I was reading someonelse's posting about guavas,(I love guavas) and one person told the other that trees planted from pits won't fruit. Why?
That's disheartening since I save all my pits. I planted cantaloupe, papaya, mangoes and chayotte. Does that mean they won't fruit?

They can be propagated by seeds, but guava are tricky, so commercial operations rely on cuttings instead.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/guava.html

But for most fruit trees, unless the trees are self-pollinating, they will need another type of the same kind of tree to cross-pollinate with. Planting two of the same kind of fruit tree won't work. As an example, you'd need two different types of plums that blossom at the same time to get fruit.

Often people in large neighborhoods plant one tree and get fruit, but that's because a neighbor, even within a mile, has the cross-pollinator, and people don't realize what is actually happening to get the fruit on that tree.

Since cantaloupes are vines, they could be hybrids and often the seeds are sterile. If you could get ahold of a nonhybrid fruit (what they are now calling heirloom), you would get some plants, but unless the cross-pollination was controlled, you'd get a slightly different version than the parent.

Not sure just how cold it gets where you are, but papaya, mango and guavas are tropical fruits and probably wouldn't survive frosts, unless they were grown indoors.

Whether any plant will grow from seed depends on when that seed was harvested. Any fruit you buy in the grocery store will have been harvested before it is fully ripe and those seldom grow or bear fruit. To be viable the seed needs to grow to maturity.

Also, some pits can take up to 3 years to sprout. Peaches will sometimes sprout the second year after its been planted.

the answer is simple by law imported guavas must irradiated to kill guava pit bores.

irradiation doesn't kill the seeds.


Do you have a cite for that info, TGG?

quote:

sweetpea

you really must learn use google since irradation of most tropical fruits is very common. irradation will effect seeds.

I used Google and found absolutely nothing on irradiation killing seeds. You said they wouldn't reproduce because of irradiation, that means kill them. Not just "affect" them. And what do you mean by "affect" them?

Her question was why don't they reproduce, and when guavas are grown from seed where they are grown, they aren't irradiated, and somehow she heard they wouldn't reproduce. But they do, as in the cite I attached to my answer.

I assume since you recommend I use Google, you did too, so where's the cite that backs up that irradiation kills guava seeds?

Some years ago, the FDA approved radiation as a treatment in seed for sprouting to prevent food-borne illnesses. The key words here are "radiation," "seed" and "sprouting."

While there is some controversy over the benefits of irradiated seed from a nutritional standpoint, irradiated alfalfa seeds do, indeed, sprout. The radiation levels used obviously do not kill the seed.

Wayne

Though gridgardener's comment to sweatpea was, not unexpectededly, characteristically rude and boorish, it was not without merit and one so free in dispensing condescending advice should consider taking his own advice.

Gridgardener really should try to learn how to use Google to do a simple search. What might be learned about the use of radiation, both to kill pathogens and to improve germination in some seeds, is very interesting.

Wayne

Here's info on mangos from the California Rare Fruit Growers site. Though I adore mangos I wouldn't try them even in my climate. I came to the conclusion long ago that it's easier not to fight our climate. So I don't try cherries, which need far more winter chill than LA can provide, or mangos, which can't take any at all. You can see that the tree suffers from many pests and diseases when it's grown in the wrong place.

I remember a grove of mango trees in Cuba growing next to a place where I stayed for a month. The trees were enormous, healthy, and there was so much fruit no one could keep up with them. That's the climate they need.

So I grow citrus, figs, and pineapple guavas, which like it here, and stretch a little with a type of apricot which needs less winter chill than the average.

mangos

If anyone has any doubts if fruits will grow from seed just read about John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman. I believe he had pretty good luck.