After having planted 11000+ trees last year, surviving our first full monsoon without much damage, and cultivating a couple of short term crops, needless to say we had a very busy 10-12 months. We decided to take it slow in March and switch to planning and maintenance mode.
Temperatures have started to soar to about 37-38 celsius and there is no indication of any rain anytime soon. Second phase of land development and cleaning has been swifter than anticipated. Several boulders were unearthed by the previous owners and land leveled which made our task easier.
If you remember, our mango saplings were planted in Oct 2011 just before the onset of monsoons. So far the growth has been encouraging due to timely fertigation, regular irrigation and periodic manuring. Last week, we started pruning the Imampasand plot, some of the saplings stand tall at 3-4 ft.
The basic premise of Ultra High density is frequent pruning which results in more branches which would eventually lead to more fruits (for a relatively small canopy). The first round of pruning is done at 45 cm - 60 cm above the ground. One needs to look for a suitable whorl and cut the stem right below it. Ensure 2-3 leaves are present after the pruning. These will eventually become secondary branches. Second round of pruning will occur at 20-30 cm from the stem.
Below are before and after pics of Imampasand saplings.
Temperatures have started to soar to about 37-38 celsius and there is no indication of any rain anytime soon. Second phase of land development and cleaning has been swifter than anticipated. Several boulders were unearthed by the previous owners and land leveled which made our task easier.
If you remember, our mango saplings were planted in Oct 2011 just before the onset of monsoons. So far the growth has been encouraging due to timely fertigation, regular irrigation and periodic manuring. Last week, we started pruning the Imampasand plot, some of the saplings stand tall at 3-4 ft.
The basic premise of Ultra High density is frequent pruning which results in more branches which would eventually lead to more fruits (for a relatively small canopy). The first round of pruning is done at 45 cm - 60 cm above the ground. One needs to look for a suitable whorl and cut the stem right below it. Ensure 2-3 leaves are present after the pruning. These will eventually become secondary branches. Second round of pruning will occur at 20-30 cm from the stem.
Below are before and after pics of Imampasand saplings.
The above sapling stood at approx 3.5 ft after 4 months.
After pruning, the sapling growth will now be stunted vertically and will stimulate horizontal branches.
Dear Sir,
ReplyDeletePruning at below 3, from ground will destroy grown mango by sitting on the ground and disturb your feature cultivation in mango orchard. Better allow it to grow 4 to 5 feet in single stem and than start pruning for high density as well as to avoid waste mango (the called as dogs in mandi) and they will reduce your income.
Regards.
SWAMY
dns1807@live.in
Following are the comments from their mango expert -
Delete"We recommend the training of the plant as main stem 45-60 cm primary branches 35-40 cm secondary branches 35-40 cm and tertiary branches 35-40 cm and above only 35-40 cm first flowering branch will come, that means at the ht of 1.8 m to 2 m from the ground.
It is possible that some fruits may touch the ground in the first year or 2 nd yr of fruiting for which you can support them by Y stake. This cannot be every year scenario. By 4-5 yr onwards if your pruning is good and proper ,there is no possibility of fruit touching to the ground.
First training at 4-5 feet and further training will not be feasible for spraying, harvesting by hand, and other agri operations, and also it may delay the first crop to 4 th year. it may be followed in high density or traditional planting."
Swamy, Thanks for the feedback. I have visited the Jain farms at Udamalpet, TN and this how they are doing. If you have additional info, I would be happy to ask their VP and get clarification on your point.
ReplyDelete