Growth and fruiting of some mango cultivars under high density plantation in arid conditions of Gujarat (India).
Gunjate R. T., Kumbhar A. R., Thimaiah I. M., Amin S. M.
Author Affiliation: Hort. Department, Reliance Agro Initiatives, Reliance Greens, Motikhavadi - 361 140, Dist: Jamnagar (Gujarat), India.
: 463-467
Abstract : A large scale pilot project on mango plantation of 102?000 trees on 188 ha of land involving the latest technologies has been established under arid agroclimate at Jamnagar, in the Sourashtra region of Gujarat, India. High density planting of the Kesar cultivar with 666-833 plants/ha was done from 1998 to 2003. In every tenth row, 14 other commercial Indian and exotic cultivars were planted as pollenizers. Five rows of casuarina along the periphery and at 250 m interval protected the plantation from high velocity winds from seaside. The entire mango plantation was under fertigation. Paclobutrazol was applied from the fourth year of age. The growth, flowering and fruiting performance of the entire mango plantation was monitored and recorded. The flowering and fruiting was excellent. Numerous honeybees and flies were observed during flowering leading to high fruit set. The mango hoppers and powdery mildew were totally absent during flowering. The data on growth, flowering and fruiting during the sixth year of age were presented and discussed. The growth of mango trees, as judged from the height, girth and the canopy volume, was the maximum in the exotic cultivar Maya, followed by Tommy Atkins and the indigenous cultivars Mallika, Pairi and Alphonso. The growth of Kesar was much less than the other cultivars. The cultivar Maya produced the maximum inflorescences, followed by Mallika, Goa Mankur and Doodhpedha. However, the mango productivity per tree and per ha at the age of 7 years was the highest in Kesar (15.0 t/ha), followed by Totapuri (14.88 t/ha), Mallika (14.45 t/ha), Maya (14.11 t/ha) and Tommy Atkins (13.68 t/ha). The biggest (435 g) fruits were produced by Tommy Atkins, followed by Mallika (422 g). The fruits of Kesar were of medium size (290 g). The fruits of Doodh Pedha were the sweetest (27.20°Brix), followed by Goa Mankur (25.4°Brix) and Ratna (24.6°Brix). All the exotic cultivars were comparatively less sweet. With such high productivity from the early age, this unique and one of the biggest mango plantations in Asia is likely to revolutionize mango production and productivity in India.