Studies on rejuvenation of old and senile orchards of Alphonso mango in Konkan region of Maharashtra

Abstract

Alphonso is the premier mango variety owing to its excellent flavour, aroma, colour and shelf life. It constitutes more than 90 per cent of area 1.82 Lakh hectares of the mango in Konkan region. Majority of orchards are old and senile with low productivity. The attempts were therefore made to develop and standardize the rejuvenation technology for such mango orchards. An experiment was conducted on 40 years old senile mango orchard of mango cv. Alphonso from 2011 to 2015 with two treatments viz., T1-Rejuvenated plants and T2-Non-Rejuvenated plants replicated 13 times in randomized block design. The observations viz., twig girth (cm), avg. leaf area (cm2), rate of photosynthesis (μ mol CO2/m2/sec), rate of respiration (μ mol CO2/m2/sec), length of panicle (cm), breadth of panicle (cm), hermaphrodite flowers (%), number of fruits per plant, yield per plant (kg) and yield per hectare (t) were recorded on both rejuvenated and non-rejuvenated plants from 2013–14 to 2015–16. The rejuvenation technology was also demonstrated on farmers’ field at Katta, Adeli, Nadan in Sindhudurg district and Asore and Mazgaon in Ratnagiri district. High rate of photosynthesis, high hermaphrodite flower percentage (%), more fruits per plant with better fruit weight and higher yield (per plant and per hectare) were recorded in rejuvenated plants as compared to non-rejuvenated plants. The chemical composition of the fruits viz., T.S.S, acidity, Total sugars and reducing sugars were non-significant. Due to rejuvenation there was appreciable reduction in the use of quantity of insecticide, fungicide and human labour in rejuvenated plants. The performance of rejuvenated plants on farmer's field was also better than non-rejuvenated plants.