Growth, Yield and Quality of Various Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Hybrids/Cultivars under Mid Hills of Meghalaya R.K. Patel, D.S. Yadav, K.D. Babu, A. Singh and R.M. Yadav Division of Horticulture ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region Umiam-793 103 Meghalaya India Keywords: Fruiting, physico-chemical constituents Abstract Five year old six guava hybrids/cultivars viz. Hybrid-1, Hybrid-2, Hybrid-11, Allahabad Safeda, L-49 and EC-12 were evaluated with respect to growth, yield and quality traits of fruit. Hybrid-11 was found superior in stem diameter (8.51 cm), mean tree spread (2.68 m) and yield (18.50 kg/tree), while cultivar’s L-49 was found better in fruit weight (152.50 g), fruit length (6.56 cm) and fruit diameter (6.91 cm). However, Hybrid-1 was found better in quality traits like T.S.S. (10.40%), vitamin ‘C’ (296 mg/100 g), reducing sugar (2.67%), non-reducing sugar (5.37%) and total sugar (8.77%). The fruit of Hybrid-1 was found excellent in quality with high sweetness, less seed content and soft flesh texture as compared to other hybrids/cultivars. INTRODUCTION Guava (Psidium guajava L.) belongs to the family myrtaceae is one of the favourite fruits for its good taste, high nutritive value and diversified use. The soil and climatic condition of North Eastern Hill Region are quite conducive to successful cultivation of different fruits under mid hill altitude and the farmers are looking for diversification of fruit crops to enhance their income. The yield and quality of local cultivars of guava grown by the farmers is very poor. Therefore, attempts were made to develop hybrids suitable for mid hill situation of Meghalaya. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six genetically diverse hybrids/cultivars viz. Hybrid-1, Hybrid-2, Hybrid-11, Allahabad Safeda, L-49 and EC-12 were evaluated with respect to growth, yield and quality traits of fruit at ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Barapani (Meghalaya) during 2003-2004. Three trees of each hybrid were selected from established bearing orchard of guava and on growth and yield data were collected from these plants. From selected trees 100 fruits were randomly harvested and divided it in four parts as show four replications consisting 25 fruits in each replication. Growth, yield and physico-chemical study was made in terms of plant height (m), stem diameter (cm), mean plant spread (m), leaf size (cm), yield parameters (kg/tree/year), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), fruit weight (g), number of seed/fruit, test weight (100 seed), T.S.S. (%), acidity (%), vitamin ‘C’ (mg/100 g) and total sugar. Total soluble solids (T.S.S.) were determined with the help of hand refractometer. Acidity was determined by titrating the juice against N/10 NaOH and expressed as per cent citric acid. Vitamin C content of fruit was determined with the help of the method given in A.O.A.C. (1970) and sugars were analyzed as per method given by Lane and Eynon (1943). The mean data was further subjected to statistical analysis as given by Panse and Sukhatme (1985). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Data showed that cultivars/hybrids studied differed in their growth, yield, fruit shape, size, colour, surface of skin and taste. Tree growth was recorded in terms of tree height, stem diameter, mean tree spread and leaf size in terms of leaf length and width. Table 1 showed that the maximum tree height was noticed in Hybrid-2 (2.80 m) followed 57 Proc. I st IS on Guava Eds. G. Singh et al. Acta Hort. 735, ISHS 2007