Pollen parent enhances fruit size and quality in intervarietal crosses in Guava (Psidium guajava)

Elite commercial guava cultivars Round and Pyriformed were reciprocally crossed to develop hybrids. The crossed fruit was analyzed to explore metaxenial effects on fruit quality. Use of cv. Round as pollen parent markedly enhanced different fruit quality related attributes including fruit diameter (up to 25.4%), Total soluble solids (4.01 Brix), titratable acidity (0.12%), ascorbic acid (upto 64 mg net increase per 100 gm pulp than female parent), total and non-reducing sugars (5.86% and 4.52%) in cv. Pyriformed. Since cv. Pyriformed has more fruit weight, its use as female parent with pollens from cv. Round enhanced fruit weight up to 10 gm per fruit. These findings suggest that cv. Round is more appropriate candidate as pollen parent when crossed with cv. Pyriformed and has strong metaxenial effect thus enhancing guava fruit size and quality.