Physiological Studies During the Growth and Development of Different Varieties of Guavas (Psidium Guajava L.)

In a study of three seed-bearing varieties of guava and one seedless variety changes in size and specific gravity and in the content of water, titratable acid, reducing and non-reducing sugars, tannins, pectin, and ascorbic acid were recorded at intervals from fruit-set to harvest. Respiration rates were also determined during this period.

Patterns of change were generally similar in seeded and unseeded varieties, though the sugars and ascorbic acid contents rose earlier and to higher levels in the seedless than in the seeded, and the fruits matured and fell from the trees earlier.

Increasing ascorbic acid content, concurrent with declining pectin content in the seeded varieties, is consistent with the hypothesis that pectin degradation and ascorbic acid are linked, but in the seedless variety a rapid rise in the ascorbic acid content occurred during a period of pectin accumulation. The end of the initial rapid decline in respiration rate generally coincided with the beginning of reducing-sugar accumulation.