Allahabad Safeda
Grafted, not true seed. White-fleshed, thin-skinned — the default north Indian table variety, but with no wilt protection; wilt wiped out old UP orchards.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Guava
- Type
- Planting material
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- Bearing from year 2–3 (grafted plant)
- Expected yield
- 150–200 q/ha at full bearing
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Release
- A traditional Allahabad (Prayagraj)-area cultivar in wide commercial cultivation for roughly four decades — not an ICAR-bred hybrid. Now used as India's reference guava genome for molecular-marker breeding work.
About this variety
Allahabad Safeda is described in a directly-fetched PMC genome-mapping paper as the 'gold standard' guava cultivar that has been commercially grown for roughly four decades in India, valued for its attractive fruit size, high total soluble sugars, vitamin C content and overall eating quality — reasons it is 'involved in several breeding programs at the national level' and now serves as India's reference genome for guava molecular-marker work. The same paper notes guava overall ranks as India's fourth most significant fruit crop, after mango, banana and citrus. Fruit is greenish-yellow skinned and white fleshed, a trait the paper uses to place it in a genetic cluster distinct from pink-fleshed 'Punjab Pink' and purple-fleshed 'Purple Local'. A directly-fetched Apni Kheti crop-guide page adds practical figures: a dwarf tree with a round, spreading crown, smooth round fruit, roughly 145 kg per tree, and total soluble solids of 10–12%. The same PMC paper independently confirms that Lucknow-49 (L-49) is 'a chance seedling from' Allahabad Safeda — the two varieties cluster together in the paper's genetic analysis. Allahabad Safeda itself should not be confused with 'Allahabad Surkha', a separate, pink-fleshed guava from the same district that carries its own official GI tag (awarded 2007–08) — Safeda does not hold that GI protection.
Key characteristics
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
Bearing from year 2–3 (grafted plant)
Expected yield
150–200 q/ha at full bearing
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Considered the gold-standard commercial guava cultivar in India — large, attractive greenish-yellow fruit with white flesh, good sugars and vitamin C
- The variety's genome now serves as India's reference guava genome for molecular-marker breeding work, underlining how widely used it is as breeding stock
- Parent stock of Lucknow-49 (Sardar), the higher-yielding, more wilt-tolerant variety many new orchards now prefer — itself a chance seedling selected from Allahabad Safeda
Things to consider
- This record's own diseaseResistance field already flags wilt susceptibility; that's consistent with why Lucknow-49 — a chance seedling selected at Ganeshkhind, Pune, not CISH Lucknow — caught on as a wilt-tolerant Allahabad Safeda alternative
- Only the pink-fleshed 'Allahabad Surkha' guava carries an official GI tag (2007–08) — Allahabad Safeda itself (white-fleshed) is a distinct variety and does not hold that same GI protection, worth not confusing the two despite the shared 'Allahabad' name
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Uttar Pradesh
- Bihar
- Madhya Pradesh
Frequently asked questions
Is Allahabad Safeda the same as the GI-tagged 'Allahabad' guava?
No — the guava that holds an official GI tag (since 2007–08) is 'Allahabad Surkha', a separate pink-fleshed variety. Allahabad Safeda is white-fleshed and, despite being the more widely grown commercial cultivar of the two, does not itself carry that GI protection.
Why did Lucknow-49 replace so much Allahabad Safeda planting?
Lucknow-49 (Sardar) arose as a chance seedling selected from Allahabad Safeda itself in the 1920s, and turned out to yield more reliably and tolerate guava wilt better — the disease that has wiped out many older Allahabad Safeda orchards, including ones in Uttar Pradesh, as this record's own diseaseResistance field notes.
Sourced from: Development of Genome-Wide Functional Markers Using Draft Genome Assembly of Guava cv. Allahabad Safeda — PMC. editorial policy.