Crop Improvement in Guava

Introduction
Botanical Name: Psidium guajava
Family : Myrtaceae
Chromosome No: 2n=22
 Guava is referred as APPLE OF TROPICS; it is the cheap and rich source of
vitamin-C and Calcium.
 It is an important fruit cultivated in UP, Bihar, MP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and AP.
 Allahabad region of UP is known for production of finest quality of guava in the
world.
 Guava is a hardy species which can be grown in alkaline and poorly drained soils.
Centre of origin
Tropical America (Mexico, Peru)
Introduced to India in 17th century.
Germplasm resources
About 103 genotypes are available in Indian condition.
 CISH Lucknow
 IIHR Bangalore
 NDUAT Faizabad
 HAU Hissar
Botany
 Family- Myrtaceae
 Genus- Psidium consists of more than 150 spp.
 Some of the related species are-
 P guinensis – Brazilian/ Guinea guava
 P cattleanum – Strawberry / Cattley guava. Produces purplish or red small sized
fruits.
 P fredchisthalianum – China/ Costarican guava. Fruits are highly acidic.
 P mountanum – Mountain guava. Grows as shrub.
 P pomiferum – Round shape fruits.
 P pyriform – Pear shaped fruits.
  P acutangulam
 P araca
 P coreaceaum
 P molle – Root stock showing resistance to guava fusarium wilt.
 Most of the cultivated species belongs to P guajava, which is diploid and the seedless
varieties are triploids.
 Based on the shape of the fruit they are classified into two groups
 P pyriferum – Pear shaped fruits
 P pomiferum – Round shaped fruits.
 All cultivated species of guava are either diploid 2n=22 or triploid 2n=3x=33
(seedless).
Floral biology
 Guava bears flowers in solitary or in cyme of 2-3 flowers on the current season
growth in leaf axil.
 The flower consists of 5 lobed calyx, 6-10 petals (corolla arranged in two whorls)
with 160- 400 bilobed anthers. Gynoecium consists of inferior ovary syncarpus with
axile placentation.
Flowering seasons
 Ambe bahar – January-February
 Mrig bahar – June- July
 Hast bahar – September-October
 Anthesis – Peak at 5:00-6:00 am
 Guava is a self-pollinated crop but to some extent cross pollination takes place due to
insect activity.
Inheritance pattern
 Bold is found to be dominant over soft seeds and governed monogenically.
 Red flesh color is dominant to white pulp color and also controlled by single gene.
 Red fleshed cultivars are heterozygous.
 There is a linkage between red flesh color and bold seed size/hard seed.
 Triploidy and some other genetic factors are responsible for female sterility.
Objectives of Breeding
 Developing dwarf plant stature.
  Good branching habit for more fruiting area.
 Better fruit quality in terms of shape, size, color, firmness, thick pulp, pleasing aroma
and good keeping quality.
 To develop variety with less number of seeds.
 Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
 To develop variety for processing purpose
BREEDING METHODS AND ACHIEVMENTS
Introduction
 There are number of varieties and species introduced from different countries from
time to time for specific purpose.
Example;
 Beaumont and Indonesian seedless – Australia
 Acerapera – Brazil
 Verdi – USA
 P sirtorianum – USA
 P littoral var longipus – USA
 P longipus – USA
Selection
 Crop improvement through selection was started in 1907 at Ganesh Khind fruit
research station (Pune).
 The seeds/ seedlings of guava were collected from Lucknow, Bihar, Nasik, Dharwad
area.
 600 seedlings were raised and evaluated for fruit size, shape and yield. (Cheema and
Deshmukh, 1927).
 One strain from open pollinated seedling population of Allahabad Safeda collected
from Lucknow was selected and released as Lucknow-49/ Sardar guava.
Examples
 Lucknow-49
 Allahabad Safeda
 Chittidar
 Seedless (Triploid)
 Apple color
  Red fleshed
 Arka Mridula; Selection from Allahabad Safeda, White fleshed.
 CISH-G1 (Shweta); Local selection, red fleshed.
 CISH-G3 (Lalit); Fruits are saffron yellow color with pink flesh.
 Pant Prabhat; Seedling selection from GBPUAT Pantnagar. Prolific bearer, soft
seeded with good quality.
 Supreme mild fleshed; Cultivar best suited for jelly making because of high pectin
content.
Local selection
 Kohir selection: Sangareddy (TS)/North Karnataka (near Bidar)
 Navalur guava: Pink fleshed selection from Navalur- near Dharwad.
Hybridization
1. IARI-
Diploids (Allahabad safeda) x Triploids

F1- 73
Out of which; 26- diploids
09- trisomics
05- double trisomics
14- tetrasomics
 From this F1 population 3 were trisomics with dwarf stature and with normal shape
and size of fruit with less seeds, which is released as
 Pusa Srijan- recommended for scion variety and rootstock.
2. IIHR Bangalore
 Arka Amulya : Seedless x Allahabad safeda
Soft seeded with good keeping quality.
 Arka Kiran : Apple color x Allahabad safeda
Fruit skin is bright red with few seeds, high TSS, good keeping quality.
 Arka Rashmi : Kamsari x Purple Local.
Medium sized (180-200g), deep pink pulp, TSS 12° Brix, ascorbic acid
(235mg/100g), yield potential of 30-35 t/ha
3. FRS, Sangareddy
 Safed jam : Allahabad safeda x Kohir jam
 Kohir safeda : Kohir x Allahabad safeda
4. HAU, Hissar
 Hissar safeda : Allahabad safeda x Seedless
 Hissar surkha : Apple color x Banarasi surkha
5. CISH, Lucknow
 H-21 and H-136 have been isolated from F1 population having red pulp and soft
seeded with high TSS.
Breeding for wilt resistance
 Work at CISH, Lucknow has revealed that the species of P molle is showing
resistance to fusarium wilt and shows compatibility with P guajava when used as
female parent.
 The other cultivars like Chittidar, Portugal, seedless and spear acid are tolerant to wilt.