SHOOT PRUNING SEVERITY IN HIGH DENSITY OF GUAVA (Psidium guajava L.)

PANKAJ NAUTIYAL¹*, SHANT LAL², D.C. DIMRI³, INDU ARORA^4
1Department of Horticulture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263145, Uttarakhand, India
²Department of Horticulture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263145, Uttarakhand, India
³Department of Horticulture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263145, Uttarakhand, India
⁴Department of Horticulture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263145, Uttarakhand, India
* Corresponding Author : pankajnautiyal2009@gmail.com

Received : 04-07-2016     Accepted : 23-08-2016     Published : 30-10-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 52       Pages : 2427 - 2431
Int J Agr Sci 8.52 (2016):2427-2431

Keywords : Guava, Pruning severity, Non-fruiting shoots, Winter season, High density
Academic Editor : Dr Bhupesh Kumar Gupta
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

An experiment was carried out during 2014-15 and 2015-16, under high density planting of guava cv. Pant Prabhat to find out the effect of pruning severity and plant spacing on yield and fruit quality. The treatments consisted of two plant spacings and seven pruning severity viz., One leaf pair shoot pruning (P1, OLP:);Two leaf pairs shoot pruning (P2, TLP); Three leaf pairs shoot pruning (P3, THLP); Thinning out of non-fruiting shoots + One leaf pair shoot pruning (P4, TNFS+OLP); Thinning out of non-fruiting shoots + Two leaf pairs shoot pruning (P5, TNFS+TLP); Thinning out of non-fruiting shoots + Three leaf pairs shoot pruning (P6, TNFS+THLP); Thinning out of non-fruiting shoots (P7, TNFS), and no pruning (P0) as control. In this way, there were eight treatments with sixteen combinations replicated four times each with two plants in one experimental unit. The highest per cent fruit set was recorded with unpruned plants (PO) for rainy season crop, while, minimum was obtained with treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP) during both the years. However, in winter season crop, the maximum per cent fruit set was recorded with treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP), while, minimum was recorded with treatment P7 (TNFS). Reverse trend was observed in case of flower/fruit drop percentage during both the years. The higher fruit yield was obtained with treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP) in winter season, while, the unpruned plants (PO) produced lowest fruit yield. The highest total annual yield was obtained with treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP) followed by unpruned plants (P0). Pruning severity with complete removal of non fruiting shoots significantly decreased the yield in rainy season crop and subsequently increased the yield in winter season crop. The plants spaced at 2.0 × 2.0 m produced more yield per plant and less yield per hectare as compared to plants spaced at 2.0 × 1.0 m (S1) in both rainy and winter season crop during both the years. Among the pruning severity, treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP) produced superior quality fruits in winter season, while, unpruned plants (P0) produced poor quality fruits in both the seasons. The treatment P1 (OLP) and treatment P4 (TNFS+OLP) gave significantly highest pectin content in the first and second year, respectively, during both the seasons. However, unpruned plant (P0) produced lowest pectin content of fruits in both the seasons. Hence, for obtaining higher winter season crop with superior fruit quality under high density plantation of guava, complete removal of non-fruiting shoots followed by one leaf pair shoot pruning of current season growth should be done during first week of May.