Divisi
How to grow Guava
Psidium guajava · Myrtaceae
Photo: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka · CC BY-SA 4.0
Guava is a tough, evergreen little tree that fruits almost anywhere — it shrugs off heat, drought, and poor, sour or salty soil. The one thing it hates is wet feet. Plant a grafted or air-layered tree (a good fruiting variety joined onto tough roots, or a branch that was rooted while still on the mother tree) and it fruits within a year or two and gives exactly the parent's sweet fruit — unlike seed-grown trees, which are slow and each one a gamble. Because guava can flower any time of year, you can even choose when it crops, using a prune plus a dry-then-wet watering trick. Two things make or break the crop: the fruit fly, which loves guava above almost any other fruit, and giving the fruit a dry spell to ripen so it stays sweet and doesn't split. The fruit is rich in vitamin C and full of natural pectin, so it sets beautifully into juice and jam — but it is highly perishable, keeping only a few days once ripe.
Medhi jyoti · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 90–150 days
- Row spacing
- 550 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 550 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will guava actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Guava
guava · goyave · gwaiba · goiaba · gwavha · pera · mapera · igwava · ugwava
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing guava, stage by stage
Your guava, year by year — from planting a grafted tree and shaping an open, easy-to-pick canopy, to bringing on each crop with a prune-and-water trick and carrying sweet fruit past the fruit fly to a dry, ripe harvest.
- Choose your spot and plant the tree
- Grow the young tree to its first fruit
- Shape an open canopy every year
- Bring on the flowers (and time the crop)
- Grow the fruit and beat the fruit fly
- Harvest at colour-break
- Cool, handle and use the fruit
14 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for guava — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack guava
3 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your guava right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does guava take to grow?
Guava takes about 90–150 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for guava?
Space guava rows about 550 cm apart, with roughly 550 cm between plants within the row.
What pests and diseases attack guava?
The ones covered in this guide are Algal leaf spot, Fruit flies, Guava rust. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow guava with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first