When and how to prune guava trees for maximum yields
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- Understanding when and how to prune a guava tree allows you to maximise your potential harvest and structure your guava tree in the best possible way.
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Growing your very own guava tree is easy and a very rewarding experience as this tree provides massive harvests of yummy fruits and doesn't need much care in return. Guava's can be enjoyed fresh off the tree, preserved, made into jams and syrups and are an absolute delight in deserts and pastries.
Guava trees are incredibly low maintenance and in my opinion make one of the best sustainable living trees. If you are looking to eat clean and live a more sustainable lifestyle then growing guavas in your backyard, urban homestead or smallholding is one of your better options.
If you want to find out more about the importance of thinning your guava fruit then you ned to watch this video:
- The importance of thinning guava fruit - A comprehensive guide: • The importance of thin...
Store bought vs home grown guava fruit: Harvesting massive home grown guavas - • Home grown guavas VS s...
Video timeline:
00:00 - Introduction & Overview
01:45 - How do guava trees grow
06:24 - When to prune guava trees
07:49 - How to prune a guava tree
09:58 - Recap on when and how to prune a guava tree
When we look at how guavas grow it is important to know that guavas set fruit on new growth, meaning growth from the current year. To get the best out of your guava tree make sure you leave enough of the mature, older branch to support the new growth and guava crop that it will be setting. If you don't have a strong enough scaffold then your branch can easily snap under the weight of the bountiful harvest.
What conditions do guava trees grow in? That is a really good question and there is the answer:
1. They like full sun more most of the day, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, but remember that it is a tropical tree so in desert or very hot, dry conditions, it is best to provide some shade cover during the mid-day heat.
2. Soil conditions are pretty flexible as long as it is free draining. Guava trees do not like wet feet for prolonged periods and will suffer as a result. In terms of soil PH they are just as tolerant and grow from very acidic to very alkaline soils, so nothing to fuss over here.
3. Guava trees are frost tender, meaning that they will suffer, and potentially die back when exposed to frost. If you live in an areas that experiences frost then make sure you have frost blankets/covers or that you grow them in pots to be moved indoors when the cold sets in.
Now that we know what conditions guava trees like to grow in, how about, when to prune guava trees?
1. You want prune your guava tree 2-3 weeks after you have harvested the last fruit from the tree. Why you might ask? Because the tree would have shifted its energy from ripening fruit to pushing out new growth. You will then also have extended new buds to select the growth that you want on a specific branch.
2. When it is the best time of the year to prune guava trees? Well that depends on your location. In the Southern Hemisphere you want to be pruning your guava tree around mid-October and in the Northern Hemisphere around end March to early April. Be warned with time of the year though, that your tree might be telling you something else, so always look at what your tree is telling you and work with the 2-3 week timeline after the last harvest to play it safe.
The next step is how to prune a guava tree. Pruning a guava tree is very easy and straightforward. You just need to take the leap and prune hard, knowing that the tree will bounce back with lots of new growth.
1. To prune a guava tree you want to leave no less than 4 leave nodes in place. You can work within the 4-6 leaf node range. Opt for the shorter range if you want to keep your tree smaller and more compact.
2. As with all other fruit pruning, remove all crossing, dead and and diseased branches.
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Do you have any questions about pruning guava trees, when to prune or how they grow? 🌻
My little guava tree has two branches at the top of like a 4 ft trunk. It’s winter and there are no leaves except a few left over from last year. I see buds for leaves but the two branches only is a problem. How can I help it to have more branches instead of just getting taller
Greetings from Tampico, Mexico! I have several young guava trees, all in pots. Thanks so much for the info on pruning them. I'm disabled and running up and down ladders to harvest the fruit is problematic for me, to say the least! The biggest issue I've had with guavas is whitefly infestations, which I've managed to control by spraying the undersides of the leaves with a 1 to 4 mixture of dish detergent and water. Also, be very careful stepping them up into larger pots as they don't survive damage to their taproots...
Wow, what valuable insights you have shared here with us, thank you so very much 💚 it's really great to know about the transplanting and tap root damage as that is such an easy thing to do. Also, very well done for problem solving and finding solutions to the challenges you faced with growing your own guavas at home 🌻
I JUST HAVE TO COMMENT AGAIN, YOU LOVELY MAN!!! EVEN THOUGH I HAVE LIVED LIVE IN PERTH, AUSTRALIA, FOR 36 YEARS, I WAS BORN IN LOVELY SOUTH AFRICA IT IS LOVELY TO WATCH YOUR VALUABLE CONTENT!. DO YOU KNOW, THAT I WAS EVER SO LUCKY TO FIND SEEDS OF MY CHILDHOOD VEGGIES FROM THE TRANSVAALSE FARM HERE IN AUSTRALIA!PLAT WIT BOERPAMPOEN, BLUE HUBBARD SQUASH AND LITTLE GEMS!! LOVE YOU! GOD BLESS EN MOOIBLY!!
Oh wow, that's soooo cool! You must know heat then 😂 It's really great that you managed to get some of our seeds over there! The distinctive white of the boerpampoen really is something. I am wishing you many a successful harvest ahead and hope your SA crops flourish there in AUS! Enjoy 🌻
Great video! One of the best
Thank you so much!
Wow, thank you and I'm so glad to hear you got value in watching this video and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment 💚🌻
Thanks so much! Looking forwards to some fruit soon!
It is only a pleasure and so am I! We ate off this tree for so long and it was so delicious. Cannot wait for the new fruits to show up, thin them and tap those feet in anticipation for that first ripe one 😂
thank you for the detailed information. Great content.
It is the greatest of pleasure and I'm thrilled to hear you found value in watching this video 💚
It's comments like yours that keep me motivated to continue delivering content 🌻
Thank you. Most informative for me and nicely presented Ted. Cheers from Việt Nam.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to leave a comment and I'm so glad to hear your found value in watching my videos 🌻
I’m South African from Cape Town so hearing your accent is so comforting!!! 🎉
I’m living in the US now but definitely subscribing ☺️
Ah, what an awesome comment 💚 Thank you so much and I hope you get to enjoy lots more content in future 🌻
Useful, thank you 🙏
Glad it was helpful! 🌻
Lots of learning. Tnx
It is only a pleasure 🌻
I'm in JHB. great content thank you! so pleased I found your channel!
Yay, thank you so much for your comment and I'm so glad to be finding more and more South Africans! I hope you get lots of value out of my future videos too 🌻
Great job, very informative video,thank you👍
Thank you so very much, I'm so glad to hear you found this video to be informative 💚🌻
Great video!
Thank you so much 💚 I'm s thrilled to hear you found value in watching this video - lots more to come 🌻
Thank you so much for the info. This is going to be very helpful as we have only harvested our first fruits and we enjoyed them very much. Interestingly our last one was the size of a tennis ball in the shape of a 🍐👌👌👌
We have a few still not ripened on the same tree.
We have 2 trees and only 1had ripened. The other tree has numerous fruits - I think it could be a whole 20L, but they are as hard as a rock, but we treated them both the same way.
It's only a pleasure and I'm glad to hear you found this video useful and informative 💚
It's awesome to hear that you have gotten some really nice sized fruit already and my assumption, without being there to see the tree, is that the one with the hard unripe fruit probably had more fruit on it and it's struggling to ripen them all.
I would suggest watching my other video on thinning guava fruits to better understand how many fruits to leave. You can even remove some of the hard, unripe guava fruits now and you will see how quickly the others ripen up 🌻
Awesome video man this helped me out a lot! Here in south FL and just got my first guava
Ah, thanks so much for the wonderful comment and I'm so glad it helped you out and that you managed to get your first fruit! That's super exciting 🎉🎉🎉
I have a massive Guava tree in my garden in The Crags north of Plett, never got fruit till last year because the monkeys and baboons raided it. I was also told it was a wild guava so never bothered much. It is currently flowering and there are masses of blooms, glad to know I can cut it back in October after its crop which no doubt will be shared with the Lorrie’s, monkeys.. etc 😅
Ah that's awesome (the big guave tree) but it really sucks about not getting fruit 😕 you might need to get some bird netting to put over because loeries and mouse birds simply love ripe guava fruits.
Not sure if you have seen my guava thinning video which is your next and very important step. Keeping too many fruit it not good so if you can watch that video it will help you a lot for your next steps 🌻
Hey thanks a mil
It is the greatest of pleasure 🌻
Very helpful, thank you
It's the greatest of pleasure and I'm glad you found value in watching this video 🌻
Thanks for the great video. I live in Brits North West and my guava is fruiting at the moment.
Very excited to prune back my pineapple guava, white guava and then later the year the fruiting one.
Yaaaay, I'm so glad you are starting to get fruit and it's perfect timing for them to be flowering and setting fruit!
The next job for you is thinning the fruit to make sure you get nice big, juicy guavas. Here is the link for you - ua-cam.com/video/hW6NHDbAKUc/v-deo.htmlsi=tQGoMDeIuH_UM0RW
I'm glad you got value from watching this video and I hope you get big, yummy harvests 🌻
Santa Barbara California here! Nice video! My tree is 50 yrs old & sooooo many (Small) guavas…I’m going to try thinning fruit as you do in ur video & hopefully Larger/Ripe fruit!! (Before the fall to the ground)….I❤GUAVAS!!
Oh wow, thanks so mucb for taking the time to leave me a comment from the other side of the pond 💚
You must have an absolutely magestic guava tree at that age and with older trees energy management also becomes important so I'm glad you found this video too.
I hope you have delicious, massive and sweet guava fruits for many years to come 🌻
I'm in Kzn. Guava trees grow like weeds in my garden. Also the white guava. This is a huge problem. The guavas are huge and healthy though.
Yeah I have heard that in some climates they can be terribly invasive. That being said, if you look at the wildlife they support such as birds and monkey's then we realize it's actually all just part of the ecosystem and very important.
I do make sure I kee mine very small (within tippy toe reach) and that all fruits are harvestes to reduce the risk of them spreading 🌻
Growing food should never be seen as a problem. Lol
Very useful. We've had problems with deer and raccoons in the garden in the past. Can't imagine having to deal with baboons.🤣 😂 🤣
Ah, I'm so glad to hear you found this video useful 💚
Yeah, baboons are a next level menace! They are extremely intelligent, strong and protective. I have seen grown up baboons pushing a baby through a small opening of a window so the baby can open the window from the inside. It's insane 😂
I'm sure keeping deer and racoons out your garden is a breeze in comparison and I wish you many a bountiful harvest 🌻
great though "lengthy" presentation! subd/liked. hope you have a vid on grafting Gs!
Thank you so much and I'm glad you managed to get value from watching this video 💚 I'll most certainly take your feedback on board for my future videos. I have a bunch more guava videos planned so I'll get to those asap for you 🌻
Hi, my name is Steve , I live in South Florida in the U.S. just want to thank you for this Video. I trimmed my guava tree just like you explained. But if you don’t mind I have A question on, what is the best food for the plant to help to produce fruit. Thank you!!!
Hey Steve, thanks for taking the time to drop me a comment! I am so glad you got value from watching this video and I hope your trimming is going to result in a well structured and heavy bearing tree!
In terms of food they are pretty easy and really don't need much. I put horse manure throughout my garden and that is pretty much all anything gets.
Guava trees can grow and bear fruit in pretty poor soils so I would be cautious of too much food because then you could end of with more growth and fruit. I would suggest just compost in the Fall and again in Spring 🌻
Thanks for your valuable info!! i wonder if this applies to my 3 7year old strawberry guavas - psidium cattleya, who have been neglegted under a shady huge mulberry tree, and became utterly leggy.
Your help will be so very welcome.
oh, I live in Perth, Australia!!
Thanks, and GOD BLESS!
Hello from the other side of the pond 😀 Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment and yes, the principles would be exactly the same with the cherry guava. My only suggestion would be to be less aggressive and feed it more as they grow slower in the shade so may not bounce back from pruning as quickly. Giving it some extra food will help so that it doesn't have to rely too much on photosynthesis to create its own energy!
As we share the same seasons I am sure you are just as excited as I am to see summer arriving...🌻
Hi, do you have to prune at this stage of the year, I have a lot of branches coming from the bottom.
I just want to add, I pruned my tree heavily in August, was that to late?
Great questions you have there! If you want to get a summer harvest the best time to prune is late spring. You will then get a summer crop and in autumn is should flower again to give you a winter crop. After that crop you then prune to stimulate the summer crop again. If you prune too late you will most likely only get one of the two crops 🌻
Hi we have inherited a guava 'orchard' that is overgrown with bush. I am busy clearing around small trees which ore more like bushes. How do I bring them in to prevent horizontal growth.
Good question and congratulations on inheriting something so great 👏
Guava trees regularly send our suckers from the base of the tree and even send out suckers growing off the roots directly around the base of the tree. Removing suckers is going to be your No.1 chore for effectively managing your guava orchard.
Then, you need to ensure you only have a single primary trunk. You can choose the thickest and strongest one and remove all the other trunks or branches competing for the main leader position. By having a single truck you can better control the movement of nutrients and waters to where you want it, rather than the tree deciding. This will result in significantly better yields.
Once you have your single trunk you need to manage the number of side branches to ensure branches (when they droop with fruit) don't cross or shade one another out. The great thing about guavas is that they are incredibly aggressive growers and can take a beating when it comes to pruning, which is great as it means you can make as many mistakes as you want and the tree won't suffer.
The most important thing to remember is that guava trees flower and fruit on new growth 🌻🌻🌻
Die plot het 4 sulke bome. Wel 2 is deur bokke van bas gestroop en dus nou brandhout. Ek was op soek na hoe om die twee wat ons oor het te snoei. Vruggies was maar klein, so 'n snoei en meer water is op die agenda. Groete uit Koekenaap.
Dankie vir jou bootskap Karel. Dit klink as of jy n plan bymekaar het so ek hoop alles werk uit en jy kry verskriklik baie koejawels 🌻
Hey! Any update on the tree?? Did it give more fruit??
Hey! Thanks for the follow up and yeah, this is the follow up video on it where I got massive fruits. Check it out 👉 ua-cam.com/video/rKOxSuUVlCQ/v-deo.html
Why do you still use the stake to hold your plant? Shouldn’t it be strong enough to stand on its own? Or is there extra benefits to that? Thanks!
Really good question and thanks for asking! There where I was based we regularly had incredibly strong wind that last for days and weeks on end. Most of the winds were also in the summer when the tree is in full leaf so it is more of a support against the wind than anything else. We also had very sandy soil and the combination of very strong winds and sandy soil is a recipe for disaster 🌻
Hi I noticed buds for first time on my young plant ,can I cut while buds are there
I would suggest letting it just grow out if it is a young plant and rather prune next spring. I will be doing a video on thinning, which will be very important for you as you don't want the tree to be weakened by bearing too many fruit, but I would suggest leaving it to do its thing for this season 🌻
If you prune within the three to four weeks after last harvest and this happens to be end June, wont your new growth be excessive by October? Would it be advisable to wait a month or longer, closer to October?
Good question and point you raise here, thank you! I believe it all comes down to when you would like your fruit to ripen.
The earlier you prune, the earlier you will have fruit set and the earlier you can harvest and you can control this with pruning.
That being said, guava trees are known to grow 6-8ft in one year and hard pruning does them well, so the amount of growth also would not be a concern to me as more growth = a happier and stronger tree
Like I said, you can realistically prune whenever you want, but just know it impacts when fruits ripen 🌻
Great video, I’m from South India where we hv 6 months of rain and humid summers otherwise. It’s rainy season right now. Can I prune Guava trees when the tree starts to bear fruits?
Thank you for your comment from the other side of the world 😀 I would not recommend pruning once the tree starts to bear fruit as you will end up losing lots of fruit but most importantly you will end up severely weakening the tree as it will try to put on lots of new growth (that's what they do once they get pruned) as well as try to ripen fruit. It could probably be done, but you will more than likely end up with a pretty weak tree that will, over time, start to produce less and poorer quality guava fruits 🌻
My guavas trees started flowering but doesn't seem that the fruits are forming, I am from Namibia, we have very hot and dry weather.
I live in zone 9b , Florida. My Ruby supreme does well but the fruit flies are a issue and trying several strategies to counteract their damage.
Oh no, the dreaded fruit fly 😭 we have them here too but luckily I have a winter ripening variety which means the fruit is mostly unripe during the fruit fly season and they leave them alone. I am crossing my fingers it stays this way because bagging individual guava fruits when they are such prolific bearers will be a really pain!
I hope you find something that works for you 🌻
Hi, can I grow a gauva tree in the uk with its climate ?
Hey, good question! Guavas are tropical trees so they are not ideally suited to the UK weather, but that doesn't mean you can't. You can consider growing your guava tree in a pot and moving it to a warmer place in winter or wrapping it with a frost cover 🌻
@5:34 how do you control the height if 1 branch pruned, gives 2 which then gives 4, so height keeps growing, how to restrict the height?
Good question!
When I refer to controlling height I don't mean keep the tree small forever. What I am meaning is that if a strong bring grows 1m in a growing season the next year's growth is going to be 1m higher and so forth.
By significantly cutting down growth you get significantly more branches at a lower hight. For example, if you cut that 1m branch down to 20cm then your next 2 branches (that will both bear fruit) will be around 20-30cm high. Those 2 branches will then put on lots of growth and you will cut that back and get 4 branches.
What this mean is that in 5 years your trees height will be at the height it was after 1 strong year of growth. If you left that same guava tree u pruned that tree will be 6m+ in height.
I hope this helps 🌻
@@MySustainabilityJourney Thanks for your response. My question was more on how to control the height each successive year so as to maintain a smaller height.
so year 1 i cut as 20 cms, get say 2 branches which grow to 20 cms, i cut at 10 cms and then get 4 branches that grow 20 cms, i cut at 10 cms, so effective height is now 40 and it keeps growing. How to restrict this height? I would like max height of tree not to exceed say 6 feet.
When would you prune a guaver tree in Costa Rica. Thanks Stuart
You share the Southern Hemisphere with us so the timing would be roughly the same which can be anything from Oct to Jan depending on when you harvest your last quava fruit. I usually prune 2 weeks after I harvest my last fruit which gives the guava tree enough time to switch it's energy from fruit growth to vegetative growth. Hope this helps 🌻
@@MySustainabilityJourneyCosta Rica is northern hemisphere. Great video!
👍
Glad you enjoyed it 🌻
Hi it is Aug can i prune my Gauva tree know i stay in Port Elizabeth
Good question and yes you can! Just make sure all your fruits have matured or that you have harvested the ones that you still want and remove the rest. Make sure you don't have unripe fruit on the tree so 100% of the tree can go into new growth 🌻
I’m in Cape Town and our guava tree has produced a huge amount of fruit but all the fruit seems to have been attacked by fruit flies. Any idea how to prevent this from happening next season?
Oh no, that's terrible! I also really struggle with fruit flies and don't have a single sting, so I'm thinking it could be the false coddling moth?
The reason being that fruit flies activity drops down heavily in late summer when false coddling moth start to increase theirs. It's also a massive pest for citrus which ripens now, so maybe that's your culprit?
If so, luckily it's easy to control numbers with a Delta trap that you hang in trees. They are a lot easier to control than fruit flies, thankfully 🌻
Heyo! another capetonian here. I have two successful guavas. one is a white guava and one is a pink one. i dont know if theres better names for them😅. anyway, the white variety gets bitten and the pink one has very minimal pest damage.
@@aidandavies7232 that's awesome! So happy to hear more and more people growing and enjoying guava fruit! I only have pink as I prefer the flavour and also have little to no pest pressure. Happy growing 🌻
In Australia when to prune small Gouva tree
It would be the same as here in South Africa so you can follow the timings in the video. Luckily we share the same seasons and very similar climates 🌻
good amount of information.
Thank you so very much, I'm glad you got value from watching this video 🌻
peter rubbing his hands with glee
edit - disregard that, lol - this is not lemon guava, seems to be a different pruning methodology
Glad to hear you enjoyed it 🌻
My guava hasn’t had fruit yet it’s 2 yrs old
Two years is very young and just remwber you need to have a decent size trunk to be able to support the guava fruit, as well ass the branches needed to hold the fruit. Personally I would not try get fruit from the tree in the first 3 years as the risk of branches breaking is just too high.
Then, also remember that guava trees flower and fruit on new growth so pruning plays a big role. However, a 2 year old tree needs to grow out to thicken up and get all the energy it needs for future fruiting years 🌻
Have you ever grown it inside?
Nope, I haven't as the climate here in South Africa is just too hot in my opinion. They also put on 1-3 meters of new growth a year so you would need quite a bit of space, but I am sure it could be done with great success🌻
Man the whole issues with bamboos is terrible. SA is sketchy. 😬
Bamboos or baboons? 😂 If baboons then yeah they are a real pain and super destructive!
@@MySustainabilityJourney baboons!
@@Agustin-jo8mv then yes, they are an absolute pain! They even ripped 2 roof panels off my roof! 😂
Long video 👎
Use chapters 👍