Division of Horticulture and Fruit Technology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012
**Present address: Plant Introduction Station, Phagli, Simla-4.
*A part of the Ph. D. Thesis submitted by the senior author to the Agra University, Agra, in 1972.
In guava, three flowering periods viz., summer, rain, and autumn, were observed under Delhi conditions. Among the three flowering seasons of the whole year cropping pattern, maximum flowers were borne during summer season. Since summer, the season of heaviest flowering was involved in the rainy season as well as in the whole year cropping pattern, both of them, without differing from each other, produced significantly more flowers than the winter season cropping pattern.
The maximum percentages of fruit set and fruit reaching maturity were obtained in the spring season crop as compared with the other seasonal crops of the whole year cropping pattern. The lowest percentages of fruit set and retention in the rainy season crop have been attributed to the prevalence of hot summer during the periods of flowering and fruit growth of this crop. The percentages of set and matured fruits were found to be the highest in the winter season cropping pattern followed by the whole year and rainy season cropping patterns respectively.
