Influence of defoliation and deblossoming on fruit quality of guava (Psidium Guajava L.) cv. Gola

To investigate the influence of defoliation and deblossoming on fruit quality of guava (psidium guajava l.),trees of cv. 'gola' were subjected to various levels of defoliation and deblossoming manually [t1 = control (no defoliation and deblossoming),t2 = 100% defoliation + 100% deblossoming,t3 = 50% defoliation + 50% deblossoming,t4 = 0% defoliation + 50% deblossoming,and t5 = 0% defoliation + 100% deblossoming] by using pruning scissor in the last week of april. the physical and biochemical fruit characteristics were recorded at harvest. defoliation and deblossoming significantly affected the fruit size and maximum fruit size (34.4 cm-2) was exhibited by fruit harvested from trees subjected to t4 in summer. however,other physical fruit quality characteristics did not differ significantly with various levels of defoliation and deblossoming. fruit harvested from trees subjected to t4 exhibited maximum score for organoleptic characteristics. the level of total soluble solids (12.2%) in the guava juice in summer crop and reducing sugars (2.6%) in winter crops exhibited significantly higher values than other treatments. it can be concluded that trees subjected to different defoliation and deblossoming levels had a significant influence on fruit quality of guava cv. 'gola'. application of 50% deblossoming without defoliation produced fruit with better fruit size,organoleptic chatacetistics,souble solids,ascorbic acid and reducing sugars both during summer as well as winter crop.