Induction of Off-Season Flowering in Custard Apple (Annona squamosa L.) Cv. Balanagar

Pruning and defoliation are essential operations for inducing off-season flowering and fruiting to yield better quality and quantity of fruits in custard apple. Trees were subjected to two levels of pruning (25% and 50%) combined with use of chemical defoliants (urea 5%, Ethrel 2000ppm, potassium iodide 1%, or ortho-phosphoric acid 1%) besides the Control, with each treatment replicated thrice. Early initiation of flowering and better vegetative growth was seen in pruned (25%) and defoliated trees than in the Control or other treatments. Maximum off-season yield (10.33kg/ plant) was obtained in T4 (25% pruning, combined with 5% urea spray as defoliant) and T6 (25% pruning, combined with 1% potassium iodide-spray as defoliant). Findings of this investigation helped standardize pruning and defoliation practices on a scientific basis for off-season production of custard apple fruits

Genetic Diversity in 'Appemidi' Pickle Mangoes

Mango is an important fruit crop grown extensively in India. An enormous diversity is seen in its flavour, taste and fruit form unique to particular regions of India. A large diversity for unique pickling types, called 'Appemidi' (tender mangoes), is seen in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. With rapid deforestation in several of these areas, surveys were conducted to collect and conserve these unique types. This resulted in collection of 33 unique accessions which have been conserved in the Institute's field gene bank. On evaluation of tender fruit, accessions 'Chansi Appe', 'Dodderi Jeerige', 'Mani Bhatta Appe', 'Gorana Appe', 'Isagoor Appe', 'Malange', 'Gurumurthy Appe' and 'Kashimidi' were found to possess good traits for tender, whole-fruit pickling

Effect of Spacing and Pruning on Growth, Yield and Quality of Cv. Deanna Fig (Ficus carica L.)

The effects of tree spacing (5x2m, 5x2.5m, 5x3m, 5x3.5m and 5x4m) and pruning (8 buds/cane, 6 buds/cane and 4 buds/cane) on vegetative growth, physiological parameters, fruit yield and quality were studied in fig (Ficus carica L.) cv. Deanna in the 3rd and 4th year of its growth during the period 2010-12. It was observed that with increase in tree spacing, growth parameters like leaf number, shoot length, internode length, tree-spread, tree height and tree circumference, along with fruit yield both in terms of fruit number and fruit weight per tree, declined gradually under different pruning levels. Increase in pruning level from 8 buds/cane to 4 buds/cane resulted in increased leaf number, shoot length and internode length. Yield characters, viz., fruit number/tree, fruit weight/tree, fruit number/hectare and fruit weight/hectare were marginally influenced by pruning. However, interaction effects of pruning and spacing were found to be non-significant. Consistently declining trends in photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance, along with increase in leaf water potential value were observed with increase in spacing. Effects of spacing were more conspicuous than those of pruning. Best results for maintenance of vigour and fruit yield were observed under a spacing of 5x2m or 5x2.5m, and 4 buds/cane pruning. Although there was reduction in average fruit size under closer spacing when compared to wide spacing, fruit quality attributes like TSS and acidity were not affected by various treatments. Effects of closer spacing on growth and yield parameters were more pronounced in the 3rd year as compared to the 4th year, showing better response to treatments in young trees. Fruit yield calculated on per hectare basis showed highest fruit number of 116500-133750 and 274500-299500, and fruit weight of 54.5-62.0 and 158.77- 173.30 quintals/ha, respectively, during the 3rdand 4th year of planting under closer spacing of 5x2m and 4 buds/cane pruning

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Not AvailableA field trial conducted from 2011 to 2015 to study the growth, physiology, fruit yield and quality of fig (Ficus carica L.) cultivars Deanna and Poona under tree densities of 1000, 800, 666, 571 and 500 plants per hectare indicated that high density planting with 1000 or 800 plants per hectare was superior to other planting densities for maintaining tree vigour and fruit yield under continuous cropping during the initial orchard years. With decrease in tree densities, growth characters like tree height, shoot length, canopy spread, leaf number and trunk circumference declined gradually which was more pronounced under 500 plants per hectare. The gas exchange parameters (photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration) also declined with tree densities. The per cent PAR interception by the canopy that ranged from 79.37 to 86.63% did not differ significantly among the treatments. There was no difference in fruit quality attributes like TSS and acidity among the trees grown at the different planting densities. High density planting of fig varieties Poona and Deanna at 1000 plants per hectare with initial training of trees to open centre frame work and annual pruning of previous season’s shoots to the basal six nodes during September is found promising for considerable enhancement in fruit productivity during the initial six orchard years by 2.5 and 2.0 times respectively under the mild tropical, semi-arid conditions.ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and Project Coordinator (Arid Zone Fruits

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