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There's a ton of Christmasberry trees, a whole forest surrounding my house, so I had no idea what those yellow fruits were lying on the ground everywhere, I assumed they were poisonous. I have never seen red guava before in my life, and I tried it for the first time yesterday! It is strange, many edible seeds, but tasty! and also, apparently, its a super fruit. I have red guava growing all over the place, it tastes a lot like kiwi fruit. How about you? do you have guava plants?
Aloha 
Aloha
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Cattley guava, more commonly known as vivee or waiwi, came from S.America and is a seriously invasive tree in Puna. They're all over the place! Most people have way more than they want.
I think they're better than the common guava fruits cultivated by some and used in commercial products such as POG.
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yeah, they are better! Yes, they are also extremely invasive. However, of the invasive things, this is the only one I can think of that produces a positive effect. The fruits are extremely nutritious, I was blown away. More potassium than a banana, more vitamin c than any other fruit, plenty of vitamin A, antioxidants, and carotenoids, good source of fiber and other stuff i can't remember, lol. These guava fruits are some of the healthiest fruits in the entire world!
https://svetdimitrov.com/guava-superfruit/
http://www.phlabs.com/is-guava-a-superfr...low-for-it
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...4612004785
Aloha
Aloha
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How about you? do you have guava plants?
Yup still have a bunch of it on my 3 acre lot and I have been steadily working on clearing it for years.
As a kid I made crummy bows out of it. Not bendy enough.
I have built frames out of the wood for beans and other climbing vegetables. They don't last that long. A season or two. To fasten it up, I tie them all together with old maile-pilau vines.
It makes decent wood for bbq after being dried awhile.
I have had really tasty and powerful wine made from a mash of the yellow wai wi guava.
If you want to harvest your trees more regularly, gut them back at 4 feet tall and let them bush out.
Birds love them too and spread the seed of this invasive EVERYWHERE.
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If you eat them off the tree watch out for worms, the ones around me are full of them.
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It's funny how we Punatics hate certain trees like waiwi and albizia, yet they provide food and biomass that's great for nature.
On the waiwi wood, though, it seems really dense like a hardwood, why do you suppose it rots so fast? Or would ohia rot in the same timeframe?
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I'm going to assume it's like any other wood. Cut it and put it directly into the elements and most woods will rot right away. I never tried it, but I'll bet if you de-bark it, dry it, then coat it with a protective finish it will last.
I second the bbq....I think it's excellent.
Wine too.
Didn't they release that bug that's supposed to kill them all?
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strawberry guava can be found with reddish fruit or yellow fruit....99% of mine are yellow.....
I have the largest waiawi trees Ive ever seen on my property, same with the largest ironwood tree too
my waiawi trees can get 2' wide at base and about 75' tall wrapping around the very tall Ohia I have, but most are 8-10" wide and 40' tall... easily the worst plant in upper Puna subdivisions... but its worse when you have 'broomstick' size kine 5+ /sq foot kine, thats the worse...
iow, you should kill it, and the Xmas berry too... aloha
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
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why do you suppose it rots so fast? Or would ohia rot in the same timeframe?
In my experience: There's a bore beetle that loves to eat the wai wi guava. That insect really gives it a head start on rotting. It eats the ohia wood to but it seems to bee much tougher, maybe less tasty and definitely harder. Ohia lasts 2 or 3 times as long wai wi guava, easily. Way more rot resistant.
Both those trees are in the same family btw, a myrtle.
Another myrtle I been trying to grow for a few years now: the feijoa fruit.
Edited to Add:
If you eat them off the tree watch out for worms, the ones around me are full of them.
Those fruit-fly worms don't have any ratlung disease. Just an extra dash of protein in each guava treat. Sometimes I eat them on the half green half yellow phase to avoid that extra protein.
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So if they're both in the same family, can you graft Ohia onto Wai Wi and vice versa? The Wai Wi is such a survivor, seems like it would make a great root stock!
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