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Flower regulation in guava and pomegrante

  • October 2015
Authors:
Vikas Ramteke at Indira Gandhi Agricultural University
Vikas Ramteke
Sachin Aj at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research
Sachin Aj
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Abstract

To obtain higher fruit yield during a particular period, the pomegranate and guava plants are given a resting period by which the natural tendency of the tree is altered with artificial means. It is done by withholding of water for about 60 days in advance of the normal flowering, root exposure and also use of chemicals is known as bahar treatment.
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Flower Regulation in Guava and Pomegranate
A. J. Sachin, Vikas Ramteke* and K. R. Bharath
ASPEE College of Horticulture and Forestry
Navsari Agriculture University, Navsari 396450 Gujarat
*Email of corresponding author: ramtekeviks@gmail.com
Introduction
The pomegranate plants flower and provide fruits throughout the year in central and southern India.
However, it needs to be thrown into rest period so as to enable prolific harvest at a given time.
Looking at patterns of precipitation in India, flowering can be induced during June-July (mrig bahar),
September–October (hasta bahar) and January–February (ambe bahar) in areas having assured
rainfall where precipitation is normally received in June and continues up to September, flowering in
June is advantageous, where monsoon normally starts in august with erratic pattern, flowering during
august is beneficial, the areas having assured irrigation potential during April-May, flowering during
January can be taken and where monsoon starts early and withdraws by September, induction of
flowering in October is possible.
Guava tree flowers throughout the year, but the peak flowering is observed in 2 season, rainy
crop (April-May) and winter crop (Aug- Sept). Flowers are produced in leaf axils or in cyme. The
period of flowering varies from 25-45 days. Honey bees are the pollinators.
Ambe Bahar: This is taken in the areas where, enough water is available during hot weather. In this
bahar, flowering can be induced in February-March.
Mrig Bahar: In this bahar, flowering can be induced in June-July, coinciding with the outbreak of
monsoon; this treatment is taken in the areas where, water is scarce during the hot weather. This bahar
is generally followed in guava.
Hastha Bahar: In this bahar, flowering can be induced in September – October, where the trees have
to be made dormant during August–September. This is rather uncertain because of the rain that occurs
during this period. Due to this reason hastha bahar is very difficult. This bahar is generally followed
in pomegranate.
Bahar
Flowering Time
Fruiting Time
Quality
Ambe bahar February-March July-September Poor
Mrig bahar June–July November-January Excellent
Hasth bahar October Feb-April Good (low yield)
To obtain higher fruit yield during a particular period, the pomegranate and guava plants are
given a resting period by which the natural tendency of the tree is altered with artificial means. It is
done by withholding of water for about 60 days in advance of the normal flowering, root exposure and
also use of chemicals is known as bahar treatment
or
flower regulation.
To obtain higher fruit yield during a particular period, the pomegranate and guava plants
are given a resting period by which the natural tendency of the tree is altered with artificial
means. It is done by withholding of water for about 60 days in advance of the normal
flowering, root exposure and also use of chemicals is known as
bahar
Popular Kheti
Volume -3, Issue-4 (October-December), 2015
Available online at www.popularkheti.info
© 2015 popularkheti.info
ISSN: 2321-0001
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ISSN: 2321
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Flower Regulation
Bahar treatment is done by root exposure, with holding water and deblossoming the rainy season crop
which are generally having fruits of insipid taste and inferior quality.
In Guava, only 35-50% fruits are carried to maturity though initially 80-86% fruit sets. In
seedless variety, it is as low as 6 per cent. To improve fruit set, spray of 200 ppm GA3 can be done.
Fruits take 105-140 days to mature from fruit set.
Since mirg bahar or winter crop yields fruits superior quality, so winter crop is generally
desirable and preferred over rainy season crop. To obtain heavy flowering and fruiting for winter crop
certain crop regulation methods can be adopted, the practice being called as bahar treatment. A
general practice is to restrict watering of trees from February to May. This leads trees to a rest period
during which accumulation of food materials takes place in branches. During June, trees are manured
followed by irrigation. The trees thus treated produce profuse shoot growth followed by heavy
flowering leading to enhanced yield in winter season. In addition to withstanding of irrigation,
exposing of feeding roots and pruning of fibrous ones to regulate coppicing is employed on certain
areas. Upper soil surrounding trunk, and about 90-120 cm diameter is removed to expose roots. After
then about 3-4 weeks, the exposed roots are covered with soil, followed by manuring and irrigation.
Deblossoming to check rainy season crop and to promote winter crop is beneficial in guava.
Manual deblossoming can be done in small scale, but on a commercial scale chemical flower thinning
is followed. To reduce the rainy season crop and increase the winter season crop two sprays with urea
(15%) in April-May at 15 days interval has been reported to be quite effective. Among growth
regulators NAA 50 ppm and NAA 100 ppm have also been reported to regulate flowering in guava.
Sprays with 10% urea in Allahabad Safed and 0.05% potassium iodide in Sardar guava have been
reported for inducing heavy winter crop.
Sometimes guava trees grow
erect with upright branches and yield
very poorly. There is a practice of
bending such erect shoots and tying
them on pegs fixed in the ground, which
activates dormant buds leading to
flowering and fruiting.
Crop regulation treatments in
Guava viz. one leaf pair pruning, two
leaf pair pruning, three leaf pair pruning,
GA3 sprays (100, 150 and 200 ppm) at
flower bud differentiation stage and
NAA (600 ppm) at flowering have been
used to regulate rainy season crop in
guava. Leaf pair pruning at different
levels proved to be the most effective in
avoiding rainy season crop whereas GA3 at different concentrations seem to be ineffective as
compared to NAA (600 ppm). One leaf pair pruning by withholding rainy season crop have been
found the most beneficial one.
Bending in Guava
Popular Khet
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ISSN: 2321
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et al
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2015, Pop. Kheti
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3(4): 53
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... Withholding watering of trees from February to middle of May results in the shedding of flowers and trees go to a rest period during which accumulation of food materials takes place in branches (Sachinet al. 2015) [31] . But not sandy in heavysoils [50] . ...
... Carefully, 7-10cm upper soil around the tree trunk in a radius of 40-60 cm are removed so that roots are exposed to the sun which results in reduced moisture supply to the top, therefore, the leaves begin to shed the leaves and tree goes to a rest period. After above 3-4 weeks, the exposed roots again covered with soil and manure mixture followed by watering (Lal et al. 2017) [18] to get a good crop (Sachin et al. 2015, Suresh et al. 2016 [31,46] . ...
... Carefully, 7-10cm upper soil around the tree trunk in a radius of 40-60 cm are removed so that roots are exposed to the sun which results in reduced moisture supply to the top, therefore, the leaves begin to shed the leaves and tree goes to a rest period. After above 3-4 weeks, the exposed roots again covered with soil and manure mixture followed by watering (Lal et al. 2017) [18] to get a good crop (Sachin et al. 2015, Suresh et al. 2016 [31,46] . ...
Doubling the guava farming based farmer's income through enhancing productivity using Hi-tech practices
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2021
The Enhancement farmers income is formulated by bridging the productivity gaps, employing latest production technologies, advanced cropping technologies and improved marketing and feasible through efficient land use planning, wasteland management, diversified farming systems, climate resilient horticulture, precision farming, dry land farming, protected cultivation, modern nursery management techniques for improvement in horticulture productivity, resource use efficiency, increase in cropping intensity and diversification towards high value crops. There is necessary a shift in farmers" insight from production to productivity and profitability which can be achieved through high density planting with effective implementation of high tech practices in guava. Central Institute of Sub tropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow proved that guava can be successfully grown at closer spacing under high density planting to meadow orchard system with spacing of 2 m x 1m accommodating 5000 plants / hectare. Average yield obtained in meadow orchard system of guava growing is 40-60 t /ha when compare to traditional system. Meadow systems in guava had more advancement in improvement in terms of early fruit bearing in first year, Easy to manage due to small trees, Increased overall production (30-50 t ha-1), Reduced cost of production, labor cost and it is very easy to harvesting due to small canopy encourages air to circulate and sunlight to penetrate into center of the tree canopy, good air circulation over traditional systems. Studies indicated that pruning of guava trees can enhance the productivity under high planting density. Pruning restores balance between shoot and root system, besides maintains the growth and vigour of shoots by allowing fewer growing points to grow vigorously. It is important to adopt canopy management and crop regulation practices viz. pruning, withholding of irrigation water, root exposure and root pruning, shoot pruning, shoot bending, deblossoming practices and using saline tolerant rootstock etc. Even though number of plants with well-developed frame work is maintained, the plants may starve for nutrients due to competition. This can be overcome by following the nutrient recommendation standardized for particular planting density. Fertigation and micronutrient application are the major practices in guava to obtain higher yields. The method of application of all essential inputs viz. growth regulators, and micro nutrients for plant growth also had influence on crop growth, productivity and ultimately enhances farmers income.
View
... Withholding watering of trees from February to middle of May results in the shedding of flowers and trees go to a rest period during which accumulation of food materials takes place in branches (Sachin et al., 2015). But not sandy in heavy soils . ...
... Carefully, 7-10cm upper soil around the tree trunk in a radius of 40-60 cm are removed so that roots are exposed to the sun which results in reduced moisture supply to the top, therefore, the leaves begin to shed the leaves and tree goes to a rest period. After above 3-4 weeks, the exposed roots again covered with soil and manure mixture followed by watering (Lal et al., 2017) to get a good crop (Sachin et al., 2015, Suresh et al., 2016. ...
... L-49 in rainfed plateau conditions in Eastern India. Flower thinning by Naphthalene Acetamide (NAD) (Maji et al., 2015), 2,4-D (Das et al., 2007), Potassium Iodide (Sachin et al., 2015) and ethephon (Singh et al., 2000). Urea spray was also found efficient for deblossoming (Singh et al., 2002). ...
View
... In India, three distinct flowering seasons, spring flowering, rainy season flowering, which coincides with the break of monsoon, and autumn flowering, which occurs in February to March, June to July, and September to October, respectively, have been noticed (Teixeira da Silva et al. 2013). Factors such as climate, pest/disease incidence, and agricultural operations such as manuring, irrigation, and plant protection measures are taken into consideration for better economic returns from a flowering season (Sachin et al. 2015). ...
... Flowering during rains is advantageous in areas with assured rainfall in June to September. Where monsoon begins early and retreats by September, induction of flowering in autumn is feasible (Sachin et al. 2015). ...
... After 2 months, fertilizers and manure are applied along with light irrigation, followed by a provision of normal irrigation at regular intervals. The tree responds quickly to these practices by producing new vegetative growth and blossoming, and finally bears a good crop (Patil & Karale 1985;Asrey et al. 2007;Chandra et al. 2011a;Sachin et al. 2015;Kumar et al. 2016). Water stress substitutes for chilling in areas of the tropics, which have distinct rainy and dry seasons. ...
Understanding Phenological Stages of Pomegranates vis-à-vis Flowering and Fruiting Regulation
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2021
A thorough understanding of plant behavior at different growth stages is of paramount importance for fruit quality improvement, the regulation of production periods, and reduced fruit production costs. There are as many as three waves of flowering in evergreen pomegranate cultivars – i.e., during the spring, rainy, and autumn seasons. However, for securing enhanced production of superior quality fruits as well as profit to the growers, crop regulation is required. This can be achieved by forcing the tree to rest at a particular stage and by producing abundant blossoming and quality fruits during any one of the three flushes. Observations on phenological phases would help in understanding the dates of specific stages of crop development, which in turn enable the growers to plan, organize, and carry out timely schedules of agronomic practices such as irrigation, fertilization, and crop protection. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the response of pomegranate under different environmental conditions to identify a suitable flowering season to produce a better quality of fruits with consistent yield, and to enable standardization of management practices for optimum production based on phenological stages.
View
... Depending upon rainfall pattern and irrigation availabilibahar. In areas July is advantageous; where monsoon starts late in August, -January can be taken and where monsoon starts early and is possible (Sachin et al., 2015;Anon., 2004). Hiwale (2009) reported that the best crop was obtained under semi-arid fruit development coincided with maximum moisture availability and cool climate. ...
... Requires assured irrigation facilities and produces low yield. Babu, 2010;Sachin et al., 2015;Saroj et al., 2017;Sonawane, 2017 Mrig Bahar (June to July) Does not require much irrigation and suitable for arid region. ...
... to 60 days water stress is given while in light sandy soil 30 the right quantum of water stress as a function of the combined effect of soil physico-chemical properties. To obtain higher fruit yield during a particular period, plants are exroot exposure (Sachin et al., 2015). In Solapur district, 45-60 (Chandra and Meshram, 2010). ...
View
... In assured rainfall areas (June-September), flowering in June-July is advantageous, while the areas where monsoon starts late in August, flowering during August is beneficial. Areas having assured irrigation facilities during April-May, flowering during January can be considered and where monsoon withdraws by September, induction of flowering in October is possible (Sachin et al.,13). In arid region, mrig bahar is preferred but fruits are severely damaged by cracking during December-January owing to diurnal temperature variation. ...
... The earlier and higher defoliation with increased concentration of ethrel might be attributed to activated expression of gene encoding cell wall-degrading enzymes like cellulase and polygalacturonase which accelerated senescence and caused leaf shedding. These results are in close conformity with Sachin et al. (13) who reported 50-70% defoliation by water Table 2. Effect of flower regulation treatments on days to defoliation and defoliation (%). ...
View
... "Withholding watering of trees from February to middle of May results in the shedding of flowers and trees go to a rest period during which accumulation of food materials takes place in branches" [7]. ...
High Density Planting and Meadow Orcharding in Guava for Higher Return
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2023
Due to the extensive tree canopy, the traditional method of cultivation has had difficulty achieving the intended levels of productivity. As a result, it became necessary to enhance the current manufacturing system in addition to impressing with its productivity. There is a current tendency for fruit trees to be planted more densely or in meadow orchards to control tree size, keep desired architecture, and make operations like pruning, pest control, and harvesting easier. The meadow orchard system is a novel idea for guava planting, providing densities of 5000 trees per hectare at a spacing of 1 m by 2 m. In contrast to conventional well-branched trees, this system is controlled to Review Article Nautiyal et al.; Int. 213 create a simpler and smaller structured framework starting in the first year. Guava trees are topped and hedged to encourage the development of fruit buds in the first year. Regular topping and pruning helped to reduce the size of the tree canopy. In the first year after sowing, trees produced flowers and fruit.
View
... However, in light sandy and shallow soils, exposure of root is not required as withholding of irrigation water for 2-3 weeks is sufficient for leaf wilting and shedding. Water stress can be induced through root exposure and pruning of minute roots to suppress the rainy season crop and to get a good winter crop (Sachin et al.,91,Suresh et al.,118). ...
CROP REG U LA TION IN FRUIT CROPS FOR IM PROV ING FRUIT YIELD, QUAL ITY AND IN COME
Research
Full-text available
  • Feb 2022
AB STRACT : In dia is be stowed withdiverse agro-cli ma tic con di tions which fa vour the pro duc tion of a va ri ety of fruit crops. At pres ent In dia is sec ond larg est pro ducer of fruits in the world af ter China. Fruit cul ture can be highly prof it able by in creas ing em ploy ment op por tu ni ties and com mer cial iza tion of the ru ral sec tor. Dur ing early six ties, pri or ity was to achiev ing self suf fi ciency in food grain pro duc tion in our coun try, how ever, over the years, fruit cul ture has emerged as an in dis pens able part of ag ri cul ture, of fer ing a wide range of choices to the farm ers for crop di ver si fi ca tion. It also pro vides am ple op por tu ni ties for sus tain ing large num ber of agro-in dus tries to gen er ate sub stan tial em ploy ment op por tu ni ties. Amongst var i ous trop i cal and sub-trop i cal fruit crops grown in In dia, guava, pome gran ate, acid lime, sweet or ange and man da rins, if left on its own, give sev eral light crops of the vari able quan ti ties and qual i ties from the var i ous floweringflushes through out the year. Un der nat u ral con di tions, these crops pro duce flow ers thrice in a year i.e. Feb ru ary-March (AmbeBahar), June-July (Mrig Bahar) and Oc to ber-No vem ber (Hasth Bahar) with thecorresponding har vest dur ing rainy, win ter and spring sea son, re spec tively.Ow ing to this, po ten tial yield is not ob tained dur ing the de sired pe riod. There fore, to ob tain higher fruit yield dur ing a par tic u lar pe riod, these fruit crops are given a rest ing pe riod with ar ti fi cial means so that the nat u ral flow er ing ten dency of the trees is al tered. It can be achieved through root ex po sure and its prun ing, shoot prun ing, with hold ing ir ri ga tion wa ter deblossoming, chem i cals/PGRs ap pli ca tion, change in fer til izer sched ule shoot bend ing. Reg u lated crops are de sired to avoid glut in the mar ket and also en sure the reg u lar sup ply of fruits. The choice of bahar at a par tic u lar lo ca tion is de ter mined by pre vail ing pro duc tion con straints like avail abil ity of ir ri ga tion wa ter, qual ity of pro duce, mar ket de mand and ex tent of dam age by in sect-pests and dis eases. Any prac tice or com bi na tion of prac tices that will pro duce a fa vor able car bo hy drate: ni tro gen ra tio (i.e., a mod er ate stress) is gen er ally ben e fi cial, al though the en dog e nous growth reg u la tor bal ance in the leaves and stems on a tree ac tu ally con trols the flow er ing pro cess. Lack of flo ral ini ti a tion in an "on" year of a bi en nial bear ing cultivars in sev eral fruit crops has been at trib uted to gib ber el lins in de vel op ing fruits and seed; there fore, chem i cal deblossoming and fruit thin ning or equiv a lent cul tural prac tices will be ef fec tive to pro duce a greater re turn bloom only if they re sult in a shift in hor monal bal ance to over come gib ber el lins in hib i tory ef fects.The ba sic prin ci ple of crop regulation is to induce flowering and fruiting in desired season of the year that contribute to increased fruit yield, quality, profitability and sustainability of the environment by reducing the use of the frequency of the pesticides. Finally, crop regulation in different fruit crops is discussed.
View
... In areas where assured rainfall occurs during June-September, flowering in June-July is advantageous, where monsoon starts late in August, flowering during August is beneficial. Areas where irrigation water available during April-May, flowering during January-February is suggested and where monsoon withdraws by September, induction of flowering in October is possible (Sachin et al., 2015). In hot arid region, mrig bahar crop is preferred but fruits are severely damaged by fruit splitting during December-January owing to day night temperature fluctuations. ...
Crop Regulation in Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) through Induced Water Stress and Ethrel Application
Article
  • Aug 2021
The present investigation was carried out at ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India during 2017 to 2019 to regulate crop production in pomegranate at the desired period with higher number of bisexual flower for higher quality fruit yield and to minimize fruit splitting through water stress, pruning and ethrel application. Pooled data analysis revealed that horticultural interventions, chemical treatments and their interactions significantly improved plant volume, bisexual flower number, maturity index, fruit yield with significant reduction in fruit splitting, mite and fungal spot incidence. Among different treatment combinations, maximum canopy volume, number of bisexual flowers, maturity index, fruit yield and lower fruit splitting were recorded (8.56 m3 , 85.11 plant-1, 47.81, 124.01 q ha-1 and 1.87 kg plant-1) in withholding irrigation during June+pruning+thinning+ethrel 2 ml l-1 as compared to absolute control (3.41 m3 , 75.62 plant-1, 33.35, 85.66 q ha-1 and 2.41 kg plant-1), respectively. The mite and fungal spot incidence were recorded minimum (4.72 and 8.50%) in withholding irrigation during June+pruning+thinning+ethrel 3 ml l-1 application in comparison to maximum recorded in absolute control (29.73 and 33.68%), respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that withholding irrigation during June+pruning+thinning with ethrel 2 ml l-1 treatment significantly improved quality fruit yield with higher number of bisexual flowers and reduced fruit splitting through induction of flowering and fruit growth during optimal climatic conditions
View
... However, in light sandy and shallow soils, exposure of root is not required as withholding of irrigation water for 2-3 weeks is sufficient for leaf wilting and shedding. Water stress can be induced through root exposure and pruning of minute roots to suppress the rainy season crop and to get a good winter crop (Sachin et al.,91,Suresh et al.,118). ...
CROP REG U LA TION IN FRUIT CROPS FOR IM PROV ING FRUIT YIELD, QUAL ITY AND IN COME
Research
Full-text available
  • Dec 2020
AB STRACT : In dia is be stowed withdiverse agro-cli ma tic con di tions which fa vour the pro duc tion of a va ri ety of fruit crops. At pres ent In dia is sec ond larg est pro ducer of fruits in the world af ter China. Fruit cul ture can be highly prof it able by in creas ing em ploy ment op por tu ni ties and com mer cial iza tion of the ru ral sec tor. Dur ing early six ties, pri or ity was to achiev ing self suf fi ciency in food grain pro duc tion in our coun try, how ever, over the years, fruit cul ture has emerged as an in dis pens able part of ag ri cul ture, of fer ing a wide range of choices to the farm ers for crop di ver si fi ca tion. It also pro vides am ple op por tu ni ties for sus tain ing large num ber of agro-in dus tries to gen er ate sub stan tial em ploy ment op por tu ni ties. Amongst var i ous trop i cal and sub-trop i cal fruit crops grown in In dia, guava, pome gran ate, acid lime, sweet or ange and man da rins, if left on its own, give sev eral light crops of the vari able quan ti ties and qual i ties from the var i ous floweringflushes through out the year. Un der nat u ral con di tions, these crops pro duce flow ers thrice in a year i.e. Feb ru ary-March (AmbeBahar), June-July (Mrig Bahar) and Oc to ber-No vem ber (Hasth Bahar) with thecorresponding har vest dur ing rainy, win ter and spring sea son, re spec tively.Ow ing to this, po ten tial yield is not ob tained dur ing the de sired pe riod. There fore, to ob tain higher fruit yield dur ing a par tic u lar pe riod, these fruit crops are given a rest ing pe riod with ar ti fi cial means so that the nat u ral flow er ing ten dency of the trees is al tered. It can be achieved through root ex po sure and its prun ing, shoot prun ing, with hold ing ir ri ga tion wa ter deblossoming, chem i cals/PGRs ap pli ca tion, change in fer til izer sched ule shoot bend ing. Reg u lated crops are de sired to avoid glut in the mar ket and also en sure the reg u lar sup ply of fruits. The choice of bahar at a par tic u lar lo ca tion is de ter mined by pre vail ing pro duc tion con straints like avail abil ity of ir ri ga tion wa ter, qual ity of pro duce, mar ket de mand and ex tent of dam age by in sect-pests and dis eases. Any prac tice or com bi na tion of prac tices that will pro duce a fa vor able car bo hy drate: ni tro gen ra tio (i.e., a mod er ate stress) is gen er ally ben e fi cial, al though the en dog e nous growth reg u la tor bal ance in the leaves and stems on a tree ac tu ally con trols the flow er ing pro cess. Lack of flo ral ini ti a tion in an "on" year of a bi en nial bear ing cultivars in sev eral fruit crops has been at trib uted to gib ber el lins in de vel op ing fruits and seed; there fore, chem i cal deblossoming and fruit thin ning or equiv a lent cul tural prac tices will be ef fec tive to pro duce a greater re turn bloom only if they re sult in a shift in hor monal bal ance to over come gib ber el lins in hib i tory ef fects.The ba sic prin ci ple of crop regulation is to induce flowering and fruiting in desired season of the year that contribute to increased fruit yield, quality, profitability and sustainability of the environment by reducing the use of the frequency of the pesticides. Finally, crop regulation in different fruit crops is discussed.
View
... However, in light sandy and shallow soils, exposure of root is not required as withholding of irrigation water for 2-3 weeks is sufficient for leaf wilting and shedding. Water stress can be induced through root exposure and pruning of minute roots to suppress the rainy season crop and to get a good winter crop (Sachin et al.,91,Suresh et al.,118). ...
CROP REG U LA TION IN FRUIT CROPS FOR IM PROV ING FRUIT YIELD, QUAL ITY AND IN COME
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2020
India is be stowed with diverse agro-cli ma tic con di tions which fa vour the pro duc tion of a va ri ety of fruit crops. At pres ent In dia is sec ond larg est pro ducer of fruits in the world af ter China. Fruit cul ture can be highly prof it able by in creas ing em ploy ment op por tu ni ties and com mer cial iza tion of the ru ral sec tor. Dur ing early six ties, pri or ity was to achiev ing self suf fi ciency in food grain pro duc tion in our coun try, how ever, over the years, fruit cul ture has emerged as an in dis pens able part of ag ri cul ture, of fer ing a wide range of choices to the farm ers for crop di ver si fi ca tion. It also pro vides am ple op por tu ni ties for sus tain ing large num ber of agro-in dus tries to gen er ate sub stan tial em ploy ment op por tu ni ties. Amongst var i ous trop i cal and sub-trop i cal fruit crops grown in In dia, guava, pome gran ate, acid lime, sweet or ange and man da rins, if left on its own, give sev eral light crops of the vari able quan ti ties and qual i ties from the var i ous floweringflushes through out the year. Un der nat u ral con di tions, these crops pro duce flow ers thrice in a year i.e. Feb ru ary-March (AmbeBahar), June-July (Mrig Bahar) and Oc to ber-No vem ber (Hasth Bahar) with thecorresponding har vest dur ing rainy, win ter and spring sea son, re spec tively.Ow ing to this, po ten tial yield is not ob tained dur ing the de sired pe riod. There fore, to ob tain higher fruit yield dur ing a par tic u lar pe riod, these fruit crops are given a rest ing pe riod with ar ti fi cial means so that the nat u ral flow er ing ten dency of the trees is al tered. It can be achieved through root ex po sure and its prun ing, shoot prun ing, with hold ing ir ri ga tion wa ter deblossoming, chem i cals/PGRs ap pli ca tion, change in fer til izer sched ule shoot bend ing. Reg u lated crops are de sired to avoid glut in the mar ket and also en sure the reg u lar sup ply of fruits. The choice of bahar at a par tic u lar lo ca tion is de ter mined by pre vail ing pro duc tion con straints like avail abil ity of ir ri ga tion wa ter, qual ity of pro duce, mar ket de mand and ex tent of dam age by in sect-pests and dis eases. Any prac tice or com bi na tion of prac tices that will pro duce a fa vor able car bo hy drate: ni tro gen ra tio (i.e., a mod er ate stress) is gen er ally ben e fi cial, al though the en dog e nous growth reg u la tor bal ance in the leaves and stems on a tree ac tu ally con trols the flow er ing pro cess. Lack of flo ral ini ti a tion in an "on" year of a bi en nial bear ing cultivars in sev eral fruit crops has been at trib uted to gib ber el lins in de vel op ing fruits and seed; there fore, chem i cal deblossoming and fruit thin ning or equiv a lent cul tural prac tices will be ef fec tive to pro duce a greater re turn bloom only if they re sult in a shift in hor monal bal ance to over come gib ber el lins in hib i tory ef fects.The ba sic prin ci ple of crop regulation is to induce flowering and fruiting in desired season of the year that contribute to increased fruit yield, quality, profitability and sustainability of the environment by reducing the use of the frequency of the pesticides. Finally, crop regulation in different fruit crops is discussed.
View
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