Growing guava
Psidium guajava · also called amroodGuava is a hardy tropical and sub-tropical fruit tree raised from layers or budded plants. It bears a rainy-season and a winter crop in north India, and suits the plains and foothills below about 1,000 m, not the cold high hills.
North-west plains: Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh
At a glance
Guava in the North-west plains
Two crops: rainy season and winter. PAU advises taking only the winter crop, which is of better quality and less hit by fruit fly3
Fruit ripens about five months after flowering. Layered or grafted trees bear from their second or third year.6
February to March3
Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.
Across India
When to sow it
Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.
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- Transplant
- Harvest
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| Region | Sow | Nursery | Transplant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North-west plains | February to MarchAugust to September | Late July to SeptemberNovember to February | ||
| Temperate Himalaya | Not suited here | |||
| Cold desert | Not suited here | |||
| Sub-tropical foothills | February to MarchJuly to August | August to SeptemberJanuary to February | ||
| Gangetic plains | July to AugustFebruary to March | Late July to SeptemberNovember to February | ||
| North-east hills and valleys | June to August | Late July to SeptemberNovember to January | ||
| Arid west | July to August | August to SeptemberNovember to February | ||
| Central plateau | July to August | August to SeptemberNovember to early February | ||
| Deccan plateau | June to August | July to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April | ||
| South interior | June to December | February to JulySeptember to January | ||
| West coast | June to July | August to OctoberJanuary to March | ||
| East coast | June to December | February to JulySeptember to January | ||
From seed to harvest
One season, day by day
Days from sowing
Before sowing
Farmyard manure
10 to 20 kg per tree · Apply in May · Years 1 to 3
Farmyard manure
25 to 40 kg per tree · Apply in May · Years 4 to 6
Farmyard manure
40 to 50 kg per tree · Apply in May · Years 7 to 10
Farmyard manure
50 kg per tree · Apply in May · Above 10 years
Paddy straw manure3
20 kg per tree · Full-grown trees, instead of FYM
Day 25 to 30
Water every 14 to 21 days, more at flowering and fruit set.3
What it needs
Soil, sun and warmth
Soil pH1,3,14
5.5 to 7.5
Grows on a wide range of soils, including shallow, medium black and alkaline soils, but cannot stand waterlogging. Deep, well-drained, friable sandy loam to clay loam suits it most, at least 0.5 to 1 m deep with no hard pan or high water table. The roots are shallow, so the topsoil should be rich. Avoid soils with lime nodules or sheet rock within 90 cm.
Sunlight1Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.
Full sun. Lay out rows east to west so the trees get even light.
TemperatureNo published guide covers this for the North-west plains, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.
Grows best at 23 to 30 °C
Takes light frost.
Monthly temperatures for the North-west plains aren't in the library yet.
Water and feeding
Watering3
Water young plants weekly in summer and 2 to 3 times through the winter. Bearing trees need water every 2 to 3 weeks in summer for flowering and fruit set, and once a month in winter. Avoid heavy watering at full bloom: it makes flowers drop. To skip the rainy-season crop, withhold water in April and May.
On drip at 6 x 5 m, a nine-year-old tree needs about 8 litres a day in January, rising to about 53 litres a day in June; a first-year plant needs 0.4 to 3.3 litres a day through the year.
Weeding3
Keep weeds down by light cultivation. A paddy straw mulch of 4 tonnes an acre, spread under the canopy in May after manuring, smothers weeds and is worked into the soil in October; it also raises fruit size and yield.
| When | What | How much | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years 1 to 3 | Farmyard manure | 10 to 20 kg per tree | Apply in May |
| Years 4 to 6 | Farmyard manure | 25 to 40 kg per tree | Apply in May |
| Years 7 to 10 | Farmyard manure | 40 to 50 kg per tree | Apply in May |
| Above 10 years | Farmyard manure | 50 kg per tree | Apply in May |
| Full-grown trees, instead of FYM | Paddy straw manure | 20 kg per tree |
Varieties and yield
125 to 150 kg a tree
Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.
Punjab Apple Guava
2019. Dark red skin and creamy flesh; take only the winter crop for good colour.
Punjab Kiran
2018. Pink flesh with small, soft seeds.
Punjab Safeda
2018. Vigorous; creamy white skin and firm white flesh.
Shweta
2013. Creamy white flesh, semi-hard seeds.
Punjab Pink
2009. Golden yellow skin and red flesh; prolific and suited to processing.
Arka Amulya
Fairly dwarf, compact tree; white flesh with semi-soft seeds.
Sardar (L-49)
Dwarf, spreading tree; large fruit with creamy white, juicy flesh.
Allahabad Safeda
Fairly dwarf, compact tree; round, smooth fruit with white flesh.
Pests and diseases3
Organic and cultural controls only.
Fruit flies
Signs
Flies lay eggs in the soft skin at colour break. Fruit shows sunken, dark green punctures, with white maggots inside; it rots and falls. Pupae form in the soil under the trees.
What to do
- Cover mature green rainy-season fruit with white non-woven bags from the end of June to mid-July
- Skip the rainy-season crop in orchards with a history of bad fruit fly attack
- Pick ripening fruit promptly and do not leave ripe fruit on the tree
- Pick up fallen fruit regularly and bury it at least 60 cm deep
- Plough shallow right after harvest to expose the pupae
- Hang fruit fly traps, 16 an acre, in the first week of July
Guava shoot borer
Signs
A nursery pest: larvae tunnel in tender shoots, which dry up or turn bushy, with fine black frass on the leaves below.
Mealybugs
Signs
Active from June to October; they suck sap from leaves, shoots and fruit, and sooty mould blackens the tree.
Wilt
Signs
Thin foliage, bare branches, yellowing and wilting; the wood under the bark of the roots is discoloured. Replanted trees may bear for some years before they wilt.
What to do
- Uproot and burn wilted trees with all their roots
Prevention
- Bud onto Sardar or Portugal seedling rootstock
- Plant in a well-drained field and avoid very heavy soils
Fruit rot, anthracnose and die back
Signs
Round, slightly sunken brown spots with a pink sticky centre on ripe fruit, which rots in 2 to 3 days. Shoots die back from the tip in the rains.
What to do
- Bury rotten and mummified fallen fruit deep in the soil
Prevention
- Do not let rain or irrigation water stand in the basin
- Avoid bruising the fruit
Seed and the season's end
Saving seed1,13Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.
Guava trees raised from seed do not come true and bear late, so seed is saved only to raise rootstocks. Use freshly extracted seed from fully ripe fruit.
Cleaning the seed
Scoop out the seed, wash the pulp off and sow straight away.
Seed loses viability soon after extraction, so it is not stored. Sow it fresh; it germinates in three to four weeks.
After the last picking3
Guava is a perennial, so nothing is cleared after harvest. Renew old, unproductive trees by heading them back at 1.5 m in March, leaving 2 to 3 main limbs; in August and September thin the crowded new shoots and cut the rest back by half. Renewed trees bear well again in the third year.
Guava is a perennial, so nothing is cleared after harvest. Collect fallen and rotten fruit and bury it deep or compost it in a closed pit. Chip or compost healthy prunings; burn diseased wood.
Rotation
When an old orchard is removed, grow legumes or vegetables for a season or two before replanting, and do not set new trees back into the old pits.
Sources
Where this comes from
Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.
These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.
- Guava: pestsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: plantingNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: post harvest technologyNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: propagationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: soil and climateNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: varietiesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava (horticulture: fruits)TNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
- Package of practices for cultivation of fruits (guava chapter)Punjab Agricultural University, LudhianaRead the source
- Guava: area under cultivationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: diseasesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: harvesting and yieldNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: intercultural operationsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: irrigationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Guava: manuring and fertilisationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
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