Not AvailableTo counteract the alternate bearing in some litchi cultivars, an experiment was conducted on annual guided
branch girdling for four consecutive fruit bearing years using a commercial plantation of litchi cv. China litchi at
Ranchi, India. Trees were girdled by removing a bark strip (2, 4 and 6 mm width) circularly around the selected
25% and 50% primary branches. During OFF- years, the flowering was increased by 8.62 (2017) and 4.37 (2019)
times whereas; it was 3.49 (2015) and 1.68 (2018) times higher during ON-years with the L2G2 treatment (4
mm width girdling of 50% primary branches). Treatment L2G2 also showed the highest cumulative yield with
201.19 kg/tree from four years, while the control showed the lowest cumulative yield with 96.98 kg/tree. After
four years, the pooled fruit yield data showed that the highest average yield was recorded in L2G2 treatment
(50.30 kg/ tree), and it was lowest in the control (24.24 kg/ tree). The pooled data also showed that the highest
average alternate bearing index (I) value (0.73) was observed in the control treatment whereas it was lowest
(0.32) in L2G1 (2 mm width girdling of 50% primary branches) followed by L2G2 (0.35) treatment. The Long-
Term Yield Index (LTYI) ranged from 31.01% in control to 122.25% in L2G2 treatment. Therefore, 4 mm width
girdling of 50% primary branches, reduces alternate bearing behaviour of litchi cv. China. In our experiment,
cumulative yield was increased by 2.07 times (under L2G2) as compared to un-girdled trees during the four
years of the trial.Not Availabl
