Rojo and Allahabad Safeda are very good
but, after searching an hour, i cant find one for sale

any ideas where to get a very good tasting guava ?
Will it likely be better than my Home Despot ones ?

[Don]

Not experienced with guavas but my little psidium guineense produced about 50 nice little fruit that tasted like fresh strawberry when still yellowy free and a mix between strawberry pineapple or strawberry passionfruit when fully coloured. Don't know where you could buy a plant but I think it is well worth planting. Very nice.
Don

[greenman62]

thanks Don
i actually have seedlings of  guineense which just sprouted
(at least i hope its them)

i am a bit confused about this though.
some websites said the leaves are roundish, one site showed very long narrow leaves
and another showed normal guava leaves.
also, reports on taste vary from very acidic, to sweet.

Is there a mis-ID problem with this species ?

[Don]

A couple of people have told me that there are some different forms but i am no expert on it. The one I have has tough leaves dark dreeny grey and fruit was around 1.5 inch orange flesh and the fruit flies would not touch it.

[palologrower]

Not experienced with guavas but my little psidium guineense produced about 50 nice little fruit that tasted like fresh strawberry when still yellowy free and a mix between strawberry pineapple or strawberry passionfruit when fully coloured. Don't know where you could buy a plant but I think it is well worth planting. Very nice.
Don

Saw a few of these hanging around in the corner at frankies

[Don]

Their tasty little fruit, daughter even ate them and she is fussy! She cleaned the tree out.

[val]

I am a newbie to guavas and no expert but the best guava i ever ate , i bought at a store. It was  delicious with pear,apple and guava flavor mix.  i planted the seeds, I was addicted. I  spent the next two years  trying to find more but didnt. Then tonight, finally, one of my seedlings produced one fruit and the taste was true. It was so good! I suspect it may Allahabad safeda but I'm only guessing by what I've learned on the forum. It's crisp greenish, round, not too many seeds (saved of course).  If you're interested I could spare a few seeds but I'm planting the rest,lol. I could never have too much of this guava. I might lose my mind over  jalisco red (which I am looking for).

[Mike T]

I reckon,
the cherry guavas just don't cut it but yellows are better than reds and my yellows are just left to drop like my neighbours reds and the griity seeds are the higgest dowfall.My soft seeded P.guineense is way the hell better in every way.So far as the tropical guavas go I have tried a good selection of Indian and Pakistani types and I'm not a fan.AS is ok but not great.The best crunchy whites are from Thailand and perhaps taiwan.Mexican cream is good but the pinks tickle my fancy.Those known as hawaiin and Hong Kong pink in Australia are good but the seeds ae a bit gritty.The malaysian red or maroon is pure trash and mine volunteered for mulch patrol.I hold hopes that my Brazilian orange fleshed will be good when it fruits. Popular opinion in guava circles is that the finest varieties come from brazil,Mexico and the US.

[starch]

Hi val, just sent you a PM. I am very interested in your guava description!

[buddyguygreen]

anyone try the egyptian white guava, how do they compare. have a 3 foot seedling, maybe it will fruit soon.

[Mike T]

My P.guineense is almost continuous with fruiting and has huge crops.Thee is no sourness in fruit and the seeds ae soft.

[marklee]

My favorite so far is "Diamond", Exotica sells them. I must have tried 20 varieties so far.

[Tuckee]

Mike T, you are right on the Malaysia maroon guava. It's taste is really bad and very tart. Hardly anyone growing it Malaysia actually.

 The better taste of guava from my recent experience is the white guava from Taiwan, it is crunchy, sourish sweet and mildly aromatic. The Hong Kong pink guava is very aromatic, juicy but smallish and sour. It is usually used for juicing.

I am growing a ruby supreme guava from seeds. Two feet tall. Has anyone tasted it? Please with your experience. TQ.

[marklee]

anyone try the egyptian white guava, how do they compare. have a 3 foot seedling, maybe it will fruit soon.

I have the Egyptian white, very productive and my friends compare it to a pear, it is mild and soft.

[CGameProgrammer]

I had Red Malaysian but got rid of it recently. It had very few seeds and large fruit, but I found it fairly bland. My variegated honeymoon guava recently produced its first fruits and they were fairly seedy but very juicy with very little non-pulp flesh. Taste was a little mild as well but still pretty good. My Barbie Pink produced one fruit last year which was quite good, and right now it has a bunch of extremely large fruits that are very nearly ripe, which should be delicious.

I also bought one from TopTropicals that they call "Sweet Kiss" but it won't fruit until next year at least. No idea what its fruit is like.

[goosteen]

Mike T, you are right on the Malaysia maroon guava. It's taste is really bad and very tart. Hardly anyone growing it Malaysia actually.

 The better taste of guava from my recent experience is the white guava from Taiwan, it is crunchy, sourish sweet and mildly aromatic. The Hong Kong pink guava is very aromatic, juicy but smallish and sour. It is usually used for juicing.

I am growing a ruby supreme guava from seeds. Two feet tall. Has anyone tasted it? Please with your experience. TQ.

I have Mexican cream, ruby supreme, and the Malaysian... Ruby is definitely the best out of those. it's both larger and sweeter.  I did not think the Malaysian is as bad as stated.   However it does have be at perfect ripeness, and has to get the right amount of water for good fruit.   I've had a dry Malaysian guava, and it was awful.

[Mike T]

My yellow cherry guava has some coming on now,even on a branch lying on the ground.Not as heavy cropping as the P.guineense but not bad.

[Galka]

Mike T, wow, I wish my strawberry guava was that productive. A friend of mine has the strawberry guava a little different than mine. It's smaller (I think it's dwarf), leaves are dark green and berries have smaller seeds than mine and it's full of guavas like your yellow.
I tasted my Pink guava this year, finally. The taste was pretty good. I had to lock it in a plastic shell container to save it from rodents and birds and it worked. The Mexican white is good when fully ripe. I even tried one with miracle fruit, it was really good, reminded me a juicy soft pear.
Pink guava.

[goosteen]

Either you have really small hands or that guava is huge!   

[Galka]

goosteen, my hands are not that small, lol. But this guava was the size of a big apple. I think it 's because there were only two fruits on the tree.

[val]

goosteen, my hands are not that small, lol. But this guava was the size of a big apple. I think it 's because there were only two fruits on the tree.

I had 40-50 lbs on my pink barbie and they were good but yours looks better.  The pink barbie tastes  ok to me and has good production but i think there must be a better tasting pink/red guava. Does anyone have an opinion or experience with various pinks?

[bsbullie]

While i love what a good cuban pastry chef can do with guava i am not a huge guava fan (maybe i just haven't tasted a real good one, maybe i dont like eating small stones, i mean seeds, who knows).  Now there is one i like, as sour as it is the flavor is very tropical,  the Cas Guava.

[msk0072]

I bought seeds from tradewindfruits 2-3 times and different varieties but the germination was zero

[From the sea]

seeds must be fresh.

[gnappi]

GUAVAS ARrrrghhh.

My first year growing ruby supreme and pink were pest free, had lots of delicious fruit but the next year scale got to them big time.

I really like them but till recently have had terrible luck with scale that I could not control.

Not long ago I started using horticultural oil in addition to strong stream water spraying and hand scraping scale off and I seem to be gaining some ground.

My lemon and strawberry and Alahabad (the Alahabad has not fruited) all seem immune to scale but do get fruit fly larvae so the fruit get bagged.

My pinks, and Mexican have rebounded and set some fruit. The ruby supreme (my fave) is hanging on but no fruit. My Thai white languished so I put it out of it's misery.

So, being a glutton for punishment I found a silly expensive 3 gal. Barbie pink hoping to make a go of it.

This is my last ditch effort to have guava, fingers crossed.




 

[wonderfruit]

Garry ( gnappi) I tried your lemon guava they were delicious

[Bananaizme]

  IMHO I always look forward to the Indian white variety. To my palate they are delicious 😋

 William

[gnappi]

Garry ( gnappi) I tried your lemon guava they were delicious

Well they will be ready soon you're welcome to eat your fill

[BahamaDan]

GUAVAS ARrrrghhh.

My first year growing ruby supreme and pink were pest free, had lots of delicious fruit but the next year scale got to them big time.

I really like them but till recently have had terrible luck with scale that I could not control.

Not long ago I started using horticultural oil in addition to strong stream water spraying and hand scraping scale off and I seem to be gaining some ground.

My lemon and strawberry and Alahabad (the Alahabad has not fruited) all seem immune to scale but do get fruit fly larvae so the fruit get bagged.

My pinks, and Mexican have rebounded and set some fruit. The ruby supreme (my fave) is hanging on but no fruit. My Thai white languished so I put it out of it's misery.

So, being a glutton for punishment I found a silly expensive 3 gal. Barbie pink hoping to make a go of it.

This is my last ditch effort to have guava, fingers crossed.

I thought there was a program in Florida for the eradication of the fruit fly?

[gnappi]

You're right but not ALL fruit flies :-)

They missed /  don't care about the rest!

[knlim000]

The quality of the taste depends on weather the tree got enough sun.  I planted for mom in a barrel in the sunniest location, the fruit picked were very sweet, acidic, aromatic.   However, when she moved it to a location that didn't receive much sun, the fruit tasted very blend. It was like eating cardboard .  The fruit was 2lbs with only 5-6 seeds inside.

[Tropheus76]

I have a few guavas, only two are fruiting and I haven't tried them yet. Has anyone tried, Lemon, Egyptian, apple, or strawberry guavas?

[gnappi]

I have strawberry guava but they are too small to be worth bagging to keep fruit fly off them, and the taste is not very good so I am pulling mine. There are other guava I will try out and  replace it with.

[funlul]

The better taste of guava from my recent experience is the white guava from Taiwan, it is crunchy, sourish sweet and mildly aromatic.

My favorite taiwan guava is yellow, soft, and so aromatic that we occasionally say it's serves as the air freshener. Growing them from seeds now and fingers crossed.

Guava grafting = total failure to me so far.

[gnappi]

How healthy  is youi guava? Mine has been a challenge with scale and now that its greening up I have a couple of fruits bagged on it. Fingers crossed.

[gnappi]

Duplicate

[funlul]

I have two 5 gallon guavas for 1.5 years, they have not shown much growth, currently about 1.5 feet tall.
I am not sure if pot size is the limiting factor here, how tall do guavas typically grow in 5 gallon pots? Should I upgrade to 15 gallon?

[fyliu]

I have one in a 5 gal pot. It's 2-3 ft tall and was the same size in a 1 gal pot last year. I figured the extra room would allow it to grow bigger or flower.

[gnappi]

I have yet to keep a guava in a pot that does well. Ultimately I put them in the ground.

I don't know how growers do it but I have seen some beautiful and large trees in pots.

Recently I bought a really nice 4' tall Barbie pink in a 3 gal pot and I am going to try and keep it there till spring.




 

[onur]

I love guavas! I have got Ruby supreme, Egyptian, Allahabad, Cattley (Lemon, red), Malaysian red. Can anyone recommend other varieties that she/he thinks is great tasting?  Thanks!

Onur

[greenman62]

I have two 5 gallon guavas for 1.5 years, they have not shown much growth, currently about 1.5 feet tall.
I am not sure if pot size is the limiting factor here, how tall do guavas typically grow in 5 gallon pots? Should I upgrade to 15 gallon?

yeah, i certainly would.
they are hungry plants and need a lot of organic matter.
mine go through compost fast. in containers, they eat it all up
then you are left with a lot of roots and a handful of perlite (lol)
and at that point they need water every day in the summer.

i had taken a root-cutting from my first guava
and it started producing fruit at under 2ft tall
i put it in a 7 gal container 4 months ago with a lot of compost.
i am guessing it will outgrow it in 2 or 3 months.
it has about 15 or more small fruit on it though...

i guess you could keep them any size with pruning,
but you would probably need to root-prune, or re-pot with added compost
pretty often as they grow fast.

[onur]

I reckon,
the cherry guavas just don't cut it but yellows are better than reds and my yellows are just left to drop like my neighbours reds and the griity seeds are the higgest dowfall.My soft seeded P.guineense is way the hell better in every way.So far as the tropical guavas go I have tried a good selection of Indian and Pakistani types and I'm not a fan.AS is ok but not great.The best crunchy whites are from Thailand and perhaps taiwan.Mexican cream is good but the pinks tickle my fancy.Those known as hawaiin and Hong Kong pink in Australia are good but the seeds ae a bit gritty.The malaysian red or maroon is pure trash and mine volunteered for mulch patrol.I hold hopes that my Brazilian orange fleshed will be good when it fruits. Popular opinion in guava circles is that the finest varieties come from brazil,Mexico and the US.

Hi Mike,

Do you know where I can get orange fleshed guava seedling or at least seeds by any chance? Thanks!

Onur

[gnappi]

A couple of years ago I bought a stupid expensive Allahabad guava that grows REALLY slowly that I have read are superior tasting. Does anyone here have one that is fruiting?

[snowjunky]

A couple of years ago I bought a stupid expensive Allahabad guava that grows REALLY slowly that I have read are superior tasting. Does anyone here have one that is fruiting?

Yes I bought one of those on ebay from eplantsnursery even though I was suspicious.  Two years later I got something like a long green terrible tasting guava that cracks. 
This ripoff probably sent me some seedling guava.  Now he's selling the exact same listing under the ebay id guavaking .
Ebay's policies make it possible for these scumbags to rip people off.  No wonder ebay's going down hill.

[Empoweredandfree]

A couple of years ago I bought a stupid expensive Allahabad guava that grows REALLY slowly that I have read are superior tasting. Does anyone here have one that is fruiting?

Yes I bought one of those on ebay from eplantsnursery even though I was suspicious.  Two years later I got something like a long green terrible tasting guava that cracks. 
This ripoff probably sent me some seedling guava.  Now he's selling the exact same listing under the ebay id guavaking .
Ebay's policies make it possible for these scumbags to rip people off.  No wonder ebay's going down hill.

 There have been posts written about him before. He scammed me a few times although the trees he sent me were very healthy. Fortunately I'm much wiser now.