OFF-SEASON CROPPING OF MANGO
Off-season cropping of mango is a unique feature of certain tracts of Tamil Nadu.
Besides the normal crop that matures from May to August, the trees of certain varieties also mature an off-season crop from October to January.
Neelam, Bangalora, Calcutta or Bengal Baramasi, Kintalvanipeta, and Alpasand have been mentioned as varieties bearing two or more crops in succession during certain years and extend their bearing period almost till December and sometimes throughout the year (2, 3). This has been attributed to the peculiar seasonal conditions.
But this is not confined to the southern most parts of Tamil Nadu.
The varieties Peter and Baneshan have been reported as flowering in the off-season at Coimbatore.
At Koduru (Andhra Pradesh) Ambalavi, a variety introduced from Ceylon produced five blossom crops between September and the following May and Neelam, Kintalvanipeta, Manoranjan and Willard produced three crops of blossoms.
The clonal progenies of an off-season bearing tree at Tenali (Andhra Pradesh) was found to behave like the parent tree.
These facts suggested that the off-season bearing, though a varietal character, was induced by favourable seasonal and climatic conditions.
The unusual phenomenon of regular off-season crop at Kanyakumari (the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula) has been attributed to the influence of the fairly well distributed rainfall of the area.
At the Fruit Farm, Kanyakumari, the off-season bearing was a pronounced feature, the proportion of normal to off-season bearing trees being 9:14 in a fifteen year period.
Further studies indicated the scope for selection of regular off-season cropping varieties and individual trees of such varieties in an effort to stabilise off-season crop production (1). This study, however, was confined to yield data of only one year (1956/-57).
Subsequently, certain studies on off-season cropping of mangoes have been made at Fruit Research Station, Kanyakumari, over a ten year period from 1960 to 1969 under a scheme partially financed by I.C.A.R. This paper presents a brief resume of the results of these studies.
Sundararaj, J.S., Muthuswamy, S. and Raghavan, N. (1972). OFF-SEASON CROPPING OF MANGO. Acta Hortic. 24, 191-193
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1972.24.33
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1972.24.33
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1972.24.33
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1972.24.33