Dr. Arjun Kumar Shrestha1 and Pitambar Basnet2
1Department of Horticulture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal
2Plant Protection Officer, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture Development, Nepal
Abstract
This study involved two experiments with the aim to identify the superior guava cultivars and landraces of Nepal during May to September 2006. The first experiment comprised of different cultivars and landraces at farmers field of 4 districts, viz Chitwan, Jhapa, Dang and Dhading. It revealed that fruits collected from Bankatta, Dang had the highest fruit length and the fruits collected from Chitwan had the highest fruit diameter as well as weight. The fruits collected form Kirat Colony, Jhapa, had the highest TSS content. Vitamin C was found as the highest in fruit collected from Muralibhanjyang, Dhading. The number of seeds and total acidity was also observed as the highest in this cultivar. The 2nd experiment carried out at Rampur guava orchard was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 24 treatments replicated thrice. The experiment was carried out on 5 years old plants growing at a distance of 4 m2 in square system. Significant variations were found among cultivars and landraces regarding physico-chemical character of fruits such as fruit weight, fruit size, maturity days, productivity, total soluble solid, titrable acidity, TSS: TA ratio and ascorbic acid content. It can be concluded that the guava cultivars at different places of the country as well as those planted at Rampur guava orchard vary in physicochemical characteristics that can be utilized in the breeding program to develop new and more improved cultivars.
Keywords: Guava fruit, Total Soluble Solid (TSS), titrable acidity (TA), Vitamin C