Effect of different leaf areas and leaf number on fruit growth of alternate and regular bearing cultivars of mango (Mangifera indica L.).
Reddy Y. T. N., Kurian R. M.
Author Affiliation: Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore 560?080, India.
Gartenbauwissenschaft 58 : 42-45
Abstract : In trials with 4 cultivars of grafted mango trees (the commercial biennial-bearing cultivars Kalapady and Kensington and the regular-bearing cultivars Alphonso and Dashehari), restricting the number of leaves/fruit to 40 or 50 (achieved by girdling individual shoots) resulted in a progressive reduction in fruit growth. Regular-bearing cultivars showed somewhat less of a reduction in fruit growth than alternate-bearing cultivars. With 50 leaves/fruit, fruit growth was reduced by 13 and 28% in regular and alternate bearing cultivars, respectively. It was concluded that regular-bearing mango cultivars require fewer leaves/fruit than biennial cultivars for normal fruit growth. The implications of photosynthate and reserve carbohydrate availability for fruit development are discussed.