Why are there three guava trees grown within inches of each other?

Question

I bought a house where the previous owner had planted 3 trees within inches of each other. They are all 5 feet tall now. As this is the first time I've ever seen multiple trunks crowded together, I would like to know the purpose of this positioning. Or if there is no purpose and it is actually detrimental to each tree, please let me know.

The following illustrates the blueberry-sized fruit that the trees are currently producing. Perhaps this photo can help someone identify the exact species of fruit. I was told by a construction worker that this is guava, however the variant is unknown.

The following illustrates how two trunks are growing out of the ground within 2 inches of each other. The third trunk in the back is much thinner.

Answer 1

As far as I'm aware, this is detrimental to each tree and you should cut off 2 of them to focus the available light, moisture, and nutrients to the one tree.

The trees may be sprouts from a larger single tree that was cut down for some reason or they may be sprouts from guava seeds that were dropped there naturally by birds or as part of a compost heap or just spit there and rooted naturally. It's hard to tell.

However, the leaves in the pictures you provided do not look entirely healthy and you might consider taking them to your county extension agent to make sure they're not diseased or otherwise unhealthy.

The best course of action may be to dig up all 3 trees, purchase a single healthy new tree, and plant that in their place. That would be what I'd do in your situation.

Answer 2

I believe guava can be grown as a multi-stemmed tree, and this is probably what you have. I'm not familiar with growing guava outside, but other fruit trees are sometimes planted close together to a) provide pollinators without taking up a lot of space and b) to stunt the growth of the trees, so they stay a reasonable size. It is also possible that this is what the original gardener was going for, although those look rather closer than you'd want them ideally.

Either way, I agree that it doesn't look terribly healthy, and having a county extension agent check out a cutting would be a good idea.