Journal Of Applied Horticulture ISSN: 0972-1045



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Ravindra Kumar, R. Chithiraichelvan, S. Ganesh, K.K. Upreti and V.V. Sulladmath

Division of Fruit Crops; Division of Plant Physiology & Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake, Bangalore-560 089, Karnataka, India. Faculty of Agriculture, Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed University), Gandhigram,

Key words: Fig, growth characters, pruning, fruit quality, tree spacing, fruit yield, photosynthesis, leaf water potential

Journal of Applied Horticulture, 2015, volume 17, issue 1, pages 52-57.

Abstract: Effects of tree spacing (5x2 m, 5x2.5 m, 5x3 m, 5x3.5 m and 5x4 m) and pruning (8 buds/cane, 6 buds/cane and 4 buds/cane) on growth, physiological parameters, fruit yield and quality were studied in fig cv. Poona during 3rd and 4th years of planting. Results indicated that the fig responded more to tree spacing than the pruning levels in terms of morpho-physiological characters and yield. With increase in in-row tree spacing from 5x2.5 m to 5x4 m, the vegetative growth parameters like leaf number, shoot length, internodal length, tree spread, tree height and tree circumference and the fruit yield both in terms of fruit number and fruit weight per tree declined under different pruning levels and closer tree spacing of 5x2.5 m recorded higher values. Physiological parameters like photosynthesis rate and leaf water potential remained at higher levels under closer spacing as compared to the wider spacing under different pruning levels. The increased pruning levels from 8 buds/cane to 4 buds/cane resulted in reduction of tree height while yield characters were marginally influenced by the pruning. The interaction effects between pruning and spacing levels were, however, non-significant. Under 5x2.5 m, the average fruit size and TSS recorded the highest values with no marked differences in acidity. The fruit yield calculated on per tree basis showed highest fruit number of 84.3-253.0 and 232.3-321.5 and fruit weight of 2.69-8.61 and 7.43-9.44 kg, respectively during 3rd and 4th year of planting under closer spacing of 5x2.5 m with 8 buds/cane pruning. The yield per hectare under various pruning levels recorded high values under the closer spacing of 5x2.5 m or 5x2.0 m with 8 buds/cane pruning. Overall results showed that 5x2.5 m tree spacing in combination with light pruning level of 8 buds/cane is ideal for achieving higher growth and yield in fig during 3rd and 4th year of planting.



Journal of Applied Horticulture