The fruit pitting disorder—A physiological anomaly in mango ( Mangifera indica L.) due to deficiency of calcium and boron

Abstract

A new disorder known as fruit pitting has been observed in some Indian mango orchards during the recent years. In this disorder, there is a development of some sunken pits on fruit peel, which distract consumers. Based on preliminary observations, it was observed that deficiency of nutrients could be the cause, and hence systematic studies were conducted in five indigenous cultivars such as ‘Alphonso’, ‘Amrapali’, ‘Dashehari’, ‘Mallika’ and ‘Neelum’, and five exotic mango cultivars such as ‘Edward’, ‘Irwin’, ‘Rosari’, ‘Sensation’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’ with the aim to observe the fruit pitting incidence and degree, and to investigate its probable causes. Our studies indicated that nearly 13% of the mango fruit was affected by fruit pitting with variable degree and magnitude. All indigenous cultivars had higher incidence of fruit pitting than exotic cultivars. ‘Dashehari’ had the maximum incidence of fruit pitting (30.3%), followed by ‘Amrapali’ (28.6%), and ‘Rosari’ the least (3.4%). Our studies indicated that the incidence of fruit pitting in mangoes was nearly 13% with a significant variability among the cultivars ( Table 1). Although the concentrations of most of the major nutrients such as N, P, K, Mg, and minor nutrients such as Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn, did not differ significantly. However, the pitted fruit had lower Ca (1.53%) and B (22 mg kg −1) concentrations than normal fruit (2.47% and 38 mg kg −1, respectively), indicating that deficiency of Ca and B probably is the cause for fruit pitting in mangoes.