Department of Horticulture, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263 145
An experiment was conducted to study the effect of different planting densities on growth, fruit yield and quality of mango cv. Dashehari. Trees grew slowly during the first 5 years then increased their growth rapidly up to 10th year and thereafter growth was slow without any significant difference between planting densities: 5.0 m × 5.0 m; (400 trees/ha); 7.5 m × 7.5 m (177 trees/ha); 10 m × 10 m (100 trees/ha) and 12.5 m × 12.5 m (64 trees/ha). Similarly per tree fruit yield and fruit quality also did not differ during the period of experimentation. However, annual fruit yield increased from 0.30 tonnes/ha in the fourth year to 18.0 tonnes/ha in the 14th year in high-density of 400 trees/ha and cumulative yield was 74.12 tonnes/ha in 12 years of fruiting. However, cumulative fruit yield decreased to 43.29 tonnes/ha, 25.52 tonnes/ha and 16.91 tonnes/ha with decrease in tree population to 177, 100 and 64 trees/ha, respectively. Present investigation, therefore, suggests increase in plant population for increasing yield in mango orchards.
