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.
Sub-tropical foothills: Jammu, Kangra, Dehradun
At a glance
Guava in the Sub-tropical foothills
Across India
When to sow it
Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.
- Transplant
- Harvest
- Today
- Not suited here
Compare all 12 regionsShow fewer regions
See the dates as a table
| Region | Sow | Nursery | Transplant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-tropical foothills | February to MarchJuly to August | August to SeptemberJanuary to February | ||
| Temperate Himalaya | Not suited here | |||
| Cold desert | Not suited here | |||
| North-west plains | February to MarchAugust to September | Late July to SeptemberNovember 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 and neem cake
20 kg FYM and 100 g neem cake per pit · Mix into the bottom soil of the pit in July · Pit filling
Farmyard manure
5 kg per tree · Year 1
Farmyard manure
10 kg per tree · Year 2
Farmyard manure
15 kg per tree · Year 3
Farmyard manure
20 kg per tree · Year 4
Farmyard manure
25 kg per tree · Year 5
Farmyard manure
30 kg per tree · Year 6
Farmyard manure
35 kg per tree · Year 7
Farmyard manure
40 kg per tree · Year 8 onwards
Azotobacter in jaggery solution1
200 g Azotobacter per plant, mixed in a 10 percent jaggery solution · Apply to the roots · Bearing trees
Day 25 to 30
Water every 7 to 10 days, more at summer and october and November, for fruit set.1
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 Sub-tropical foothills, 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 Sub-tropical foothills aren't in the library yet.
Water and feeding
Watering1
Guava is mostly grown rainfed. Where water is available, irrigate in summer and in October and November: it improves fruit set and yield. Water new plants straight after planting, every 4 to 5 days in the first month, then every 7 to 10 days in dry spells for the first two years. In March and April young high-density plants need water every 5 to 7 days, by drip or basin. In heavy rain, cut drainage channels: standing water yellows the leaves and wilts the plants.
Weeding1
In young plantings, weed at least once a fortnight in the monsoon and loosen the soil in the basins to keep them clean and airy. Mulch the basins to hold down weeds.
| When | What | How much | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pit filling | Farmyard manure and neem cake | 20 kg FYM and 100 g neem cake per pit | Mix into the bottom soil of the pit in July |
| Year 1 | Farmyard manure | 5 kg per tree | |
| Year 2 | Farmyard manure | 10 kg per tree | |
| Year 3 | Farmyard manure | 15 kg per tree | |
| Year 4 | Farmyard manure | 20 kg per tree | |
| Year 5 | Farmyard manure | 25 kg per tree | |
| Year 6 | Farmyard manure | 30 kg per tree | |
| Year 7 | Farmyard manure | 35 kg per tree | |
| Year 8 onwards | Farmyard manure | 40 kg per tree | |
| Bearing trees | Azotobacter in jaggery solution | 200 g Azotobacter per plant, mixed in a 10 percent jaggery solution | Apply to the roots |
Varieties and yield
50 to 100 kg a tree
Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.
Allahabad Safeda
Large, round, smooth, yellowish-white fruit with firm white flesh; stands drought.
Lucknow-49 (Sardar)
Large, very sweet fruit of 90 to 140 g with white pulp; vigorous tree. Suits high density.
Arka Amulya
Round yellow fruit of about 180 to 200 g with white flesh and few soft seeds.
Hisar Surkha
Spreading tree; light yellow fruit with pink flesh.
Hisar Safeda
Tall, upright tree; creamy white pulp with few soft seeds.
Shweta
Prolific; creamy white fruit with a red blush and snow-white pulp, about 225 g, keeps well. Suits high density.
Lalit
Listed for high-density planting.
Pests and diseases1
Organic and cultural controls only.
Fruit fly
Signs
Flies lay eggs in the soft skin of ripening fruit; the maggots feed on the pulp, and the fruit rots and drops.
What to do
- Pick fruit while it is still hard
- Collect and destroy all fallen fruit
- Plough around the trees in winter to expose and kill the pupae
- Act together with neighbouring orchards over a large area
Fruit borers
Signs
Caterpillars bore into the fruit and eat the pulp; mummified fruit stays on the tree after harvest.
What to do
- Remove and destroy affected fruit
- Bag the fruit
Whitefly
Signs
Mature leaves curl and turn red; tender shoots are infested, worst in April.
What to do
- Yellow sticky cards, or tins smeared with grease, to trap the flies
- Neem oil spray, 5 ml per litre of water
Bark eating caterpillar
Signs
Caterpillars feed on the bark of the trunk and branches.
Birds
Signs
Parrots, bulbuls, koels and barbets peck the ripening fruit.
What to do
- Bird scarers and reflecting ribbons
- Tin cans filled with stones as noise makers at ripening
Anthracnose and die back
Signs
Grey dead patches on leaves; twigs dry from the tip down; flowers mummify. Ripe fruit gets sunken round spots with raised edges, pinkish and sticky in the centre, that turn corky and crack.
What to do
- Prune dead twigs and burn them with the mummified fruit hanging on the tree
- Bury rotten fallen fruit deep in the soil
Wilt
Signs
Leaves brown and wilt, the stem discolours and branches die on one side; in the end the whole tree can wilt and die.
What to do
- Uproot and burn wilted plants
- Prune diseased branches hard
Twig blight and canker
Signs
Sickly trees with thin, blighted foliage. Raised cankers on bud scars, wounds, twigs and crotches; loose bark with an amber ooze. Worse in wet weather.
What to do
- Scrape off the dead bark with a little healthy tissue and burn the pruned twigs
- Remove and burn badly affected trees
Fruit rot
Signs
Starts at the flower end of the fruit; a white cottony growth spreads fast over ripening fruit, which drops. Humid weather favours it.
Collar rot
Signs
The bark at soil level turns brown, cracks and sometimes peels.
What to do
- Scrape the infected bark away with a little healthy tissue
Wither tip
Signs
Leaves drop and branch tips wither; light green leaf spots turn brown, with black dots and pinkish ooze on leaves and twigs.
What to do
- Prune off the diseased twigs
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 pickingNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.
Guava is a perennial, so nothing is cleared after harvest. After each crop, gather fallen and rotten fruit and bury it, cut out dead and diseased twigs, and clean the basins.
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.
- Package of practices for fruit crops 2020 (guava chapter and nursery chapter)Directorate of Extension, SKUAST-JammuRead the source
- 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
- 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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