EFFECT OF TIME AND LEVEL OF PRUNING ON FLOWERING, FRUIT AND YIELD OF CASHEW (ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE L.)

An investigation was conducted to study the growth and development of two distinct cultivars viz., ‘BPP-4’ and ‘BPP-6’ as influenced by the pruning in different shoots at the Cashew Research Station, Bapatla, Guntur district (AP). The shoots were decapitated back to 5 cm in mid-July, mid-August and mid-September months of the leader shoots, lateral shoots and leader as well as lateral shoots pruned separately and data were recorded for various growth parameters on individual trees. In response to pruning ‘BPP-4’ performed better as compared to the off-season cultivar ‘BPP-6’. The production of flowering shoots and nut yield of cashew as influenced by the cultivar, level of pruning and time of pruning that a moderate incremental growth with large number of flowering shoots could be obtained by pruning the leader shoot in mid-August under local agro-climatic condition of Bapatla were studied. The study further indicated that the vigorous cultivar ‘BPP-4’ and off-season production cultivar ‘BPP-6’ performed well during a rainy year compared to the dry year which was associated with prolonged dry spell and delayed rains in August-September months. Another important observation from the study indicated that the off-season cultivar of cashew needs essentially the pruning of the leader shoot in mid-August so as to avoid the off-season flowering and to increase productivity in the normal season. Pruning of leader shoots in mid-July was found to be beneficial during both the years of study to produce higher per tree yield of nuts with a percentage increase of 23.6 and 17.68% during 2001-02 and 2002-03, respectively.