Summary:
The Department of Fruit Science of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has come up with a new variety named ‘Punjab Apple Guava’, which looks just like an apple. Dr Navtej Singh Bains, director of Research, PAU, recommended Punjab Apple Guava to filed functionaries during the workshop. He said: “The Punjab Apple Guava — developed from an open pollinated source — is a medium-sized plant, dark red in colour with a creamy flesh and 11.8% sweetness.” Ludhiana: You might have eaten just two varieties of guava — with pink and white on the inside, and creamy yellowish or greenish colour on the outside. The Punjab Apple Guava variety is helpful in increasing the area of guava cultivation in Punjab, which will lead to diversification in fruit cultivation in the state, and avoid the monoculture of kinnow.Further, scientists from PAU explained that farmers growing the ‘apple guava’ will get a premium price in the market, as compared to normal guava, owing to improved quality and good colour of this variety, which is selected from opened pollination seedlings of apple colour guava at PAU-RFRS (Regional Fruit Research Station) in Bahadurgarh, Patiala..