FLOWERING AND BIENNIAL BEARING IN MANGIFERA INDICA L.

The two varieties of mango, intensely biennial Langra in which flowering is season bound and is always preceded by a prolonged growth cessation phase, and perpetual Baramasia which flowers irrespective of season on young and soft shoots, offer interesting material for the study of physiology of flowering in mango. An increase in the concentration of total carbohydrates, particularly starch and a high C/N ratio have, in general, been found in shoots of biennial varieties at the time of fruit bud differentiation (2, 5, 7, 8). However, such increment in carbohydrate content and C/N ration could not be related to flowering in the variety Baramasia (8). The present study was undertaken to elucidate further the role of carbohydrate and nitrogen reserves in relation to flowering in a biennial variety of mango, Langra and a perpetuel flowering mango variety, Baramasia.