2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Guava (Psidium guajava) fruits are valued for their rich, tropical aroma, but fruit quality data are lacking for many important cultivars. Guava is native to warm-climate parts of the Americas and is grown commercially in south Florida, USA. Varieties relevant to south Florida show a high level of morphological diversity including aspects of fruit color and shape. The fruit is suitable for consumption at various maturation states including green (crisp, mild flavor), commercial mature (moderate aroma), or consumer mature (robust flavor). We sampled twenty accessions growing at the University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center for fruit quality traits of green unexpanded, commercial mature, and consumer mature fruit developmental stages. Variability for pulp acidity (pH 3 to 4.6), titratable acidity (0.1 to 1.8%), and soluble solids content (6 to 26%) indicated significant differences among accessions. Accession-level differences were also found in the patterns of response for the fruit quality traits over the three fruit developmental stages. Individual aroma compounds showed fold changes across accessions and over developmental fruit stages. These preliminary results demonstrate suitable variability for future work culminating in accession recommendations for specific end uses. Further, this quality data will support future breeding work involving the genetic improvement of guava for south Florida production.