Psidium guajava - Tropical Guava

I have never tasted a guava...can you describe it, please?

Lori:

I don't eat them. LOL! I give them all away to neighbors and friends and co-workers.

ahhh... so it's an acquired taste? are they used for relishes or jams rather than eating fresh like apples or oranges? Do you have a picture of the tree they grow on? did I miss it?

People just absolutely love them. Almost everyone has at least two or three trees and sometimes more trees in their yards. There's hundreds of varieties. It's eaten fresh and made into jams, jellies you name it it's made with guava. I like the jam used as a glaze on meats, it's really good. I typically use the fruit as a natural deodorizer...as they are a very aromatic fruit. One guava can fill a huge room with fragrance in a matter of minutes. The fruit is very nutritious.

Here's some photos of one of my guava trees...in the second photo the guava tree is in the middle. It's now 16' tall. The first photo was when it was a small plant back in 2009.

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/88436-psidium-guajava-tropical-guava/member/Delonix1

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/291654-dypsis-lutescens-butterfly-palm/member/Delonix1

I grew the red leafed Guava for a year...the fruit was like spoiled lemonade (family forum here,it could be described more vulgarly !) in the fall or late summer...2007's casualty.
I since have learned that Guavas need a hot summer. And that the red is more ornamental then a true market type Guava. My cousin said the best he had were in Cabo one vacation.
Hayward is not as warm as Cabo-lol. I wish it was..

Actually, most guavas like cooler temps. In the tropics they grow best in the mountains where it's cooler.

I've seen many large tropical guavas in the Bay Area. I grew several and they produced a lot of fruit. I've seen some large 15 or 18 ft trees off of Tennyson by the 880 Freeway.

The exception may be the red Malaysian guava...which likes a little more heat and is more tender. My former tropical guava in Hayward survived the 1990 freeze. It froze to the ground and came back very quickly that following spring.

I didn't know that. I saw some for sale this summer. I might try again.the non red. When you havent grown something..from a distance it looks like another bush. Those 880 plants I've never noticed. There IS a Hayward Cherimoya that is HUGE!..about 25' tall and wide. I had no idea it gets that large here.

I've seen so many large guava trees in the Bay Area. There's so many when you're driving along the 680 Freeway from Fremont to San Jose. I could see them above the walls a long that freeway. You most likely can get a guava tree in the ground to grow to 10' in three years in the Bay Area (they're super fast growers). I had one in Fremont which grow to 10' from a 1' plant in two years.

Yes, I've seen many large cherimoya trees in the Bay Area. It's a really hardy tree. Most trees in 1990 Freeze survived with minimal tip die-back. They grow very quickly and have a very strong root-system.