Journal of Horticultural Sciences

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Induction of Off-Season Flowering in Custard Apple (Annona squamosa L.) Cv. Balanagar


Affiliations
1 Collage of Horticulture, Bengaluru University of Horticultural science, Bagalkot - 587 123, India
2 Division of Fruit Crops, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru-560089, India
 

Pruning and defoliation are essential operations for inducing off-season flowering and fruiting to yield better quality and quantity of fruits in custard apple. Trees were subjected to two levels of pruning (25% and 50%) combined with use of chemical defoliants (urea 5%, Ethrel 2000ppm, potassium iodide 1%, or ortho-phosphoric acid 1%) besides the Control, with each treatment replicated thrice. Early initiation of flowering and better vegetative growth was seen in pruned (25%) and defoliated trees than in the Control or other treatments. Maximum off-season yield (10.33kg/ plant) was obtained in T4 (25% pruning, combined with 5% urea spray as defoliant) and T6 (25% pruning, combined with 1% potassium iodide-spray as defoliant). Findings of this investigation helped standardize pruning and defoliation practices on a scientific basis for off-season production of custard apple fruits.

Keywords

Pruning, Defoliation, Off-Season, Custard Apple, Urea.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Bajwa, G.S., Sandhu, H.S. and Bal, J.S. 1986. Effect of pruning severity on growth and bearing of ber. Indian J. Hort., 43:203-206

  • Braswell, J. and Spiers, H.J.M. 2005. Effect of pruning on blueberry (Vaccinium ashei). Acta Hort., 574:3738

  • Bruno, R.M. and Evelyn, D.V. 2001. Effect of summer pruning and bark girdling on cherimoya var. Concha Lisa. Agri. Tech., 61:215-220

  • Demirtas, M.N., Bolat, I., Ercisli, S., Ikinci, A., Olmez, H.A., Sachin, M., Altindag, M. and Celik, M. 2010. The effects of different pruning treatments on the growth, fruit quality and yield of ‘Hacihaliloglu’ apricot. Acta Sci., 9:183-192

  • Dhaliwal, H.S., Banke, A.K., Sharma, L.K. and Bali, S.K. 2014. Impact of pruning practices on shoot growth and bud production in kinnow (Citrus reticulata Blanco.) plants. J. Exptl. Biol. Agril. Sci., 1:507513

  • Farre, J.M., Hermoso, J.M., Guriado, E. and Garcia, T.J. 2000. Techniques of cherimoya cultivation in Spain. Procs. First International Symposium on Cherimoya, Ecuador. C.F. Hort. Abstr., 70:3040

  • George, A.P. and Nissen, N.C. 1987. Effect of cincturing, defoliation and summer pruning on growth and flowering of custard apple (Annona cherimola x Annonas squamosa) in subtropical Queensland. Australian J. Exptl. Agri., 27:915-18

  • Guimond, C.M., Lang, G. and Andrews, P.K. 1998. Timing and severity of summer pruning affects flower initiation and shoot re-growth in sweet cherry. Hortl. Sci., 33:647-649

  • Kahn, T.L., Adams, C.J. and Arpaia, M.L. 2001. Effect of pruning and nitrogen fertilization on cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.). Sci. Hort., 64:25-30

  • Lal, H. and Prasad, A. 1971. Pruning in ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.): Effect on vegetative growth. Punjab Hort. J., 11:143-146

  • Lal, S. Tiwari, J.P. and Misra, K.K. 2000. Effect of plant spacing and pruning intensity on fruit yield and quality of guava. Prog. Hort., 32:20-25

  • Laura Soler and Julian Cuevas. 2008. Development of a new technique to produce winter cherimoyas. Hort. Tech., 18:24-28

  • Laura Soler and Julian Cuevas. 2009. Early flower initiation allows ample manipulation of flowering time in cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.). Sci. Hort., 121:327–332

  • Lord, W.J., Greene, D.W. and Damon, R.A. 1979. Flowering of young apple trees following summer pruning. J. Amer. Soc. Hortl. Sci., 104:540-44

  • Mohamed Elham and Fawzi. 2010. Effect of pruning, defoliation and nitrogen fertilization on growth, fruit set and quality of Abdel-Razik Annona cultivar. Nat. Sci., 8:281-287

  • Mohamed, S.M., Fayed, T.A., El-Shrief, H.M. and Mokhtar, O.S. 2011. Effect of heading, cut levels, bending and NAA on spurs formation, yield and fruit quality of Sun Gold plum cultivar. J. Hortl. Sci. Ornamen. Pl., 3:232-243

  • Naira, A. and Moieza, A. 2014. Summer pruning in fruit crops. African. J. Agril. Res., 9:206-210

  • Pandey, R.C., Pathak, R.A. and Singh, I.S. 1998. Effect of pruning intensity on vegetative and reproductive growth in ber (Ziziphus mauritiana). Indian J. Hort., 55:306-313

  • Sampath, K.P. and Jalikop, S.H. 2000. Cross-compatibility among Annona species. Indian J. Hort., 57:309313

  • Trevor Olesen and Steven. 2009. Branch development in custard apple (Cherimoya Annona cherimola Miller X Sugar apple Annona squamosa L.) in relation to tip-pruning and flowering, including effects on production. Trees, 23:855–862

  • Trevor Olesen and Steven. 2012. Effects of defoliation on flower development in atemoya custard apple (Annona cherimola Mill X A. squamosa L.) and implications for flower-development modelling. Australian J. Bot., 60:160–164


Abstract Views: 209

PDF Views: 134




  • Induction of Off-Season Flowering in Custard Apple (Annona squamosa L.) Cv. Balanagar

Abstract Views: 209  |  PDF Views: 134

Authors

G. M. Vinay
Collage of Horticulture, Bengaluru University of Horticultural science, Bagalkot - 587 123, India
R. Chithiraichelvan
Division of Fruit Crops, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru-560089, India

Abstract


Pruning and defoliation are essential operations for inducing off-season flowering and fruiting to yield better quality and quantity of fruits in custard apple. Trees were subjected to two levels of pruning (25% and 50%) combined with use of chemical defoliants (urea 5%, Ethrel 2000ppm, potassium iodide 1%, or ortho-phosphoric acid 1%) besides the Control, with each treatment replicated thrice. Early initiation of flowering and better vegetative growth was seen in pruned (25%) and defoliated trees than in the Control or other treatments. Maximum off-season yield (10.33kg/ plant) was obtained in T4 (25% pruning, combined with 5% urea spray as defoliant) and T6 (25% pruning, combined with 1% potassium iodide-spray as defoliant). Findings of this investigation helped standardize pruning and defoliation practices on a scientific basis for off-season production of custard apple fruits.

Keywords


Pruning, Defoliation, Off-Season, Custard Apple, Urea.

References