Psidium firmum is a rare fruit related to true guava (P. guajava) native to Southern Brazil. Southern Brazil is at a similar latitude to Florida and has a very similar subtropical climate where there are occasional frosts and a hot humid summer. This is a small bush that produces clusters of very tasty little guavas. The fruit are sweet, slightly sour with a pleasant strawberry flavor. The seeds are so small they go mostly unnoticed. This is a surprisingly tasty little fruit for being a wild plant that is mostly unknown. In our approximation, this is a tastier fruit than the common cattley/strawberry guava (P. cattleyanum). The plant has a somewhat everbearing habit and seems more interested in flowering and fruiting than growing. We have one plant, which we grafted to P. freidrichstalianum to confer nematode resistance since our first plant was so rare. Since our plant is grafted, we don’t know about the nematode tolerance of this plant on its own root system yet. We will be planting more out to evaluate soon. This fruit tree shows promise for a few reasons. It is a small enough plant to live in a container and provide lots of fruit. In ground, they may be able to be planted densely and grown like blueberries. The native region where this fruit emerges can get quite cold, maybe as low as 15 degrees F. It can apparently behave as a deciduous shrub and tolerate a decently hard freeze. We speculate that it may be able to be grown outdoors significantly north of Gainesville if the limited information out about it is correct. Time will tell. Taste is subjective, but we value this fruit to eat more than some of the more popular “nibble in the yard” fruit such as Barbados cherry. The fruit does have some of the grit found in other types of guava. Dry seed can germinate well provided it is relatively fresh and planted either during warm weather or placed on a heat mat into a nice seedling mix. Like many Psidium, germination happens erratically. This listing is for 1 live plant in a 4 inch pot. Psidium firmum. We do have what we consider to be “B-Grade” plants of Psidium firmum available for a discounted price. You can find them here.
