Physiological diversity among the potentially productive branches of regular and irregular bearing mango cultivars.
Shivashankara K. S., Mathai C. K.
Author Affiliation: Tree Physiology Laboratory, Division of Physiology and Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore 560 089, India.
Photosynthetica 31 : 135-140
Abstract : Within a mango tree there is variation in flowering ability among the terminal branches. Significant variations in net photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate, stomatal conductance (gs) and mesophyll efficiency (mesophyll capacity to fix CO2) were generally observed among the productive branches of 10-year-old trees. However, the extent of variation was more pronounced in trees that showed irregular bearing (cv. Langra) than in those showing regular bearing (cv. Romani). In general, correlation coefficients indicated that variations in PN among n5 (productive) branches were mainly due to variations in mesophyll efficiency and gs. In regular-bearing trees, the narrow range of variation in PN was related to a higher mesophyll capacity. This in turn may have resulted in higher carbon build-up in n5 branches, which could have led to regular flowering with minimum branch-to-branch variation.