Basharat Ali Saleem

Department of Agriculture · Horticulture Extension, Directorate of Horticulture (Extension) Punjab Lahore

Inferior quality fruit from young ‘Kinnow’ orchards along with tree decline in early age is a significant challenge to citrus growers in Pakistan. Improving fruit quality of young orchards is indispensable to obtain early profit from an orchard but is often neglected by the growers. A project was planned to assess the impact of fertilizers (phospho...

Gibberellic acid (GA3) application may help in attaining good bunch architecture of grapes. The current study was aimed to find the right stage and dose of GA3 to attain the desired level of compactness in grapes and its impact on fruit physical and biochemical quality. Exogenous application of GA3 was carried out on ‘Sultanina-C’, ‘Flame Seedless’...

Young ‘Kinnow’ mandarin orchards have inferior fruit quality in terms of thick rind, less juice and low eating quality. The present research experiment was aimed at evaluating the effect of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) nutrients on rind and fruit quality at different harvesting times. Young trees (6 years old) were supplied with fertilizers con...

Maturity is a key factor that determines fruit quality and shelflife. Determination of the correct harvest stage is always challenging in non-climacteric fruits, and more complex with grapes because of varietal and climatic variations. Thus, the current study was conducted to determine the effect of different maturity levels on berry composition an...

Kinnow mandarin being produced in Pakistan faces different quality issues ending up in poor rind quality bearing blemishes on the peel. The main reason behind quality issues is inadequate production management including unoptimized production technology with an inappropriate spray schedule of insecticides and fungicides. Major blemishes found on th...

The aim of the present study was to examine, in mice, the pancreatoxic effects of bifenthrin (Bn) exposure and the rehabilitative capacity of Nigella sativa (NgS) seed oil. The six groups (N=5) of male mice and their treatment regimes were: (i) the negative control (NC) group (0.1 mL corn oil for 14 days); (ii) the positive control (PC) group (0.1...

Infected and damaged root system of sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis Osbeck L.) budded on rough lemon (Citrus jambheri Lush.) in Punjab-Pakistan has been suspected to affect nutrient uptake due to rootstock susceptibility to soil born fungal diseases. The experiment was performed on 12-15 years old ‘Blood Red’ sweet orange ‘Blood Red’) trees of unifo...

Citrus is the major tree fruit crop grown and traded worldwide. Citrus industry around the globe has been facing deterioration in fruit cosmetic quality and increased farmgate rejections, mainly due to high incidence of rind blemishes. Rind blemishes are caused by various biotic (diseases and insects) and abiotic (environmental, physical and physio...

Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae vegetables such as watermelon, melons, cucumber, chilies, tomato, and eggplant arecultivated on a commercial scale in Pakistan. These vegetables are grown in plastic tunnels during the winter seasonand field during the summer season. These vegetables experience restricted growth because of low and hightemperatures durin...

These three years studies (2017-2019) comprised of integrated approaches aimed at optimizing year-round production technology for reducing rind blemishes and improving fruit quality of young Kinnow mandarin orchard. Apart from judicious pruning, weed management, application of Bordeaux paste and irrigation as per needs, several trials were conducte...

Grafting is an important agro-technical procedure utilized to enhance the capacity of plants to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses in horticultural crops. In this study, first experiment was aimed to investigate how pumpkin grafting (PG) improves N use efficiency of watermelon. A commercial watermelon cultivar Zaojia 8424 was self-grafted and gra...

Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceace vegetables such as watermelon, melons, cucumber, chilies, tomato, and eggplant are cultivated on a commercial scale in Pakistan. These vegetables are grown in plastic tunnels during the winter season and field during the summer season. These vegetables experience restricted growth because of low and high temperature du...

Two separate studies were conducted to compare and evaluate the storability/shipping potential and fruit quality of ‘‘Kinnow’’ mandarin fruit, harvested from four districts [Sargodha (SGD), Khanewal (KHW) Toba Tek Singh (TTS) and Vehari (VHR)] of Punjab province, Pakistan. Fruits were harvested at commercial maturity and evaluated for physico-chemi...

Changes in fruit quality attributes of ambient and low temperature stored ""kinnow mandarin"" with respect to geographic locality. Abstract Two separate studies were conducted to compare and evaluate the storability/shipping potential and fruit quality of ""Kinnow"" mandarin fruit, harvested from four districts [Sargodha (SGD), Khanewal (KHW) Toba...

Plants are as vulnerable by diseases as animals. Citrus is a major plant grown mainly in the tropical areas of the world due to its richness in vitamin C and other important nutrients. The produc- tion of the citrus fruit has been widely affected by citrus diseases which ultimately degrades the fruit quality and causes financial loss to the growers...

Citrus is the leading fruit across the world. Similarly, in Pakistan citrus fruits are ranked at number one and commercially cultivated across the country. The production of citrus fruits in Pakistan exceeds 2.18 million tons, annually. However, the average yield is far less compared with other citrus producing countries. There are several reasons...

Cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is a hybrid of Fragaria virginiana Duch. and Fragaria chiloensis. It's a hardy herbaceous perennial with soft fruit, and mostly propagated through runners. The runner supply for strawberry production is limited compared with the demand. Moreover, plants propagated by runners face several problems during t...

Vegetables from Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceace families, such as watermelon, melons, cucumber, chilies, tomato, and eggplant are cultivated on a commercial scale in Pakistan. These vegetables are grown in plastic tunnels during the winter season and field during the summer season. These vegetables experience restricted growth because of low and high...

Vegetables are grown on a large area in Pakistan, and help fulfill the food requirements of ever increasing population. The average yield of vegetables in Pakistan is lower compared with other vegetable producing countries. Several reasons contribute towards this low yield that includes diseases and pest attack, low and high temperature stress, hig...

Kinnow mandarin is the prime citrus cultivar of Pakistan having appealing taste and color enhancing consumer’s acceptability. For the last few years, citrus especially Kinnow industry is facing cosmetic quality issues due to fungal diseases (melanose, citrus scab); harvested crop partially and sometimes completely rejected by exporters at farmgate....

An understanding of variation in fruit quality in relation to tree age can help understand the issue of poor fruit quality in young orchards; however, limited information is available on the citrus fruit. In this study, the endogenous nutritional status in rind, rag, and leaves; pectin status in rind and rag; and anatomical fruit growth parameter i...

Citrus is the leading fruit across the world. Similarly, in Pakistan citrus fruits are ranked at number one and commercially cultivated across the country. The production of citrus fruits in Pakistan exceeds 2.18 million tons, annually. However, the average yield is far less compared with other citrus producing countries. There are several reasons...

Fruit fly is the most damaging insect pest of Kinnow mandarin that causes commercial fruit drop and deteriorate quality which badly affects grower’s income. Traditionally, pheromone traps are installed by orchard growers without optimization: traps installed randomly without considering geometric locations. Present study was aimed to evaluate popul...

The study was conducted to assess the effect of different wax coating materials and Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) on storage life and quality of ‘Kaghzi lime’ (Citrus aurantifolia Swing.) fruits. The fruits were harvested at light yellow skin color stage and treated with different wax coating materials: T1= Citrus Wax (wood resins18%, Imazali...

This paper presents a technique to detect and classify major citrus diseases of economic importance. Kinnow mandarin being 80% of Pakistan citrus industry was the main focus of study. Due to a little variation in symptoms of different plant diseases, the diagnosis requires the expert’s opinion in diseases detection. The inappropriate diagnosis may...

In Pakistan vegetables are grown on fairly a large area and help to fulfill the food requirements of increasing population. The average yield of vegetables in Pakistan is lower compared with the other vegetables growing countries; several reasons contribute towards this low yield such as biotic factors (diseases and pest attack), abiotic factors (l...

Citrus is one of the most remunerative fruits in the world with an annual production of over 110 million tons, harvested from an approximate area of 18.7 million acres. Pakistan has diverse climatic and edaphic conditions for production of a range of citrus species including sweet oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, lime and lemons. Pakistan stands at...

The field performance of 24 exotic cultivars of snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus L.) at three planting dates (November 10, 2009; March 10 and October 10, 2010) was assessed. Data of vegetative traits i.e., number of leaves, nodes, secondary shoots, plant height, fresh weight per plant and reproductive traits, including days to bud opening, spike lengt...

Citrus is one of the most important fruit in the global market including Pakistan. World area under citrus is more than 7.60 million hectares with total annual production of 105.4 MMT. Pakistan stands at 11th and 13th position in citrus with approximately 5 lac area and more than 2 million tonnes production, in the world. The average yield per acre...

Background The citrus cultivars have different temperature requirements for their proper growth and development at various phonological stages. The total accumulation of heat counts during the growing season has a direct influence on the growth and development of the plants. Methodology In this study twelve commercially important citrus cultivars w...

Micronutrients play a vital role in many metabolic processes leading to increase in plant growth and productivity. The current study was conducted to improve plant growth, production and fruit quality of Kinnow mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco). Zinc sulfate (ZnSO4) and copper sulfate (CuSO4) at different concentrations were applied alone and in...

Export quality Kinnow mandarin production in Punjab: status, recent advances and future prospects

A manual on vegetable gardening for small growers. Emphasis is given on compulsory growing vegetables for at least kitchen of each grower. A chapter is added for off season cultivation of vegetables. In this manual no pesticides and chemical fertilizer is recommended for seasonal vegetable cultivation, organic practices are suggested. Some new vege...

Pakistan is the fourth largest mango producer in the world after India, China and Thailand respectively. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Pakistan is the eighth largest exporter of mango in the world. The country annually exports about 85,923 tons of mangos mainly to the Middle East and the UK and gets a foreign exchange inflo...

Damaged root system of sweet oranges in Punjab-Pakistan has been suspected to affect nutrient uptake due to rough lemon (Citrus jambheri Lush.) rootstock susceptible to soil born fungal diseases and might be one of the main reasons of low productivity of sweet oranges. A block of 'Blood Red' sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) grafted onto rou...

Creasing is a physiological disorder in navel oranges and causes serious economic losses. In 2007, the comparative changes in rheological properties of the rind, levels of starch, phenolics, pectins and the activity of pectinesterase (PE) in albedo and flavedo tissues of the healthy and the creased fruit of 'Washington Navel' and 'Navelina' sweet o...

Ailing root system of sweet oranges in Punjab, Pakistan, has been suspected to affect nutrient uptake due to rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) rootstock susceptible to soil born fungal diseases and might be one of the main reasons of low productivity of sweet oranges. A block of ‘Blood Red’ sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) grafted on roug...

There is wide spread deficiency of micronutrients in the citrus growing areas of Pakistan. To investigate the influence of foliar application of boron (B) and zinc (Zn), on the leaf nutrient status, tree growth, productivity and fruit quality of Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Feutrell's Early, trees were sprayed with boric acid and zinc sulphate eith...

Rind quality is a critical factor affecting the external appearance and marketability of citrus fruit, especially for fresh consumption. Among many factors affecting citrus rind quality, tree age is the most important, but remained unexplored. This study aimed to explore the effects of tree age on rind and fruit quality of ‘Kinnow’ mandarin, the mo...

The success of citrus industry depends upon the availability of promising planting material (cultivars) as dissemination of genetically inferior trees can have catastrophic effect on the productivity and quality of citrus plants in coming years. In present study, physicochemical analysis of sixteen important citrus cultivars comprising of seven swe...

The study was undertaken to determine the influence of defoliation and deblossoming on the vegetative and reproductive growth of guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. 'Gola' tree. Twenty guava trees of uniform size and age with five treatments replicated four times were selected for the experiment. Defoliation and deblossoming was done manually at differe...

Foliar application of boron (B) and zinc (Zn) as boric acid and zinc sulphate respectively, either alone or in combination (control, 0.3% boric acid at fruit set stage, 0.5% zinc sulphate at fruit set stage, 0.3% boric acid + 0.5% zinc sulphate at fruit set stage, 0.5% zinc sulphate + 0.3 % boric acid at premature stage) were applied to Citrus reti...

The study was undertaken to determine the influence of pollen sources and pollination frequency on fruit drop, yield and quality of date palm cv. 'Dhakki'. Three 'Dhakki' female trees and three different male trees (M-1, M-2 and M-3) were selected for the experiment. On each female tree six spathes were chosen and were pollinated with pollens colle...

2011. Morphological and biochemical markers for varietal characterization and quality assessment of potential indigenous mango (Mangifera indica) germplasm. Int. ABSTRACT Production of quality mango is dilapidated in Pakistan due to infestation of pests, diseases, physiological disorders like mango sudden death syndrome (MSDS) and narrow genetic di...

Winter leaf drop in sweet orange has been considered as the main cause for loosing the tree vigour and yield, which has resultantly almost vanished it from the citrus industry of Punjab-Pakistan. The current study was aimed at determining the optimum time of low-biuret urea (LBU) foliar spray to improve leaf age, fruit set, and yield of 'Blood Red'...

A late maturing (End Aug to Mid Sept) Pakistani mango cv. Sufaid Chaunsa has high export potential, particularly in neighboring markets of Iran and China. However, market access is conditional with hot water (HW) phytosanitary treatment protocol for disinfestation of fruit fly as agreed with both countries (Iran: HW dip at 45°C for 75 min; China: H...

Seven grape varieties ('Black Prince', 'Gold', 'Dehkani', 'Cardinal', 'Shamas Guru', 'King's Early' & 'Anab-e-Shahi') were evaluated for their pheno-physiological characteristics grown under the agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad. 'Anab-e-Shahi', 'King's Early', 'Dehkani' and 'Cardinal' were observed as late maturing varieties and thus become u...

The present study was conducted to determine the relationship of orchard location, soil and tree nutrient status with fruit quality of 'Kinnow' mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco.) in district Sargodha (major 'Kinnow' producing area), Pakistan. The district was divided in four locations comprising of its four tehsils i.e., Bhalwal, Kotmomin, Sargod...

Citrus industry of Pakistan has been monopolized by a single cultivar Kinnow mandarin. Efforts are being made to diversify the citrus industry by induction of some suitable species like sweet orange, being the best choice after Kinnow mandarin. In the present studies 11 exotic sweet orange cultivars (Salustiana, Emby Gold, Lane Navel, Glane Navel,...

Different fungicides as soil incorporation were tested to improve leaf age, tree vigour and production of ‘Blood Red’ sweet orange by correcting health. The experiment was performed on 13-14 years old sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck L. cv. Blood Red) trees grafted on rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) rootstock, growing at Sq. No. 9 Experimen...

Lychee industry in Pakistan is only a half century old however, keeping in view its commercial potential, ambitious fruit growers have diversified towards new lychee cultivation. District Multan (30.15°N; 71.36°E) in Punjab, province has a characteristic hot and dry climate where summer temperature reaches up to 45°C in June-July however it is emer...

To study the influence of exogenous applications of plant growth regulators on the reproductive behaviour of low bearing sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) trees, three separate experiments were conducted on twelve years old ‘Blood Red’ Sweet orange trees budded on Rough Lemon (Citrus jambheri L.) root stock. In the first experiment, trees were...

Citrus industry of Pakistan has been monopolized by a single cultivar Kinnow mandarin. Efforts are being made to diversify the citrus industry by induction of some suitable species like sweet orange, being the best choice after Kinnow mandarin in Pakistan. In the present studies 11 exotic cultivars (Salustiana, Emby Gold, Lane Navel, Glane Navel, H...

Mango cultivars are mostly the result of selections from open pollinated chance seedlings of indigenous/introduced germplasm. Development of mango hybrid remains a major focus to boost local industry. Pakistan, being an important mango producing country developed a hybrid 'Faiz Kareem' by making a cross between two commercial mango cultivars i.e.,...

Taxonomy of the causal fungus of mango malformation (MM) disease has passed through different phases. The fungus at first named as F. moniliforme was elevated to species level as F. subglutinans. Two new species viz. Fusarium mangiferae and F. sterilihyphosum Britz. found responsible for causing MM have been characterized in South Africa in the yea...

The current research studies involved a comprehensive study on effect of soil drenching of fungicides on yield and fruit quality of ‘Blood Red’ sweet orange. The experiment was performed on 13-14 years old sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck L. cv. Blood Red) trees grafted on rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) rootstock, growing at Sq. No. 9 Expe...

Use of paclobutrazol has been recognized as potential growth regulator to increase fruit production. This research was conducted to evaluate different application method (soil drenching, collar washing, stem injection or stem pitting) and doses (10g or 15 g per tree) of paclobutrazol on mango trees under subtropical conditions of Pakistan. Paclobut...

Drought stress encumbers the rice growth predominantly by oxidative damage to biological membranes and disturbed tissue water status. In this study, the role of salicylic acid (SA) to induce drought tolerance in aromatic fine grain rice cultivar Basmati 2000 was evaluated. SA was applied as seed and foliar treatments. For seed treatment, rice seeds...

Experiments were conducted to study i) the influence of supplemental foliar application of low-biuret urea (LBU) on the leaf nitrogen status and fruit quality and ii) the role of fruit canopy positions in the trees on the physico-chemical characteristics of Kinnow mandarin fruit. In first experiment, foliar application of LBU twice (before blooming...

Two plant growth regulators (GA 3 and 2, 4-D) were exogenously applied in different concentrations alone and their combinations on Blood Red sweet orange trees during full bloom. The experiment was performed at the Experimental Fruit Garden Sq # 9 Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; laid out according to RCBD...

The studies were aimed at improving fruit production and quality of 'Blood Red' sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck.). Aqueous solutions (0.01 mM) of putrescine, spermidine and spermine and the mixture of all three (0.001 mM each) were sprayed on to whole trees during full bloom. The control trees were sprayed with only water. The experimental...

The purpose of this study was to determine the optimum time of low-biuret urea (LBU) applied as a foliar spray to improve marketable yield and fruit quality of Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck.) cv “Blood Red”. Two percent solution of LBU was sprayed on 15 years old plants to the point of run off, on 15th of October, November and December in...

Seed dormancy is a major problem in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Dry heat treatments at 40, 50 or 60°C for 24h were applied to assess their ability to break dormancy and invigorate seeds of four tomato cultivars ('Nagina', 'Pakit', 'Riogrande Improved' and 'Roma'). All the cultivars responded similarly. Dry heat treatments at 40 and 50°C...

Pruning severity with previous year bearing status was evaluated for growth behavior of spur and bunch morphology of Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivar Perlette. Pruning severity and previous year bearing status had no effect on bud burst, panicle emergence and anthesis date. However maximum percentage of bud burst, fruitful buds and TSS were obser...

Fruit set and drop patterns in two commercial mandarin (Citrus reticulata) cultivars (Kinnow & Feutrell's Early) under Faisalabad conditions were studied in response to different types and doses of fertilizer. Engro compound fertilizer (17: 17: 17) was compared with simple fertilizer applications. Type of fertilizer had no effect on fruit setting a...

Spring applications of two plant growth regulators (GA3 and 2, 4-D) alone and in combination, were tested on 'Blood Red' sweet orange trees at full bloom. Ultimate effects of these growth regulators were studied on external and internal fruit quality. Fruit weight, diameter, peel thickness and peel quantity were significantly decreased by the growt...

These studies were conducted on two major postharvest issues of local mango industry. Firstly, more than 90% mangoes are packed in wooden crates, which are being eliminated in export markets. Secondly, calcium carbide (CaC 2) is mostly used for ripening of mango fruit; while, its use is being discouraged worldwide, due to associated health hazards....

In rice–wheat systems, late sowing of wheat is the major reason of low yield. This yield reduction is principally due to lower and erratic germination, and poor crop establishment because of low temperature prevailing. The present study was conducted to explore the possibility of improving late sown wheat performance by seed priming techniques. See...