Effect of irrigation and organic mulching on flowering and fruit setting in mango cv Amrapali.
Banik B. C., Singh S. R., Irenaeus K. S. T.
Author Affiliation: Department of Fruits and Orchard Management, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur 741 252, India.
Environment and Ecology 29 : 517-519
Abstract : An experiment with irrigation at different day's interval and with organic mulching was conducted during 2009-2010. The experiments were laid out in randomized block design with five replications and age of the tree is 15 years old. The following treatments were made: Ten days interval of irrigation (30 liter) (T1); 20 days interval of irrigation (30 liter) (T2); 30 days interval of irrigation (30 liter) (T3); T1+dry leaves organic mulching (T4); T2+dry leaves organic mulching (T5); T3+dry leaves organic mulching (T6), Mulching only (T7); and Control (T8). Observation on flowering initiation date was recorded during second week of February. Similarly, sex ratio, fruits/panicle in pea stage, marble stage were recorded during peak flowering period, second week of march, last week of March respectively and fruits/panicle at mature stage and total number of fruits/tree at harvest stage were recorded in second week of May respectively. The observation revealed that the date of first and last flowering initiation was first observed in T4 on 15 February and T8 on 23 February respectively. The maximum ratio of hermaphrodite flower/panicle was observed in T7 (34.5%) and minimum in T8 (28.2%). Fruits/panicle in pea stage and marble stage was highest in T5 (16.3) and T6 (9.6) and lowest in T8 (13.0) and (7.3) respectively. Similarly, fruits/panicle in mature stage was highest in T1 and T2 (1.5) and lowest in T8 (1.2) but the total number of fruits/tree in harvest stage was recorded highest in T4 (424.0) and lowest in control (190.6) which significantly illustrated the control of fruits drop.