Architectural factors affect fruit set in mango: evidence and modelling
Fruit set, the transition from the flower to the growing fruit, is an essential step for fruit production.
This process can be affected by environmental factors and by endogenous factors at the tree scale.
The identification of these factors is important to improve cultivation practices and increase fruit set and fruit production.
In this study, we focused on the identification of architectural factors affecting fruit set, with the mango tree as a case study.
The hypothesis is that topological, phenological and morphological characteristics of the flowering terminal growth unit affect its fruit set rate.
Two data sets describing the vegetative and reproductive development of mango trees in two orchards during two and three years, respectively, were analysed.
Generalized linear models were used to test the effects of the characteristics of the terminal growth units on their fruit set rate.
The effects of factors at a scale larger than the growth unit, such as the tree or the year were also tested.
The date of burst of the terminal growth unit, i.e., its age at the time of flowering, its topological position, apical or lateral, and the number of inflorescences borne by the growth unit affected significantly its fruit set rate during most of the years.
Fruit set rate was also affected by the year, by the orchard and by the previous year tree yield, suggesting that factors at the tree scale and environmental factors were involved in fruit set.
These results are useful to design cultivation practices aiming to improve mango tree fruit set.
They will be integrated in a model of mango fruit yield and quality at the tree scale to simulate more accurately fruit set and fruit production.
Persello, S., Grechi, I., Boudon, F. and Normand, F. (2020). Architectural factors affect fruit set in mango: evidence and modelling. Acta Hortic. 1281, 609-616
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1281.80
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1281.80
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1281.80
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1281.80
flowering, growth unit, inflorescence, Mangifera indica, tree architecture, yield
English
1281_80
609-616
- Division Physiology and Plant-Environment Interactions of Horticultural Crops in Field Systems
- Working Group Environmental Physiology and Developmental Biology
- Working Group Orchard Systems and Technologies
- Working Group Rootstock Breeding and Evaluation
- Working Group Modelling in Fruit Research and Orchard Management