Why doesn't my guava bloom or set any fruit?

[Epicatt2]

Been growing a 'Ruby Supreme x Barbie' for four years now.  it grew to eight feet tall and needed to be cut back. 
It got a haircut in March a year ago, trimmed down to four feet then grew back to six feet by June but never bloomed.

It gets irrigated reasonably frequently and it was fertilized a couple times with 10-10-10 because I know they are heavy feeders.

Maybe my timing is off somehow on the watering, feeding, and pruning.  The plant grows well but why no fruit?

Also have a few Psidium catleyanum but they're not large enough to fruit.  Next year maybe....

Asking for some suggestions.  All welcomed.  I love guavas and would like to get that dumb plant to fruit.

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

[Seanny]

Maybe your tree is not ready to flower.

I trim guava in February, the coldest month.

[Galatians522]

Been growing a 'Ruby Supreme x Barbie' for four years now.  it grew to eight feet tall and needed to be cut back. 
It got a haircut in March a year ago, trimmed down to four feet then grew back to six feet by June but never bloomed.

It gets irrigated reasonably frequently and it was fertilized a couple times with 10-10-10 because I know they are heavy feeders.

Maybe my timing is off somehow on the watering, feeding, and pruning.  The plant grows well but why no fruit?

Also have a few Psidium catleyanum but they're not large enough to fruit.  Next year maybe....

Asking for some suggestions.  All welcomed.  I love guavas and would like to get that dumb plant to fruit.

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

I'm wondering if you got a seedling. Airlayered Guava should have bloomed the first year and then bloomed again after it was cut back.

[sc4001992]

How long does it take for seedling guavas to fruit, anyone know?

I have what was sold to me as the Orange flesh (gushiken) guava and the plant has grown to 5 ft, still no fruit.

[Seanny]

In my yard guava seedlings flower from 9 months to 3 years.

[Epicatt2]

I'm wondering if you got a seedling. Airlayered Guava should have bloomed the first year and then bloomed again after it was cut back.

It is possible that it was a seedling; it was sold to me as a hybrid 'x Ruby Supreme' (went back and checked
my records to be certain).

But it has been in the ground now for about four years and grew so tall and thick that it needed to be cut back.

Maybe it should've been cut back last year earlier than March, but even so it has grown back with a vengeance!

Or possibly it needs more or different fertilizer than a 10-10-10 applied.  But how frequently and starting when?

Or might it better benefit from being thinned out to three or four main upright stems?

Gaahh!  I really want some guavas off this thing.  I'm having withdrawal symptoms!!

Fingers X-ed!

Paul M.
==

[Galatians522]

None of us want to hear this about our trees, but be patient. If the tree is already the size you want I would cut out the nitrogen fertilizer and switch to more of a "bloom booster" type that has low nitrogen but high potassium and phosphorus. Most of the seedling guavas I have seen started fruiting at about that size. I also wouldn't do any heavy pruning until it has started fruiting regularly. Heavy pruning can sort of reset the juvenility clock.

[sc4001992]

Yup, I agree about waiting before topping the main trunk.

I let my seedling plant grow now in a larger pot and it did get about 4 ft taller in one year once I put it in a larger pot. It also had 2 flowers last year so I was hoping to see the first fruit to verify it was the orange one but flowers did not set fruit.

[Epicatt2]

The most prolific guava trees I ever saw were in a damp cow pasture here in Tampa where the cows
crapped all over around near where the trees were.  The trees were often so heavily laden with fruit
that they had to be propped up so that they wouldn't fall over or so that their branches wouldn't break
under all that weight.

And hey, isn't cow poop largely nitrogen?  So I'm a bit curious about withholding it.  Maybe adding some
cow poop could maybe be an answer . . .

Just some further pondering . . .

Paul M.
==

[Galatians522]

The most prolific guava trees I ever saw were in a damp cow pasture here in Tampa where the cows
crapped all over around near where the trees were.  The trees were often so heavily laden with fruit
that they had to be propped up so that they wouldn't fall over or so that their branches wouldn't break
under all that weight.

And hey, isn't cow poop largely nitrogen?  So I'm a bit curious about withholding it.  Maybe adding some
cow poop could maybe be an answer . . .

Just some further pondering . . .

Paul M.
==

Nitrogen is not very necessary for producing fruit. It mainly grows the tree. So, you can apply it but its not really helping the tree make the transition from vegative growth to fruit production. Phosphorus is more important for fruit production. Cow manure is about 2% nitrogen as I recall by also contains potassium and phosphorus (.5% and 1% going strictly from memory here). Another benefit to those cow pasture trees is that the guavas tend to be free of worms. Cows eat the fallen fruit and break the fruit fly life cycle.