Physical Description of a Guava Tree

The "physical description of a guava tree" is comparable to all other tropical fruit bearing trees. It has a sturdy trunk with branches that spreads out wide as it grows. Color of its leaves can be light to dark green and other than its fruit, the tree also bears beautiful white decorative flowers.

Let's have a more closer and well detailed physical description of a guava tree.

1. Size of a Guava Tree

The average size of a guava tree can grow between 6 to 35 feet in height. Size of the tree actually depends on the specie and the environment where the tree has been planted.

When it comes to harvesting the fruits in relation to the size of the tree, it would be a hassle to collect them if the tree is over 10 feet tall. You will either have to climb or use a pole with a hook to collect them. Although, the use of pole-hook requires some skills where an unskilled harvester will most like end up causing the fruit from being dropped on the ground. This could damage the guava fruit which is no longer recommended for storage. And other than that, what if you are afraid of heights?

Plantations actually implements "Pruning" tactics to maintain the size of their guava trees at around 3 to 6 feet tall. This makes harvesting a hassle-free work to do.

2. Trunks and Branches

Starting from the trunk and into the branches, the surface is covered with smooth surface bark layer. The outer later color of the bark is brown to darker brown. If you are going to scratch it, the second inner layer is fresh green. Then after this green layer is the primary bone of the tree which is light brown in color.

What makes the trunk and branches of a guava tree quite interesting is its sturdy physical feature. Unlike most trees, the branches of a guava tree doesn't easily break. This gives tree climbers some ease of security while picking up the fruits hanging from the high branches.

3. Guava Leaves

The shape of a guava leaf is "oval" while some says its "oblong-elliptic". Anyway, the best thing to do is to refer on the image provided below.

Average dimensional size of a guava leaf is 2 to 6 inches in length and about 1 to 2 inches wide. And as shown on the photo above, the color is green. You might have also noticed the visible veins that starts from the center going outward to the sides.

The best part when it comes to guava leaves is that, it has many uses in treating health conditions such as wound infections, stomach ache and etc... When it's crushed and pounded, it gives an aromatic scent.

4. White Flowers

Guava trees also produce beautiful white flowers which do often blooms during the spring season of warm weather. The flower is faintly fragrant which composes of 4 to 5 petals. At the center portion, science claims that there are about 250 white stamens tipped with pale-yellow anthers that adds up to the beautiful feature of the flower.

5. Roots

Of course, every plants or trees have roots buried under the ground which are responsible for absorbing water and other necessary inorganic nutrients. So to aid the healthy growth of a guava tree, guava plantations often apply fertilizers.

6. Guava Fruit

The most important commodity of the guava tree is its fruits. It is actually easy to spot them on the tree and determine when they are already ripe for the picking. Some are big while some are small in sizes.

Health benefits and instructions on how to eat guava fruits has already been discussed on the past previous posts so we won't be dealing much about the fruit on this post.

Overall, those are the outer form physical description of a guava tree. It actually makes no difference to any other ordinary fruit trees around.

How to Plant Guava Seeds for Dummies

There are two different methods in planting and growing your guava tree. The first method is to use guava seeds and the second is to use a seedling or sucker. According to the experts, its best to apply the second method which ensures that your guava tree will surely bear plenty of fruits.

The First Method

You can buy your guava fruit from any market or grocery store. There are different types of breeds so choose the best guava fruit of you choice that you wish to plant and grow. Another important aspect that you need to consider is that the fruit must be ripe. Over-ripe guava fruit will be a lot much better as most of the seeds had already expanded. However, over-ripe guava fruit are no longer edible.

Slice the guava fruits into pieces then boil it into a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. This procedure will break the dormancy of the seeds and speeds up the germination process. Collect the seeds and put them on a small saucer plate. Fill the saucer plate with water just good enough to keep the seeds wet which is to maintain moisture.

After 2 to 5 weeks, your guava seeds should start sprouting into a tiny little plant. Thus, the next step for you to do is to prepare a nursery pot for them. Use black soil on your nursery pot as this type of soil have the essential nutrients needed by young plants to grow healthy.

As your little guava plant starts to grow in size, you need to change or transfer it into a larger-sized pot. You may also plant it directly in an open area. You have to know that most guava trees can naturally grow at an approximate size of 30 feet in height.

The Second Method

In most cases, guava trees that has been planted via the first method is claimed by some individuals as an inappropriate method. Your plant will most likely die but if it manages to grow, it will only bear few amount of guava fruits. At some point, it might not even bear fruits which will be the worse possible outcome.

To ensure that all your effort will not go to waste, the second method of planting a guava tree is best suggested. The best way to obtain a seedling is to buy it from a local nursery store that sells them.

Planting a guava tree is actually very easy wherein it does not involve so much work unlike any of the other plants. It can even grow at almost any type of soil such as clay or light sandy soils. The use of organic compost mixed on the soil is just an extra added benefits.

Maintenance of your Guava Tree

Watering your plant can be done at least once a week. It is an amazing fact that a guava tree have a strong resistant against drought but the adverse effect is that it will not bear fruits abundantly. Thus, if you want your guava tree to bear abundant amount of fruits then water it generously.

Places wherein they can have temperatures below 29 degrees Fahrenheit can seriously damage guava trees. At some point, guava trees won't be able to survive in such places.

Pruning the main shoot of your guava tree is another task that needs to be considered for maintenance. Depending on your preferred height of your guava tree to grow, you have to prune the main shoot at that level. It is also important to get rid of any emerging suckers from the ground or at the low portion of the trunk. This is to encourage strong growth for the main guava tree.

When your guava tree finally bears huge and heavy fruits, there is a tendency that the branches will sag. This can be fixed by supporting the branches with canes or wires. Major pruning must be done after the fruiting is over to maintain the shape and height of your guava tree.

Guava trees can be easily infested by fungal disease which can be observe when most of the leaves have brown spots on them. This can be treated by using an anti-fungal spray which contains copper. As for the fruits, they are most likely targeted by maggots which are contributed by flies. This can be avoided by covering each of the fruits with paper bags before they even begin to ripe.