# Guava trees are absolutely useless! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770 "2015-04-04T01:29:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/1 "2015-04-04T01:29:47Z")
We have a bunch of fruit trees in our yard that produce a lot without any effort really, but man I hate the guava tree! Where do I start? First of all they don’t taste good alone so much, you need to use them to make juice or something. Second they can only be harvested off the tree, as in you have to climb the tree and cut them off. If you wait for them to fall like mangoes or acerola cherries they explode into a mess when they hit the ground. So then you have a fermenting blanket of goo under the tree, attracting flies and vermin unless you shovel it up. Third of all almost all guava fruit by nature have some kind of maggot or larva in them, which further puts people off wanting them. :mad:Screw guavas, nasty mess making tree that no one wants. We have to chase kids from taking all the mangoes and cherries. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/2 "2015-04-04T01:42:51Z")
I am sorry for the mess. If they are so bad, can you cut them down? How many different kinds of fruit do you have? I once visited the home of a friend in San Diego that had four kinds of citrus, grapefruit, limes, lemons, and tangerines. Talk about being envious! ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/3 "2015-04-04T02:00:31Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I am sorry for the mess. If they are so bad, can you cut them down? > > How many different kinds of fruit do you have? I once visited the home of a friend in San Diego that had four kinds of citrus, grapefruit, limes, lemons, and tangerines. Talk about being envious! You probably won’t believe it but we have: Mango Banana Avocado(now deceased, a very sad day it was a big producer and in such demand we’d come home to find thieves had stolen them. It was planted right next to a foundation though). Passionfruit(now deceased but I was the only sad party, also not a tree but a vine. It was producing five pounds of fruit a week! But my wife was like ah that is trash fruit) Guava(wish this one had been cut down!) Acerola cherry Mamoncillo Hog plum? Papaya(these come and go) Soursop(never have got a decent fruit off it, maybe a fungus?) And the neighbors have a rose apple? tree which drops on our side, finders keepers! ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/4 "2015-04-04T02:09:44Z")
In my place, kids make sling shots from ‘y’ branches. Martial artists make fighting sticks from the wood (better than ash or hickory.) And the fruit’s vitamin c content makes eating the bugs worthwhile. Ok, the bugs is a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/5 "2015-04-04T02:13:09Z")
> [@grude](#): > > You probably won’t believe it but we have: > > Mango > > Banana > > Avocado(now deceased, a very sad day it was a big producer and in such demand we’d come home to find thieves had stolen them. It was planted right next to a foundation though). > > Passionfruit(now deceased but I was the only sad party, also not a tree but a vine. It was producing five pounds of fruit a week! But my wife was like ah that is trash fruit) > > Guava(wish this one had been cut down!) > > Acerola cherry > > Mamoncillo > > Hog plum? > > Papaya(these come and go) > > Soursop(never have got a decent fruit off it, maybe a fungus?) > And the neighbors have a rose apple? tree which drops on our side, finders keepers! I have a serious case of fruit envy. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/6 "2015-04-04T02:19:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I have a serious case of fruit envy. I think hog plum is the wrong name, page below has pics of them and even they seem unsure of what tree it is lol. > **[Trinidad Plum](https://akalol.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/trinidad-plum/)** > > I don’t know if the common Trinidad plum is Spondias radlkoferi, Carissa macrocarpa or Spondias Purpurea but is doesn’t matter since nobody cares. The common plum in Trinidad and Tobago… Yea I was like stunned by the concept of fruit from your yard at first, and my wife was like what is the big deal? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/7 "2015-04-04T02:48:51Z")
The wood will make a great archery bow, if the trunk is straight. Most any primitive bow maker would love to have the trunk and would likely cut it down for free. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/8 "2015-04-04T10:54:01Z")
They don’t always squish when they fall, unless yours are falling to concrete or cement (like ours). Our neighbor’s guava either falls on our driveway (squashed) or yard (nonsquash). I love it. I do understand the maggot thing… I have to either throw away or cut away the affected guavas. With the rest, I make juice. Oh so happy! 🙂 We have julie mangoes, fig plantains, moco plantains, pomegranate, avocado, cashew, and guava. Since I lived in Brazil, I know and like cashew juice, which is what I make with it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guava-trees-are-absolutely-useless/716770/9 "2015-04-04T10:59:43Z")
Guava trees have that beautiful, muscular, fluted, multi-reddish-brown-hued trunks and limbs. I’d be thrilled to live where I could grow them, for that reason alone.