Are Red Malaysian Guavas compatible with Lemon Yellow and Strawberry Red Guavas? The reason why I'm asking is because I grafted the above mentioned guavas and they didn't take. Both scions turned brown and died. They were both wrapped tightly with parafilm tape using the cleft technique.

I've noticed the Malaysian guavas have large, almost dry looking leaves while the Lemon and Strawberry guavas have small, thick and almost moist looking leaves. Also, the Malaysian guava branches are squarish while the Lemon and Strawberry guava branches are round. The bark also looks different, the Malaysian being more dry and sloughing while the Lemon and Strawberry guavas is not.

I have since tried grafting a White Tropical guava which looks more like the Red Malaysian than the Lemon and Strawberry guava does. Hopefully it will take.

The square-stemmed, papery-leafed guavas are all Psidium guajava, the "common" guava of commerce, and should all be graft compatible (although not the easiest of crops to graft with success). The Strawberry and Cattley guava (which I assume is what you're calling lemon guava) are Psidium cattleyanum, and while they belong to the same genus, I've never heard of anyone successfully grafting common guava onto them. Not to say that it could not be or has not been done, but I've not heard of it.

If you want to grow some P. guajava rootstocks, they're very easy from seed. Just try to use seed from fruit that have not been refrigerated very cold, and plant them soon after extracting them. If they sit around and dry out, they are likely to die very quickly. I like to plant them directly out of the fresh fruit with no drying at all, and nearly every one will usually come up.

One of the main reasons guavas are not commonly grafted, in addition to the difficulty of grafting them, is that they tend to make sprouts from near the crown, and if you're not very diligent about removing those, they will eventually overwhelm the scion and replace it with rootstock branches. For that reason, they're more often propagated by air layering (very easy and nearly always successful), or from cuttings (challenging, but possible, with a strong rooting hormone, a good mist system, and by wounding the base of the cutting by cutting a vertical X or cross into it, maybe 1/2 inch up into the stem).

Malcolm

Thanks. That was very informative. I probably won't try it again including the way you mentioned. We'll see if my newer graft will work. If it doesn't, at least I won't be overly disappointed knowing it had a small likelihood anyway.

The White Tropical Guava that I grafted to my Malaysian Red has sprouted. Its only been a couple of weeks. Hopefully, it will come to fruition!!!

Well this is off topic as far as grafting, but I purchased seeds on Ebay for pineapple guava. Those little things were smaller than a spec of pepper, and I had zero hope, but I threw them on some potting soil in a cottage cheese container and eight sprouted. Two are over two inches tall now, so this winter, I'll separate both and plant in some smartpots to encourage root growth.

Not sure they can live in this heat unless they are in shade, but the seedlings are doing fine, and they are in the shade.

The new leaves on my White guava that sprouted have shriveled up and died. The part of the branch toward the tree is still green but the part away from the tree, the sprout being in the middle, is turning brown. Not sure if it will make it but it doesn't look good. The Pink guava I grafted died about a week ago. Looks like my guava grafts are not doing too well.