Guava Pruning and Fruit Set
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Sharon Guy
Posted on: March 29, 2003

We have a guava plant that is currently almost touching the ceiling. The questions we have are: #1 can we cut back the main trunk? There are about six side shoots at this time. #2 Where do the flowers appear? #3 Do they need hand pollinating?

Yes you can cut your guava’s trunk down, but be sure not to do it too drastically all at once. It is best to cut only one third of the height at a time, but I (in desparation! ) cut the main trunk of my wholly out of control strawberry guava down by two thirds and had to wait for half a year before it started to sprout. At that point- before the sprouts were more than 2 cm long, I also dug it up out of the greenhouse floor it had escaped into and potted it. It is doing fine.

The flowers appear in the new growth in the early spring. They are lovely! I have never had to pollinate my plant’s flowers as it seemed to self-pollinate. But perhaps there were flies in the greenhouse I was not aware of, that did the job. But I think you can at least try to leave the plant to do its own thing. However I would increase air movement around the flowering plant, because it may have been the good air movement in our greenhouse that moved the pollen.

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