Effect of pre-harvest application of GA3 and ZnSO4 alone and in combination on fruit drop, yield and quality attributes of mango

Abstract

To investigate the influence of pre-harvest application of GA3 and ZnSO4 alone and in combination on fruit drop, yield and quality attributes of mango, an experiment was carried out in the garden, Department of Horticulture, C. S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (U.P.), India, during two subsequent years i.e., 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, using twelve treatments viz., GA3 at 20, 40 and 60 ppm, zinc sulphate 0.5 and 1.0% and their combinations viz., GA3 (20ppm)+ ZnSO4 (0.5%), GA3 (40ppm) + ZnSO4 (0.5%), GA3 (60ppm) + ZnSO4 (0.5%), GA3 (20ppm) + ZnSO4 (1.0%), GA3 (40ppm) + ZnSO4 (1.0%), GA3 (60ppm) + ZnSO4 (1.0%) including a control (water spray) on twenty five years old plants of mango cv. Amrapali, replicated thrice in randomized block design. From the experiment it is reported that combination of GAo (60ppm) + ZnSO4 (1.0%) significantly reduced fruit drop (84.05 and 83.05%) and increased fruit retention (15.95 and 16.95%) during both years of experimentation. It also gave maximum fruit yield (61.25 and 59.91 kg/plant), resulted an increased fruit length (12.15 and 11.90 cm), width (7.80 and 7.60 cm), weight (252.12 and 249.62g), volume (295.07 and 293.37g/cmo), specific gravity (1.08 and 1.06g/cm0), pulp per cent (71.52 and 71.29%) with reduction in peel (12.25 and 12.60%) in mango fruits, whereas, reduced stone per cent (16.20 and 16.11%) was recorded in fruits produced from the plants treated with GA0 (60ppm) + ZnSO4 (0.5%) during both years of experimentation. Plant treated with GA0 (60ppm) + ZnSO4 (1.0%) results an increase in TSS (22.80 and 22.00 0Brix) and total sugars (21.99 and 22.49%) and ascorbic acid content (06.50 and 07.00 mg/100g) with minimum titratable acidity percentage (0.40 and 0.09%) during both years of experimentation.