The traditional system of cultivation has often posed problems in attaining desired levels of productivity due to large tree canopy. Hence, a need arose to improve the existing production system besides increasing its productivity. Currently, there is a worldwide trend to plant fruit trees at higher density or meadow orcharding to control tree size and maintain desired architecture for better light interception and ease in operations such as pruning, pest control and harvesting. The meadow orchard system is a new concept of guava planting, investigated at Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Lucknow. Trees of Allahabad Safeda were planted at a spacing of 1.0m x 2.0m, giving densities to 5000 tree ha−1. This system is designed to produce fruit from first year and regulated to produce a simpler and smaller structured framework rather than traditional well branched trees. In guava, plants are induced to form fruit buds in their first year by topping and hedging. Tree canopy dimension was minimized by regular topping and hedging. Trees flowered and bore fruit in the first year of planting. An average yield of 12.5 t ha−1 was obtained in the first year. An estimated yield of 50 t ha−1 was obtained after five years of planting in a multi-shoot meadow orchard system. A comparison is drawn between the meadow orchard system and the traditional system of guava growing. The results of the investigation provide useful information for development of guava Meadow Orchard system.
