Growth analysis of in situ raised mango plants under rain fed condition in Alfisols of eastern India

Mango is one of the most important perennial fruit crops of hot humid region of eastern India. It is cultivated on a large area in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh and Bihar and contributes significantly in total mango production of the country. Uplands in these regions mainly includes the plateau land with Gondwana rocks/murrum formation in sub soil and the hillocks up to 40–50 m height with fragmented stones and a bit friable sub soil are barren. Such areas constitute roughly 35–40% of the total area in this region which awaits interventions to make them green and yellow with plantation of fruit species. Mango does well in these areas but needs irrigation and intensive care for the establishment of nursery raised saplings. In situ method has been found successful for establishment of orchards in disadvantageous areas and this method could be utilized for mango too. Owing to variations in rootstocks and influence of external factors, in situ raised mango plant exhibits variation in growth during initial years. In this study, an attempt has been made to analyse the growth behaviour of in situ raised as well as nursery raised plants at Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Bhubneswar with Amrapali and Arka Neelachal Kesri varieties of mango. The results reveal that the in situ raised plant gave 90.85% successes in Arka Neelachal Kesri where as nursery raised plant gave 99.63% success rate after three years. Amrapali gave 96.25% success under in situ conditions. In Arka Neelachal Kesri 51.95% plants produced less than 10 cm² trunk cross sectional area (TCA) under in situ conditions where as more than 70% plants produced 30–60 cm² TCA in nursery raised plants. Also, 47.25% plants produced 10–20 cm² TCA above graft union in Amrapali under in situ condition. With respect to canopy area (m²), 43.75% in situ raised Amrapali plants produced canopy area of 1–2 m² where as in Arka Neelachal Kesri 40.04% plants produced less than 1 m² canopy area and 32.92% plants produced 1–2 m ² canopy area. Other growth characters like canopy volume (m³), number of primary, secondary and tertiary branches were also recorded and compared with in situ raised mango plants of Arka Neelachal Kesri and Amrapali with nursery raised plants. The detailed data on various growth parameters have been presented.