Improving Mineral Status, Productivity and Fruit Quality of Guava Trees (Presidium guajava L.) Using some Organic Manure Extracts as a Foliar Application

In order to study the response of productivity and fruit quality of guava trees to three foliar applications of three organic manures extracts namely: Farmyard, plant compost and chicken manure. A field trial was carried out during two seasons (2019 and 2020) on ten years old guava trees grown in sandy calcareous soil located at Cairo-Alexandria desert road (70 km from Cairo city, Egypt). The trees received three sprays from these organic manures extracts at start of vegetative growth (first of March), just fruit setting (first of April) and one month later. The obtained data showed that, spraying the three organic manures extracts, individually or in combination, significantly enhanced leaves mineral contents (N, P, K and Mg) rather than untreated trees. Whereas, only the three organic manure extract mixtures (chicken manure (Ch.ME) + compost manure (CME) + farmyard (FME)) significantly increased Ca % in leaves, during the second season. Remarkable and significant increase was observed for yield (kg/tree) and its components (fruit number/tree and average fruit weight) as a result of spraying the three organic manure extracts individually or in combination compared to untreated trees. Spraying the three organic manure extracts (Ch.ME, CME and FME) significantly improved all physical properties of fruit in terms fruit height (cm), fruit diameter (cm), and pulp thickness (cm), as well as fruit chemical properties in terms of TSS %, total sugars % and vitamin C (mg/100 g F.W.) and decreased total acidity %. The best results with regard to yield/tree, fruit physical and chemical properties of guava trees were obtained when the trees were treated three times with the mixture of the three organic manure extracts in combinations (Ch.ME + CME + FME)