Impact of Heading Back and Pinching on Vegetative and Reproductive Parameters of Guava (Psidium guajavaL.) under High Density Plantation

Abstract

An investigation to evaluate the effect of heading back and pinching on growth and yield parameters of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) under high density plantation was carried out at experimental orchard, Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during the year 2013–14. There were two treatments i.e. heading back and pinching. Heading back at the level of 150, 175 and 200 cm was done in the month of March and compared with control (no heading back). Pinching i.e. no pinching, one pinching (last week of June), two pinchings (last week of June and July) and three pinchings (last week of June, July and August) were done on the headed back plants. The study revealed that all the treatments were effective in increasing the growth characters, however, heading back at the level of 200 cm and two pinchings were found most effective in increasing the growth characters i.e. number of sprouts per shoot, flowering intensity, fruit setting, number of fruits/plant and yield over control and other treatments. Plant height, plant spread and tree volume were significantly reduced by various heading back treatments, however, the effect of different numbers of pinching was found non significant in altering the plant height, spread and volume.