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HRT.

101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
LECTURE -1

INTRODUCTION

 India is the seventh largest country in the world with a total geographical area of 328.73 m ha and
has second largest population 121crores (2011), after China.
 The total arable land available is 144 million hectare of which 70% is under rainfed cultivation.
 Around 55-60 % of the total population depends on agriculture and allied activities.
 Horticulture crops constitute a significant portion of total agricultural production in the country.
 The term HORTICULTURE is derived from two Latin words - ―HORTUS‖ meaning ‗GARDEN‟
and ―CULTURA‖ meaning ‗CULTIVATION‟.
 In ancient days the gardens had protected enclosures with high walls or similar structures
surrounding the houses.
 The enclosed places were used to grow fruit, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. Therefore, in
original sense “Horticulture refers to cultivation of garden plants within protected enclosures”.

Definition:

Horticulture is a science and technique of production, processing and merchandizing of fruits,

vegetables, flowers, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants.

2. BRANCHES OF HORTICULTURE

 Horticulture is a wide field which includes a great variety and diversity of crops.
 The science of horticulture can be divided into several branches depending upon the crops it deals
with.
 Following are the branches of horticulture.
i. Pomology : study of fruit crops.
ii. Olericulture : cultivation of vegetables.
iii. Floriculture : cultivation of flower crops.
iv. Plantation crops : cultivation of coconut, arecanut, rubber, coffee, tea, etc.
v. Spices crops : cultivation of cardamom, pepper, nutmeg etc.
vi. Medicinal and aromatic crops: cultivation of medicinal and aromatic crops.
vii. Post harvest technology: deals with post harvest handling, grading, packaging,
storage processing, value addition, marketing etc, of horticulture crops.
viii. Plant propagation : deals with propagation of plants.

 India is the second largest producer of fruits after Brazil.

 A large variety of fruit crops are grown in India. Of these, mango, banana, citrus, papaya, guava,
pineapple, sapota, jackfruit, litchi, grapes, apple, pear, peach, plum, walnut etc. are the important
ones.
 India accounts for 10 per cent of the total world production of fruits.
 It leads the world in the production of mango, banana, sapota and acid lime besides recording highest
productivity in grape.
 The leading fruit growing states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh.
VEGETABLE CROPS:

 More than 40 vegetables belonging to Solanaceaeous, cucurbitaceous, leguminous, cruciferous, root

crops and leafy vegetables are grown in Indian tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions.
 Important vegetables grown in India are onion, tomato, potato, brinjal, peas, beans, okra, chilli,
cabbage, cauliflower, bottle gourd, cucumber, watermelon, carrot, radish etc.
 India ranks second in vegetable production next to China w.r.t. area and production contributing
13.38 % to the total world production.
 India occupies first position in cauliflower, second in Onion, third in cabbage in the world.
 West Bengal, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka are the important states for
horticultural crop production.

Differences between fruits and vegetables

Sl No. Vegetables X Fruits

1. Most of the vegetables are annuals : Fruit plants are perennial in nature
2. Mostly majority of them are sexually : Fruit plant are sexually and asexually
propagated propagated
3. Cultivation of vegetable is seasonal and : Fruit plants require special practices like
special techniques like pruning and training and pruning and are required
training are generally not required seasonally.
4. Vegetable plants are generally non-woody : Fruit plants are generally woody in nature
5. All parts of the plant are edible : Only fruit is edible but sometimes false fruit
also edible (eg. Fleshy thalamus of apple)
6. Generally consumed after cooking : Mostly consumed raw after ripening

FLORICULTURE:

 In India, flower cultivation is being practiced since ages.

 It is an important/integral part of socio-cultural and religious life of Indian people. 4
 It has taken a shape of industry in recent years.
 India is known for growing traditional flowers such as jasmine, marigold, chrysanthemum, tuberose,
crossandra, aster, etc.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 Commercial cultivation of cut flowers like, rose, orchids, gladiolus, carnation, anthurium, gerbera is
also being done.
 The important flower growing states are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
West Bengal, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, etc.

PLANTATION CROPS:

 This is one of the important sectors contributing about Rs.7,500 crores of export earnings.
 The major plantation crops include coconut, arecanut, oil palm, cashew, tea coffee, rubber cocoa,
betel vine, vanilla etc.
 The leading states are Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam
etc.

SPICES:

 They constitute an important group of horticulture crops and are defined as vegetable products or
mixture thereof,
 Free from extraneous matter used for flavouring, seasoning and imparting aroma in foods.
 India is known as home of spices producing a wide variety of spices like black pepper, cardamom,
ginger, turmeric, chilli, Coriander etc.
 Major spice producing states are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Orissa, Tamil Nadu etc.

MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS:

 India has diverse collection of medicinal and aromatic plants species distributed throughout the
country.
 It has more than 9,500 species with medicinal properties.
 Demand for these crops is increasing progressively in both domestic and export markets.
 Important medicinal plants are Isabgol, Senna, Opium poppy, Periwinkle, Coleus, Ashwagandha, etc.
and aromatic plants are Japanese mint, Lemon grass, Citronella, Davana, Patchouli etc

FEATURES OF HORTICULTURE IN GENERAL

• Horticultural produces are mostly utilized in the fresh state and are highly perishable nature.
• Horticultural crops need intensive cultivation, requires large input of capital, labour and technology
per unit area.
• Cultural operations like propagation, training, pruning and harvesting are skilled and specific to
horticultural crops.
• Horticultural produce are rich sources of vitamins and minerals and alkaloids.
• Aesthetic satisfaction is an exclusive phenomenon to horticultural science.
5
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IMPORTANCE OF HORTICULTURE
 Fruit crops cover an area of 4.96 m ha and vegetable crops 6.75 m ha. Accordingly, 49.29 m.ton of
fruits and 101.43 m ton of vegetables are produced in the country annually (Indian Horticulture
Database, 2005).
 To meet out the projected demand of population by 2020 AD about 50 mt of fruits and 143 m tons of
vegetables would be required. Therefore by 2020 A.D. the production of fruits needs to be increased.
 Requirements of export and processing industry further add to the requirements of horticultural
produce.
 In view of these, there is lot of scope of increasing production and potentiality of horticulture crops.
 Apart from fruits and vegetables, floriculture industry in India comprising of florist trade, nursery
plants, potted plants, seed and bulb products is being observed as sunrise industry.
 There is roaring business of flowers in almost all metropolitan cities of the different states.
 The developed flower market in the country during 2005 is with area of 2.24 lakh ha with a
production of 6.54 lakh MT loose flowers and 19,515 lakh cut flowers.
 The traditional flowers are grown on a large area on a commercial scale. These flowers are mostly
grown for loose flower purpose.
 Area under cut flowers like rose, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, carnation and orchids is increasing day
by day.
 Plantation crops are another potential sector with lot of opportunities for employment generation,
foreign exchange earnings and overall supporting livelihood sustenance of mankind at large.
 These plantaion crops form the mainstay of lively hood in coastal areas of the country where
predominating stands of plantation crops are found.
 Coconut has so much importance in the country that the state Kerala receives its very name on the
basis of coconut, the Malayalam name of which is Kera. These cover an area of 31.02 lakh ha with a
production of 131.60 lakh MT.

Horticulture is important due to the following considerations:

1. As a source of variability in produce.

2. As a source of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, flavour, aroma, alkaloids, oleoresins, fibre, etc.
3. As a source of medicine.
4. As an economic proposition as they give higher returns per unit area in terms of energy, money,
job, etc.
5. Employment generation - fruit crops requires 860 man days/annum as against 143 man
days/annum for cereal crops where as the crops like grapes, banana and pineapple needs 1000-
2500 man days per annum.
6. Effective utilization of waste land through cultivation of hardy fruits and medicinal plants. 6
7. As a substitute for family income being the component of home garden/ kitchen garden.
8. As a foreign exchange earner, has higher share compare to agriculture crops.

SCOPE OF HORTICULTURE

 Like any other things, scope of horticulture depends on incentive it has for the farmers, adaptability
of the crops, necessity and facilities for future growth through inputs availability and infrastructure
for the distribution of produce/marketing etc.

1. Incentive for the farmer:

 The biggest incentive for the farmer is money.
 Horticultural crops provide more returns in terms of per unit area of production, export
value, value addition compared to agricultural crops.
2. Adaptability:
 India is bestowed with a great variety of climatic and edaphic conditions as we have climates
varying from tropical, subtropical, temperate and within these humid, semi-arid, arid, frost
free temperate etc.
 Likewise we have soils from loam, alluvial, laterite, medium black, rocky shallow, heavy
black, sandy etc., and thus a large number of crops can be accommodated with very high
level of adaptability. Thus, there is lot of scope for horticultural crops.
3. Necessity:
 After having achieved the self sufficiency in food, nutritional security for the people of the
country has become the point of consideration/priority.
 To meet the nutritional requirement in terms of vitamins and minerals horticulture crops are
to be grown in sufficient quantities to provide a bare minimum of 85 g of fruits and 200 g
of vegetables per head per day with a population of above 120 crores.
 Good land is under pressure for stable food, industry, housing, roads and infrastructure due
to population explosion and only wasteland had to be efficiently utilized where cultivation of
annuals is a gamble due to restricted root zone and their susceptibility of abiotic stress. These
lands can be best utilized to cultivate hardy horticultural crops like fruits and medicinal
plants.
 At present our share in international trade of horticultural commodities is less than one per
cent of total trade. Moreover, these commodities (spices, coffee, tea etc.,) fetch 10-20 times
more foreign exchange per unit weight than cereals and therefore, taking advantage of
globalization of trade, nearness of big market and the size of production, our country should 7
greatly involve in international trade which would provide scope for growth.

Major countries for export of horticultural produce from India

Sl.No. Commodity Major importer Share value (%)

1 Fruits and vegetables United Arab Emirates 28.00
2 Flower crops U.S.A 37.70
3 Processed products Soviet Union countries 14.60
4 Spices U.S.A 43.50
5 Cashew U.S.A 40.00

 In the recent past communication and transport system have improved, investment in food
industry has increased which will support growth of horticulture through quick deliverance
and avoidance of waste.

Reasons for scope of Horticulture in India are:

1. To exploit the great variability of agro climatic conditions in the country.

2. To meet the need for fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, beverages in relation to population
growth based on minimum nutritional security and for other needs.
3. To meet the requirement of processing industry.
4. To substitute import and increase export.
5. To improve the economic conditions of the farmers and to engage more labourers to avoid the
problem of unemployment.
6. To protect environment.

Other importance:

1. Similar to forest trees these horticultural trees will maintain the ecosphere.
2. They help in transforming the micro climate.
3. Provides shelter to birds, reptiles and other micro organisms and add to the geo-ecological
diversity on the land.
4. Provides thrust to the writers, poets, thinkers and analysts there by keeps their cultural impulse
alive.
5. Adds to the survival of life-spheres of living entity.

Horticultural crops and Human Nutrition:

 Fruits and vegetables play an important role in balanced diet.

8
 These provide not only energy rich food but also provide vital protective nutrients/elements and
vitamins.
 Comparatively fruits and vegetables are the cheapest source of natural nutritive foods.

Functions of fruits and vegetables in human body:

1. Fruits and vegetables provide palatability/ taste,

2. Improves appetite and provides fibre to overcome constipation.
3. They neutralize the acids produced during digestion of proteins and fatty acids.
4. They improve the general immunity of human body against diseases, deficiencies etc.
5. They are the important source of vitamins and minerals for used in several bio-chemical reactions
occur in body.
6. Fruits and vegetables provide higher energy value per unit area compared to cereals.

Some of the essential nutrients provided by different fruits are:

Vitamins/ Role in human body Source
Minerals
Vitamin-A Mango, Papaya, Persimon, Dates, Jack
1. Essential for growth and
fruit, Walnut, Oranges, Passion fruit,
reproduction.
Loquât etc.
2. Helps in resistance to infections,
increases longevity and decreases Coriander leaves, Drumstic leaves,
senility. Fenugreek leaves etc.
3. Deficiency causes, night blindness,
xeropthalmia, retardation in growth,
roughness in skin, formation of
stones in kidney.
1. For maintaining good appetite and
Vitamin – B1 Walnut, Apricot, Apple, Banana,
normal digestion.
Grapefruit, Plum and Almond
2. Necessary for growth, fertility,
lactation and for normal functioning Chillies, Colocasia leaves, Tomato, etc.
of nervous system.
3. Deficiency causes beri-beri,
paralysis, loss the sensitivity of skin,
enlargement of heart, loss of appetite
and fall in body temperature.
Vitamin – B2 1. Important for growth, health of skin Bael, Papaya, Litchi, Pomegranate, Wood
and for respiration in poorly apple and Pineapple.
vascularised tissue such as the
cornea. Amaranthus, Fenugreek leaves etc
2. Deficiency causes pellagra and
alopecia, loss of appetite, loss of
weight, sore throat, and development 9
of cataract, swollen nose and
baldness.

Fibre Guava, Pomegranate, Aonla, Grape, Amaranth, Mustard, Beet leaf, Spinach etc.

Minerals are essential for the growth and development for the human body:

Minerals Deficiency causes Sources

1. Calcium Causes Rickets, Sitaphal, Ramphal, Fig, Phalsa, Citrus, Sapota,
Osteomalacia. Grapes, West Indian Cherry etc.
Curry leaves, Amarantus, Radish leaves,
Fenugreek leaves ete
2. Phosphorous Essential for cell Wood apple, Avocado, Dates, Pomegranate and
multiplication of bones and Grape raisins.
soft tissues. Helps in
liberation of energy on
oxidation of carbohydrates.
3. Proteins Important for body growth, West Indian cherry, Avocado, Custrad Apple,
formation and maintenance Banana, Apricot, Guava, Grapes etc.,
of body tissues
Peas, cowpea, Bean etc..
4. Iron Act as oxygen carrier in the Karonda, Date palm, Grape raisins, West Indian
body. Cherry, Guava, Sitaphal, Avocado, Sapota, plum
etc.
Amarantus tender, Coriander leaves etc.

 Fruits are also a good source of energy. Eg. Avocado, Olive etc.,
 Fruits are also a good source of enzymes which are helpful in metabolic activities leading to proper
digestion of food. Eg. Jamun and Papaya.
 All fruits have one or the other medicinal value.
 They should be eaten in adequate quantity.
 Regular consumption of fruits reduces obesity, maintain health and increase the longevity of life.
 Fruits are attractive in appearance, delicious in taste and easily digestible. Therefore, they are liked
by young and old alike.

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10

SCENARIO OF HORTICULTURE
{Area, Production and Export –Import (EXIM) Trade}

 India is one of the leading producers of horticultural crops in the Globe.

 Horticultural crops cover 13.08 % of the total area under agriculture and contribute to about 28 % of
the GDP.
 These crops accounts for 37 % of the total exports of agricultural commodities.
 Due to planned emphasis laid on horticulture, India is accredited as the second largest producer of
fruits and vegetables,
 India is the largest producer and consumer of cashew nut, tea and spices.
 Third largest producer of coconut.
 Fourth largest producer and consumer of rubber.
 Sixth largest producer of coffee in the world.
 India exports fruits, vegetables, processed products, flowers, seeds and planting materials, spices,
cashew nut, tea, coffee etc.
 During 2005-06, the value of export material was worth Rs.1, 24,175 million. During the year, export
of cashew nut was dominantly higher followed by spices, tea and coffee.
Fruits:

 India is the largest producer of mango, banana, grape and litchi. However, the bulk of the production
is consumed domestically.
 Of the total global exports for fruits, India‗s share is only 0.3%.
 Fruits accounts for about 11% of total horticultural export from country.
 Grape and mango together constitute 60% of India‘s exports of fresh fruits.
 Citrus, banana, apple and papaya are other important fruits for export.
Vegetables:
 During the year 2005-06, the export of fresh vegetables was of the order of Rs 919.8 crore.
 Onion accounts for maximum share in exports trade.
 Other major vegetables are tomato, potato, bean, pea, mushroom, asparagus, capsicum and okra.
Floriculture:
 In floriculture, cut flowers alone account of 86% of the total trade in this sector.
 Dried flowers and other plant parts are other prominent commodities.
Processed products:
 Of the total horticultural trade, processed fruits and vegetables account for 20% and 17%
respectively.
 Among the processed fruits, fruits juice and dried fruits contribute to 41% and 12% of trade
11
respectively.
 Mango pulp, pickles and chutneys of various fruits remain in high demand in export trade.
 Among processed vegetables, mushrooms, gherkins, dehydrated onion and frozen pre-cut vegetables
are important items.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
Spices:

 World trade in spices has been estimated of the magnitude of 7.5 lakh metric tonnes valued at Rs
1650 million US$.
 Indian spices command 43% share in volume and 31% in value of the world trade (2005-06).
 These commodities account for more than 5% of the total agricultural export earnings in the country.
 Value added spices are in large demand in export trade and their share is 60% of total export under
spices.

Seeds and planting materials:

 The country exports seed and planting materials of fruits and vegetables.
 The export of these commodities was of the order of Rs.63 crores during the year 2004-05

Medicinal and aromatic plants:

 The country has its credits of exporting herbal material raw drugs to world market.
 Before 2005, Indian export of herbal material was worth Rs. 446 crore.
 China export in this regard has been worked out of the tune of Rs.18, 000-22,000 crore. Aloe veera,
belladonna, acrus, cinchona, Cassia tora, dioscorea, senna, isbgol, etc., hold prominence in export
trade under the sector.

Cashew nut:
 During the year 2004-05, cashew nut kernels worth Rs.2709 crore were exported.
 At present, the country exports about 1.27 lakh metric tonnes of cashew kernels worth Rs. 2500 crore.
Tea:
 Until 1987-88, India was dominant exporter of tea in the world market.
 The share of tea in total agricultural export was 20.7%.
 In view of stiff competition from Sri Lanka, Kenya, China tea export from the country has been divided
down.
 At present share of tea in total agricultural export has been merely 5%.
Coffee:
 After petroleum, coffee is the second largest commodity in the world trade. From India, 70% of the total
production of coffee is exported.
Coconut:
 The recent trends in the exports of coconut products witness decrease in export of copra and copra meal.
 There has been moderate increase in coconut oil, desiccated coconut and shell charcoal while
 There is significant increase in coco chemicals, activated carbon, coir and coir products.
 Coir and coir products are major coconut based commodities in the export basket.
Rubber:
 The country exports natural rubber.
 Under this sector, it accounts for 1.1% of the global share.
 The export of natural rubber rose from 6995 metric tonnes in 2001-02 to 75,905 metric tonnes during
2003-04.
Cocoa: 12
 India exports cocoa products.
 During the year 2005-06, India earned foreign exchange worth Rs.24.80 crore out of export of cocoa
beans/products.

 There is rise in the imports of certain commodities.

 Commodities like dried pea, apples, apple juice, dried vegetable, black pepper, raw cashew nut, areca nut,
cocoa etc., are important items imports by India.
 In spice sector, India is leading producer but bulk of its production is utilized domestically itself.
 In cashew nut production scenario, the country produces 5.4 lakh tonnes of raw cashew nuts, as against
the requirement of 11-12 lakh tonnes per annum to feed out 1700 cashew processing units.

RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS IN HORTICULTURE

1. Indian Institute of Horticultural Research(IIHR), Bangalore

2. Indian Institute of Vegetable Research(IIVR), Varanashi
3. Indian Institute of Spices Research(IISR), Calicut, Kerala
4. Central Institute of sub-tropical Horticulture(CISH), Lucknow
5. Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture(CITH), Srinagar
6. Central Potato Research Institute(CPRI), Kufri, Shimla
7. Central Tuber Crops Research Institute(CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala
8. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute(CPCRI) Kasargod,Kerala
9. Central Institute of Arid Horticulture(CIAH), Bikaner, Rajasthan
10. Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology(CIPHET), Ferozepur, Punjab
11. ICAR Research Complex for Goa, Ela, Old Goa
12. ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region. Barapani, Meghalaya
13. National Research Centre for Banana. Trichirapalli, Tamil Nadu
14. National Research Centre for Citrus, Nagpur, Maharastra
15. National Research Centre for Onion and Garlic, Pune, Maharastra
16. National Research Centre for Grape, Pune, Maharastra
17. National Research Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Anand, Gujarat
18. National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan
19. National Research Centre for Orchid, Gangtok, Sikkim
20. National Research Centre for Cashew nut, Puttur, Karnataka
21. National Research Centre for Seed Spices, Ajmer, Rajasthan
22. National Research Centre for Oil Palm, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh
23. National Research Centre for Pomegranate, Solapur, Maharastra
24. National Research Centre for Makhana, Patna, Bihar
25. National Research Centre for Litchi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar
26. National Horticulture Board(NHB), Gurgaon, Haryana

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HORTICULTURAL ZONES OF INDIA AND CLASSIFICATION OF

HORTICULTURAL PLANTS
 The Indian subcontinent is bestowed with a great variety of climate and soil conditions.
 Broadly the country can be divided into Tropical, subtropical and temperate regions.
 Within each broad category there are differences due to rainfall, humidity, altitude etc.
 Considering these aspects six different horticultural zones have been identified so that appropriate
choice of the crops can be made and development is planned. They are;

1. Temperate: Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, North Uttaranchal, Sikkim and part of Arunachal
Pradesh.
2. N.W. Subtropical: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Central Uttar Pradesh and North M.P.
3. N.E. Subtropical: Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur.
4. Central tropical: South Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and West
Bengal.
5. Southern tropical: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
6. Coastal tropical humid: Konkan, Goa, Kerala, Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

 To exploit the potential of a crop and its sustenance, right choice based on climate and soil is
necessary otherwise the management of the crop becomes difficult and the cost of cultivation
increases. To be precise, most adaptable crop should be chosen for sustenance.

Table 3: Climatic requirements for important fruits of India

Mango : Tropical and sub tropical.

Citrus : Subtropical but can be grown under temperate conditions.
Grapes : Temperate but can be grown under subtropical and tropical conditions.
Peaches : Temperate but low chilling varieties can be grown under subtropical conditions.
Sapota : Tropical but can be grown under subtropical conditions which are free from frost.
Papaya : Tropical and mild subtropical climate.
Banana : Tropical, can be grown under subtropical climate provided it is free from hot winds and frost.
Almond : Temperate but some low chilling varieties can be grown under subtropical climate.
Apple : Temperate but low chilling varieties can also be grown on lower hills.

 Climate is one of the important complex factors which influence the fruit production.
 Atmospheric conditions include rainfall, humidity, sunshine, wind and other factors.
 The fruit growing zones are classified based on the climate factors.

FRUIT ZONES ARE:

1. Tropical fruit zone:

 This class includes fruit crops which are ever green unable to endure cool temperature but 14
can tolerate warm temperature of about 1000F.
 The fruit plants of this zone need strong sunshine warm and humid climate and a very mild
winter.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 They cannot stand against frost.
 Areas under this zone include West Bengal, Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan Orissa,
Maharastra, AP, Karnataka, TN and Kerala.
 Fruits crops: Banana, Pineapple, Sapota, Papaya, Cashew, Pomegranate.

2. Sub- tropical fruit Zone:

 This class includes fruit crops intermediate characters to tropical and temperatures.
 The summer is hot and dry and winter is less mild.
 They may be either deciduous or ever green & are usually able to withstand a low
temperature but not the frost.
 Some require chilling for flower bud differentiation the fruits grow mostly in plains,
 The fruits include Citrus, Grapes, Phalsa, fig, guava, pomegranate, Banana etc.
 This fruit zone covers the plains of Punjab, UP, Parts of Bihar, MP, WB, Maharastra,
Rajasthan, Karnataka, AP, TN, Kerala, Orissa. etc.

3. Temperate fruit zone:

 This class of fruits grows successfully in cold regions where temperature falls below freezing
point during winter.
 During the cold season, the trees shed their leaves and go into rest period.
 For breaking the rest/dormant period, a definite chilling period is required. This chilling
temperature helps the plants to put forth new growth, flowering and fruiting with the onset of
spring season.
 The regions under this zone are J&K, Kuluvally, HP, Parts,
 Peaches, Plum, Cherries, Almond, Walnut, Strawberry, Apricot, persimmon, Pecan nut, Kiwi
fruit etc.
4. Arid Zone:
 The arid zone has an extreme climatic condition, high temperature low humidity, rainfall is
very low and its distribution is erratic, poor textured soil.
 The area of Rajasthan (62%) and Gujarat (20%) parts of the Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka &
Maharashtra
 The crops are Phalsa, Date palm, Pomegranate, Ber, Custard apple, Tamarind etc.
5. Semi- arid zone:
 This region exhibits low and erratic rainfall, low humidity and high temperature
 Fruits of arid region can be cultivated in this zone also Mango, Sapota, Guava, Jack,
Avocado, Ber, Pomegranate and Tamarind etc. 15
6. North- Eastern sub-Tropical zone:
 All tropical and sub-tropical fruits are grown in this region.

11. Humid zone fruit crops:

 This region is characterized by low temperature and high humidity.

 The crops are Litchi, Strawberry, Avocado, Mangosteen, Passion fruit etc.
 Apart from these fruit zones, India has been classified in to 21 agro ecological regions based
on the physiography of soils, bioclimatic types and growing periods.

CLASSIFICATION OF HORTICULTURAL PLANTS:

 India is endowed with rich vegetation wealth with rich diversity of plant wealth.
 About 9,500 species of ethno botanical interest have been recorded.
 Out of these, more than 50 types of fruits and vegetables, many individual types of spices, plantation
crops etc. are under commercial cultivation in different parts of the country, under different sets of
growing conditions.
 An attempt to deal with all these plants separately becomes tedious, cumbersome and infeasible and
more so repetitive.
 To avoid these difficulties, it is better to classify the plants in groups, based on similarity or
dissimilarity of attributes.
 Plants having similarity in either of the traits are placed under one group. Such type of grouping
plants in different categories is referred to as classification.
 The overall objective of the classification is to systematize the presentation and make the
remembrances of the plants easy and convenient.
 Generally based on botanical relationship, the plants are classified.

1. Based on nature of growth 1. Based on botanical relationship

2. Based on climatic requirement 2. Based on hardness or temperature
3. Based on continuation of growth tolerance
4. Based on types of fruit 3. Based on tolerance to soil acidity
5. Based on parts used 4. Based on tolerance to salt
6. Based on botanical relationship 5. Based on parts used as food
7. Based on salinity tolerance 6. Based on methods of raising
8. Based on ripening behaviour 7. Based on forcing
9. Based on ethylene evolution 8. Based on rate of respiration
10. Based on bearing habits 9. Based on pigmentation
11. Based on photoperiodic
requirement

III. FLOWERS IV. SPICES

1. Based on season of growing 1. Based on completion of life cycle

2. Based on colour of flower 2. Based on growth behaviour
3. Based on purpose of growing 3. Based on importance
4. Based on nature of growth 4. Based on part used
5. Based on mode of propagation 5. Based on utility
6. Based on growth behaviour 6. Based on cultural management
7. Based on photoperiodic 7. Based on botanical relationship
requirement 8. Based on photoperiodic
8. Based on ability to grow requirement

V. PLANTATION CROPS

1. Based on botanical relationship

2. Based on growth behaviour
3. Based on utility
4. Based on extent of growing
5. Based on intensity of cultivation

NURSERY
(Importance and Propagation Methods)
Nursery is a place where seedling, saplings or any other planting materials are raised, propagated,
multiplied and sold out for planting.

Importance of Nursery:

1. The young seedlings require special attention during the first few weeks after germination. It is
easier and economical to look after the young and tender seedlings growing in nursery bed in a
small area than in a large permanent site.
2. Majority of fruit crops are propagated by vegetative means. The propagules require special skill
and aftercare before transferring them in the main field. In a controlled condition in nursery all
these can be provided successfully by skilled labour.
3. Cuttings are best rooted and grafts are hardened in the mist house chamber which is an integrated
part of a nursery.
4. Direct sowing method is not so successful in several crops when compared with transplanting of
seedlings raised in nursery.
5. Plants hardened in the nursery are preferred for causality replacement in orchards.
6. Besides these, raising of seedlings or saplings in nursery provides more time for pre-planting
operations/preparations.
7. Seasoning/hardening of seedlings against natural odds is only possible in nursery.
Classification of nursery:

Nursery can be broadly grouped into two on the basis of its site:
1. Home nursery 2.Commercial nursery
1. Home nursery: is the area where planting materials specifically grown or raised only to cater
the needs of the growers garden.
2. Commercial nursery: Nurseries are larger in size and collection of plants. This is mainly
concerned with economic returns from the investments

Factors affecting the establishment of a nursery:

1. Location and site- Topography,climate , reputation of locality for business and transport facility
3 Selection of soil
2. Water facility
3. Manures
4. Availability of labour

Components of nursery: A nursery should consist of the following components:

1. Building structures: This includes office, sale counter, packing shed, potting shed, store, implement
shed and residential quarter. 18
2. Progeny tree block: The current choice of kind and variety of fruit crops and collection of true to
type mother plants have strong bearing on the success and goodwill of a nursery industry.

Methods of Propagation

1. Sexual Method of Propagation: In this method the plants are raised from seeds.

Advantages: For evolution of new varieties through breeding, the hybrids are raised from seed.
1. In some fruit plants like papaya, this is the most popular method of propagation.
2. Seed propagated rootstocks are hardy and develop better root system.
3. Viruses don‘t transmit through seeds, thus mostly the seedlings are free from virus
diseases.
4. Occurrence of polyembryony (more than one embryo in seed) in citrus and mango
leads to the development of uniform seedlings as in asexual method.
Disadvantages
1. Seedlings have a long juvenile period and come into bearing later as compared to
asexually raised plants.
2. Due to segregation of characters, the progeny is not true-to-type.
3. It is not economical to handle larger trees, as less number of trees can be
accommodated per unit area and the cultural operations are difficult.

2. Asexual Method of Propagation: In this method of propagation the plants are obtained from a
vegetative portion of the mother plant instead of seeds.
Advantages
1. In some fruit plants like banana, which do not bear seeds, this is the only method of
propagation.
2. The plants are generally true-to-type, uniform in growth, yielding capacity and fruit
quality.
3. Have short juvenile phase, thus come into bearing earlier than seedling plants.
4. The advantages of rootstocks can be obtained by budding or grafting susceptible
varieties on resistant/ tolerant rootstocks.
5. Plants have restricted growth, thus cultural practices and harvesting are easy.

Disadvantages
1. New variety cannot be evolved by this method.
2. Plants are not so vigorous and long-lived as the seedling trees.
3. Germplasm conservation requires lot of space and is expensive as compared to storage of
seeds.
i. Cutting:

Cutting is a method of asexual propagation in which plant part such as stem, root or leaf is cut from
the parent plant and placed under favourable condition to from roots and shoots thus producing a new
independent plant.
Advantages
1. It is the cheapest method of asexual method of propagation 19
2. It is used for clonal multiplication of root stocks.

Types of cuttings ; Stem cutting ; Root cutting ;Leaf cutting

Layering is the development of roots on the stem while it is still attached to the parent plant. The
rooted stem is then reached to become a new plant growing on its own roots. Such rooted stem is
known as a layer. Stool layering is also used for clonal multiplication.

Types layering

 Simple layering ;Compound layering; Mound layering ;Air layering

iii. Grafting

Grafting is the art of uniting or joining the parts of two independent plants in such a manner that they
unite together and develop into a single independent plant.
 The part of graft which is to become the shoot system is termed as scion.
 The part which is to become the root system is called as root stock.
Types of grafting
o Approach grafting
o Side grafting
o Veneer grafting
o Epicotyl grafting(Stone grafting )
o Soft wood grafting
iv. Budding

Budding is also method of grafting wherein only one bud with a piece of bark, and with or without wood, is
used as scion material. It is also called as bud grafting. The plant successful union of the stock and bud is also
known as ‗buddling‟.

Methods of budding
 T –Budding (Shield budding); Inverted T-Budding ;Patch Budding;Flute Budding ;Ring Budding;
Chip Budding

PROPAGATION THROUGH SPECIALIZED VEGETATIVE STRUCTURES

There are certain plant modifications which are used for vegetative propagation of plants. These modified
plant parts may be stem, root, or leaves and are usually specialized for food storage. Two principal methods
are used for propagation of plants by using these modifications.
1. Separation : naturally detachable structures, such as bulbs or corms are separated and
planted individually and
2. Division: The plants modification such as rhizomes, tubers etc., are cut into sections to
obtain new plants from each section.
1. Bulbs: Bulbs are produced by monocotyledonous plants in which the stem is modified for storage
and reproduction. Bulb is a specialized underground organ consisting of a short freshly, usually
vertical stem axis bearing at tip apex or growing points and enclosed by thick freshly scales. Bulb
scales morphologically are the continuous sheathing leaf base. Growing points develop in the axils of
these scales to produce miniature bulbs known as bulbets/ daughter bulbs. These daughter bulbs can
be separated from the mother plant at the end of growing season and used as propagating material. 20
Ex: Tulip, Daffodils, Polyanthers (Tuberose), Onion, Garlic, (cloves)

@@@@@

PRINCIPLES OF ORCHARD ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT

 Orchard is a long-term investment and needs lot of planning and expertise.

 While planning and planting a new orchard, one should give utmost attention and care to various
aspects like,
o Selection of location and site,
o Nature of soil and subsoil,
o Planning of suitable kinds and varieties of fruits,
o Proper planting distance and
o Purchasing of plants from reliable nurseries.

Preparation of land

 The land should be cleaned properly for free movement of men and machinery.
 All the trees, bushes and creepers should be removed.
 The soil of the area designed for growing fruit plants needs thorough preparation.
 A virgin land requires a deep ploughing and harrowing.
 The land should be repeatedly ploughed and bring the soil to a fine tilth.

Layout plan

 The marking of position of the plant in the field is referred as layout.

 The layout plan of the orchard should be prepared carefully, preferably in consultation with
horticultural experts.
 The orchard layout plan includes the system of planning provision for orchard paths, roads, water
channels and farm building.
 A sketch of the proposed orchard should be prepared before the actual planting is taken up.

Method of layout

 For layingout an orchard, according to square system, a base line is first established and position of
the trees is marked along this line by laying wooden stakes in the ground.
 Another base line at right angle to the first base line, is then marked along with the other edge of the
field with the help of a carpenter square or a cross staff.
 The right angle can also be drawn with the help of measuring tape.
 One end of this tape is fixed at three metre distance from the corner along the first line and the tape
is then stretched along the second base line for a distance of four metre. The diagonal distance
between these two points should be five metre.
 The wooden stakes are put in the ground at the desired distance along the second line.
 All the four rows are thus established and staked. Three men, one putting the peg in the field and
others correcting alignment while moving along the base line, can easily stake the whole field.
 The marking of position of the plant in the field is called ―layout”.
Aims:
1) To provide adequate space to plants. 22
2) To accommodate more number of plants.
3) Easy intercultural operations.
4) System of planting

Advantage:

1) Most easy and popular one.

2) In this row to row and plant to plant distance is kept similar.
3) Plants are exactly at right angle to each other.
4) Interculture operations can be done in both the directions.
5) Adequate space for inter-cultivation of remunerative crops like vegetables.

2. RECTANGULAR SYSTEM

In this system, the plot is divided into rectangles instead of

squares and trees are planted at the four corners of the rectangle in
straight rows running at right angles. Like square system, this
system also facilitates the interculture in two directions. The only
difference is that in this system more plants can be accommodated
in the row keeping more space between the rows.

Advantages:
1) Lay out in rectangular shape.
2) More space between row to row.
3) Inter-cultural operations can be done in both the ways.
4) Plants get proper space and sunlight.

3. HEXAGONAL SYSTEM
In hexagonal system, the trees are planted
in the corners of equilateral triangles. Six trees
thus form a hexagon with another tree at its
centre. This system, though a little difficult for
execution but accommodates 15 percent more
plants. Cultivation of land between the tree rows
is possible in three directions with this system.
This system is generally followed where the land
is costly and very fertile with ample provision of irrigation water.
Advantages:

1) Accommodates 15 % more plants than the square system.

2) Plants are planted at the corner of equilateral triangle.
3) Six trees are planted making a hexagon.
23
4) The seventh tree is planted in the centre and called septule.
5) This requires fertile land.

Disadvantage: Lay out is difficult and cumbersome.

This system is exactly

like the square system but one
additional tree is planted in the
centre of each square. The
number of plants per acre by this
system is almost doubled than the
square system. Fruit trees like
papaya, kinnow, phalsa, guava,
peach, plum etc. can be planted as
fillers in the permanent trees
provides an additional income to the grower in the early life of the orchard. The filler trees are uprooted when
the main orchard trees start commercial fruiting.

5. CONTOUR SYSTEM
This system is usually followed in the hilly areas with
high slopes but it is very much similar to the square/rectangular
system. Under such circumstances, the trees may be well planted
in lines following the contour of the soil with only a slight slope.
Irrigation and cultivation are then practiced only across the slope
of the land as this practice reduces the chances of soil erosion. In
this system layout is done as in square/rectangular system, first
by establishing the base line at the lowest level and then marking
for the trees should be done from the base to the top. Bench
terraces are used where the slope is greater than 10 per cent.

TRIANGULAR SYSTEM

1) In this system, trees are planted as in the square system but the plants in the 2 nd, 4th, 6th and such
other alternate rows are planted midway between the 1st, 3rd, 5th and such other alternative rows. This
system provides
2) Plants in alternate rows are off set half the space between plants in a row.
3) Result in 9 % fewer plants than square and rectangular system.
Eg : Amrapali – 1600 plants / ha.
4. More open space for trees and for intercrop.

@@@@

TYPES OF ORCHARDS
 Orchard refers to an area where intensive cultivation of fruit crops is done. Or
 It is an area where fruit crops like mango, citrus, papaya, banana etc. are cultivated. Or
 It is an enclosed area where a fruit /group of fruit trees are grown.

1. Orcharding: refers to growing of fruit plants in an orderly manner and maintain them for successive
economic returns.
2. Garden: The term garden refers to fruit farm, where sophisticated agro-techniques are employed for
commercial cultivation.
Eg: Grape garden.
Specific crops : 1. Vineyard/vinery—grape garden
2. Pinery- Pineapple
3. Orangery—Orange garden
3. Plantation: refers to a fairly large area where cultivation is done with a particular type of fruit crop.
Eg: Mango plantation, apple plantation, coconut plantation etc.

4. Estate: refers to large area (more than 1000 acres) of sole crop cultivation. This terminology was
used in earlier days (British Empire).

Eg: Coffee estate and Tea estate.

Types of Orchards.

There are various types of orcharding

1. Orcharding with single variety of a particular fruit crop.
2. Orcharding with different variety of a fruit crop.
3. Mixed orchard with different fruit crops of almost equal life span.
4. Orcharding with intercrops/intercropping.
5. Multistoried orchard.
6. High density orchard.
7. Dry land orchard.
8. Clonal orchards.
9. Homestead plantation
10. Nutrition /Kitchen garden.
1. Orcharding with single variety of a particular fruit crop:
Eg: Mango orchard exclusively Alphonso variety.
Pomegranate orchard of Kesar variety.
Guava orchard of Sardar variety.
Advantages:
1. Purity of the variety can be maintained.
2. Convenient for planning and management.
3. All the trees come to harvest at the same time.
Disadvantages:
25
1. The variety may be incompatible (which leads to poor fruit set).
2. The variety may be susceptible to pest and diseases.
3. The variety may be irregular like Alphonso variety.
4. The variety may not satisfy all consumers.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
2. Orcharding with different variety of fruit crop:

Eg: Mango orchard - Alphonso+ Kesar+Pairi.

Sapota orchard - Cricket ball+ Kalipatti.
Grape - Thomson seedless+ Sonaka +Sharad seedless.
Advantages:
1. If one variety fails for some reasons other variety will give some returns/income.
2. Problem of self incompatibility can be overcome.
3. It can help in supply variety of fruits during different periods and to cater the needs of different
customers.
Disadvantages:
1. Purity of variety may be affected.
2. Management and harvesting varies.
3. Mixed orchards with different fruits of equal life span.
3. Mixed orchard with different fruit crops of almost equal life span.
Eg: Mango+Sapota+Guava.
Tamarind+Ber+Annona+Aonla.
Fig+Pomegrante+Ber+Lime.
Papaya+Banana+Pineapple.
Advantages:
1. More than one crop may be available on the same piece of land.
2. If one crop fails other crop will come to rescue and maintains continuity of income.
3. Year round income.
Disadvantages:
1. Management becomes very difficult.
2. Problems of pest and diseases.

4. Orcharding with intercrop:

This system involves incorporation of another species (fruit/vegetable) in between the interspaces of
main crop. This system uses the open space available during pre-bearing period of main crop. The
intercropping is discontinued once the main crop completely covers the canopy. The intercrop selected
should have the following characters.

1. Should be compatible with main crop in their water, nutrient and soil requirement.
2. Compact stature and should not compete with main crop.
3. Short duration when compared to other perennial crops.
4. Should not act as an alternate host for pest and diseases.
Advantages:
1. Helps in getting additional income from the orchard during pre-bearing stage of main crop.
2. It also acts as a cover crop and prevents soil erosion.
3. Suppress the weed growth in open space.
4. Efficient land utilization.
Eg: Banana, Papaya, Pineapple, Guava, Phalsa, Fig, Beans, Cowpea, Dolichos, Marigold, Gaillardia, Aster
etc.
5. Multistoried orchard:
Eg: Coconut+Black pepper+cocoa+pineapple.
Arecanut+Vanilla+Banana+Pinapple. 26
The principle involved in multistoried orchard is harvesting light at different height/story. The
planting should be such that sunlight is harvested by different crops at different stories/levels/height and there
won‘t be any competition for soil nutrients, moisture and sunlight because the spread and distribution of roots
at different crop component is distributed in different layers of the soil profile.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
6. High density orchard:

High density aims at increasing the productivity per unit area by increasing plant population/unit area
by closer spacing. This has been successfully done in several temperate fruit crops like apple, pear, peach etc.
where there is availability of dwarfing rootstocks and plant response for training and pruning and chemical
regulation of size.

Eg : Apple 3x3m : 1111 plants ; 3x2m -1666 plants

Limited success of high density is noticed in tropical and subtropical fruit crops because of

1. Non availability of dwarfing rootstocks.

2. Vigorous growth throughout the year.
3. Poor response for training and pruning.
High density orchard was tried in mango with dwarfing variety like Amrapali and with the use of
dwarfing rootstock like Olur, Vellaikollamban.
Different types of high density planting followed in fruit crops:

Bush orchard, Pyramid orchard, Tatura trellies, Meadow orchard, Hedge row system etc.

Advantages:

1. High returns per unit area.

2. Maximum use of resources.
3. Possibility of adopting mechanization.
Disadvantages:
1. Competition in later years.
2. Pest and disease problems.
3. Cultural operation is difficult.

7. Dryland orchard:
Growing of fruit plants in drylands like arid and semiarid zones as rainfed crop. This concept is gaining
importance as several fruit crops have been identified for cultivation in arid and semi arid regions.
Eg: Ber, Aonla, Datepalm, Tamarind, Fig, Phalsa etc.
With the advancement of irrigation technology and efficient water harvesting and conservation some
of high value fruit crops are also being grown in arid and semiarid/rainfed regions.
Eg: Mango, Grape, Pomegranate etc.
8. Clonal orchard:
Orchard established from plants derived from single individual mother plants through vegetative means.
Eg: Clonal orchard of mango var. Alphonso.
Advantages:
Plants will be uniform in growth, bearing habit and management practicese

9. Homestead Plantation
Plantation is done in the premises of the house/bungalow compound is referred a homestead
plantations. It is a system of crop production for diverse uses of family members. Homestead plantation is
very common in South-Indian state. Coconut-banana/cocao-turmeric/ginger/cassava/pineapple etc. are
planted in available land spaces in house compound
@@@@@ 27

SOIL AND ENVIRONMENT FOR HORTICCULTURE CROPS

SOIL:
 Soil is the upper most crust of earth surface which supports plant growth.
 It is defined as a three phase system in which plants grow. These phases are solid, liquid and gas and
are essential. Solid part is frame which provides space for other two. This consists of minerals, clay
minerals and organic matter.
 The soil is also a living system with millions of microbes that breakdown organic matter and builds it
again.
 Microbes are essential and survive only when soil is well aerated and rich in organic matter and
devoid of waterlogged conditions.
 Texture of soil depends on the size of solid particles and classified as gravel, coarse and fine sand,
silt and clay.
 Soils are classified according to relative distribution of these particles and there are 12 textural
classes.
 Likewise, arrangement of these particles is referred as structure, and both texture and structure lend
soil physical properties like water holding capacity, aeration and bulk density.
 Generally loamy soils and crumb structure are most preferred for fruit crops.
 According to level of organic matter, soils are classified as mineral soil or organic soil and soil
having more than 20% organic matter is organic soil like peat and muck.
 Minerals and salts lend chemical properties to the soil like pH, alkalinity, sodicity, salinity and cation
exchange capacity which influence the availability of nutrients in soil.
 Therefore, for making choice for soil, soil analysis in terms of following criteria is essential to decide
on land capability.
Criteria for land capability class:
i. Slope and erosion hazard.
ii. Soil depth.
iii. Drainage.
iv. Workability.
v. Stoniness and rockiness.
vi. Water holding capacity.
vii. Permeability.
viii. Nutrient availability.
ix. Fertility status.
x. Salinity, alkalinity and acidity hazards.
 Based on these criteria there are 8 capability classes, of which (i) to (iv) are suitable for cultivation
and (v) to (viii) are not suitable for cultivation.
 The soil provides support for the plant and act as storehouse of nutrients and water as well as oxygen
for root growth.
 The ability of the soil to support plant growth is often referred to as its productive capacity which
28
depends on fertility and physical condition. Therefore, the soil has to be a good soil.
 A good soil is one which has the capacity to nourish and sustain plant growth by providing mineral
particles (nutrients) in an available form to plants by their interaction with soil air, moisture,
microbes and humus.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 Generally a loam soil is considered to be a good soil.
 Generally fruit crops need porous, aerated, deep (2 m) uniformly textured soils and the pH of soil
should be within range of 6-8.
 Soil with hardpan within 120 cm from surface, soil with high clay content at surface and very less at
subsurface or vice-versa are not suitable for fruit crops.
 Fruit crops are susceptible to waterlogged condition and growth is adversely affected by salinity,
sodicity and alkalinity.
 It is, therefore, important that soil be analyzed for its quality and then choice of the crop is made for
sustainable production.
 If the soils are problematic like poor aeration or drainage, sodicity, alkalinity, acidity and salinity,
they require improvement or reclamation before taking up crop production or the venture would fail.
 Alternatively tolerant or resistant crops can be choosen for different problems.
o Salinity tolerant crops: Kair, Khirni, Woodapple, Date palm, Ber, Aonla, Fig, Sapota etc.
o Sodicity tolerant crops: Ber, Tamarind, Woodapple, Date palm, Aonla, Karonda, Fig,
Phalsa, Pomegranate, Guava, Bael and almond.
o Drought tolerant crops: Ber, Aonla, Ahalsa, Lasoda, Kair, Custard apple, Karonda, Fig,
Guava etc.
o If we know the soil and the requirement of soil for the crops, then choice of the crop can easily be
made.
Grouping of fruits according to their tolerance to salinity:
a. High salt tolerance : Date palm, Ber and Aonla.
b. Medium salt tolerance : Pomegranate, Fig and Grape.
c. Low salt tolerance : Apple, Orange, Almond, Lemon and Avocado.

 In making choice of soil for fruit crops physical properties should he emphasized, more as chemicals
can be added from outside to improve nutrient status and chemical properties of the soil.
 Generally the depth and the drainage-ability are very important for crop production.
 To upkeep soils for sustainable production following things are to be done before and after planting a
crop:
Soil analysis in terms of its physical and chemical attributes

 Bring the soil to its optimum potential by applying organic matter, chemical fertilizers, micronutrient
and amendments depending on soil analysis report.
 Adoption of soil conservation technique like green manuring on regular basis.
 Use of improved water management techniques like drip irrigation and check basin or Furrows.
 Incorporation of large quantity of bulky organic matter each year.
 Creation of appropriate drainage around the plot.
 Scrapping of salts and reclamation of soil by application of gypsum, iron pyrites, press mud etc., on
regular basis in case of salinity problem.
 Replenishment of nutrients harvested by the crop on regular basis by preparing a balance sheet for
nutrients.
 Recycling of organic waste. 29
 Soil is the most important natural resource for fruit culture and it needs to be protected and
improved.

 Climate is the most important factor on which choice of the crop for a region depends and therefore,
understanding about soail and climate and their requirement for different crops for optimum
production on sustainable basis is important for horticulturists.

Climate is defined as the whole of average atmospheric phenomena for a certain region calculated for
a period of thirty years. These phenomena are light, heat, water and air.

LIGHT:

 Electromagnetic radiation to which the organs of plant react ranging in wavelength from 4000 to
7700 angstrom units, and is propagated at a speed of about 540 kilometres per second.
 It is essential for the process of photosynthesis and therefore, for growth and development of plants.
 There are two aspects of light, its intensity and duration which are important for plant development.
 The light intensity can be estimated from the number of hours of bright sunlight or from the
cloudiness of sky.
 Generally horticultural crops need a lot of light and must be grown in sunny climate, but there are
some crops which can tolerate shade. Eg. Turmeric and ginger.
 There are others like young mangosteen, coffee, cocoa and tea need shade during part of their
development.
 A third group requires permanent shade like salak palm, duku, and carambola.

 The duration of light for the time elapsing between dawn and dusk referred as photoperiod or day
length. This exerts considerable influence on flowering.

Based on the response by plants the major classes are following. However, fruit crops for such
categories are not known.
1. Long day plants: Cabbage, Cauliflower, Onion, Beetroot, Radish, Carrot, Spinach, Potato,
Dill and Plantago.
2. Short day plants: Strawberry, Pineapple, Chrysanthemum, Poinsettia, Aster, Balsam,
Salvia, Euphorbia and Xanthium.
3. Day neutral plants: Tomato, most fruit crops, Pepper, Cucumber, Snapdragon, Mirabilis
and certain varieties of peas.
HEAT:
 Heat is a non-mechanical energy transfer with reference to a temperature difference between a
system and its environmental surrounding.
 It is measured as temperature by thermometers.
 The growth of the plants depends primarily on temperature.
 Availability of heat units decide the crop for a given place and the average temperature of a place
gives an idea about heat units available on the basis of which crop can be decided.
30
 Temperate fruit crops like apple, pear, peach, plum and almond become dormant due to short day
conditions in the region and need chilling of various lengths to break dormancy.
 Frost and chilling are harmful for tropical and subtropical plants.

Therefore, under such conditions appropriate choice of plants and provision of protection become
important.

Based on temperature variations on the surface of the earth we have the following climates.
 Tropical equable climate with no distinct winter.
 Subtropical Climate with distinct winter and summer.
 Temperate: Distinct winter, summer and autumn with temperature below freezing during winter is
common.
1. Tropical : Mango, Banana, Papaya, Sapota, Pineapple, Coconut, Cashew, Arecanut, Breadfruit,
Jackfruit and Avocado.
2. Subtropical: Guava, Grape, Citrus, Date palm, Phalsa, Pomegranate, Litchi and Loquat.
3. Temperate: Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Quince, Apricot, Walnut, Almond, Strawberry and Cherry.

Classification of vegetable and flower crops according to seasons

Warm Season Cool Season

Vegetables Bottle gourd Cabbage
Water melon Cauliflower
Brinjal Pea,Radish, tomato
Tomato Beans
Clusterbean Potato
Okra Onion
Sweetpotato Carrot
Radish
Tomato
Flowers Marigold Aster
Zinnia Poppy
Chrysanthemum Dianthus
Sunflower Dahlia
Gomphrena Salvia
Gaillardia Petunia
Portulaca Pansy
Kochia Phlox
Amaranthus Coreopsis
Celosia Verbena
Coreopsis Diamorphotheca
Calendula

WATER
 Water is a transparent, odourless and tasteless liquid compound of hydrogen and oxygen (H 20) with
11.91% hydrogen and 88.81% oxygen.
 It is essential for plant growth and development as a substrate in photosynthesis, regulation of plant
temperature, distribution of metabolites and nutrients. 31
 It comes through precipitation of rain and snow.
 Near equator the total rainfall is 2000 mm per year and away from it, which reduces but again
influenced by a number of factors like mountain ranges.

AIR
 A mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases that surrounds the earth and forms its atmosphere.
 It is also one of the climatic factors influencing plant growth.
 If its quality is polluted by the accumulation of gasses like hydrocarbons, SO2, CO2, CO, NO,
ethylene and methane the plant growth adversely affected but we are more concerned with the
movement of air (wind) causing great damage to crops in deserts, coastal areas, valleys for which
provision of windbreaks and shelterbelts are suggested and such situations sometimes have to be
avoided for plantation.
 Storm has a wind speed of 50/hr whereas, hurricane has a wind speed of more than 100km/hr.

Classification of plants according to photoperiodic requirements.

1. Short-day plants Strawberry, Chrysanthemum, Cosmos bipinnatus, Aster, Poinsettia, Impetiens

balsamina (Balsam), Salvia occidentalis, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Xanthium
pensylxanicum, Rice, Some soyabean varieties and Tobacco.
2 Long-day plants Spinach, Beet, Radish, Potato, Hibiscus syriacus, Hyoscyamus niger, Anethum
graveolens (Dill), Plantago lanceolata and Wheat.
3 Day-neutral plants Most of the fruit crops, Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber, Mirabilis (Four O Clock
plant), Cotton, Certain varieties of peas, Buck wheat and Snapdragon.
4 SL plants Strawberry, Primula malacoides and Cineraria hybrid.
5 LL plants Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, Silene pendula.
6 LS plants Physostegia verginiana, Bottonia latisquama.
7 SS plants Pharbitis nil, Cosmos bipinnatus and Glycine max.
8 LI plants Phlox paniculata.
9 SI plants Late varieties of rice.
10 IS plants Chrysanthemum articum.
11 IL plants Spinach and Wheat
12 II plants Capsicum frutenscens (Bell Pepper) and Early varieties of rice.
32

DIGGING AND FILLING OF PITS

 Marking of pits and planting should always be done with the help of planting board.
 The guide pegs are installed at both the ends.
 One meter deep pits of one meter diameter should be dug.
 Top 30 cm soil should be kept on one side, which is used for refilling the pits as it is fertile soil.
 Bottom 70 cm soil should be kept on other side, which is discarded.
 The pits should be left exposed for a few days before actual planting.
 These pits should be refilled with mixture of topsoil, 2-3 baskets of silt and 2-3 baskets of well-
decomposed farmyard manure.
 The refilled pits should be watered a few days before planting the tree. To each pit add carbofuron
(25g) for control of white ants.
Method of planting
 Bore holes of suitable size are made in the centre of the filled pits with the help of planting board.
 Place the earth ball of a plant in it in such a way that the upper surface has the same level as ground.
 Fill loose earth around the ball and press it firmly with the handle of a spade or khurpi.
 Apply water soon after planting the plants in the pits.

Planting distance of fruit plants:

 The spacing given to the fruit trees is generally governed by the different factors like climate and
soil, choice of varieties, growth habit of tree, rootstock used, nature of irrigation and pruning
technique followed.
 The spacing may vary according to different systems of planting.
 Provision of optimum spacing to fruit trees is one of the most important aspects of successful fruit
culture.
 Optimum spacing regulates the proper utilization of sunlight, avoids competition in the uptake of
nutrients caused by the collision of root systems and facilitates proper irrigation.
 The latest technology on high-density plantation system where trees are planted at critical spacing for
maximum utilization of space is becoming popular.
 It will be very difficult to suggest exact spacing for fruit trees, which will suit every locality or soil.
 Given below is the spacing of some of the important fruit plants, which serve as basic guideline for
establishing a new orchard.
Name of fruit tree Planting distance Number of plants/ha
(m) (square system)
1. Mango 10 100
2. Citrus & Pomegranate 6 275
3. Grape i) Head system 2.0x1.5 3300
ii) Kniffin system 4.00x3.00 1100
iii) Bower system 3.1x6.0 550
4. Guava, Peach & Loquat 6.5 225 33
5. Litchi & Sapota 7.5-9.0 180-123
6. Ber & Pear 7.5 180
7. Date palm & Almond 6-7 275-202
8. Jamun 10-12 105-75
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
9. Phalsa & Papaya 1.5 4400
10. Banana i) Tall varieties 2.7x3.0 1210
ii) Dwarf varieties 1.8x1.8 3052
11. Pineapple 30x60x90 cm 43500
12. Custard apple 5 390
13. Jack fruit 10 100
Planting season:
The planting season of different fruit crops vary on the basis of their evergreen or deciduous nature.

Evergreen fruit plants:

 There are two planting times for evergreen fruits i.e., beginning of monsoon and end of rainy season
in heavy rainfall areas.
 The fruit plants such as citrus, mango and litchi should preferably be planted during September or in
the beginning of October when the weather becomes mild and more favourable and there is enough
moisture in the soil.
 Guava can also be planted bare-rooted during February-March or August-September.
 The plant should be defoliated and the roots covered with moist material.
 Most of the sub-tropical and tropical evergreen fruit plants are suitably transplanted during the rainy
season when the atmospheric humidity is high and sufficient supply of soil moisture is obtained.
 During this active period of growth, the plants easily penetrate their roots in the soil and get
established.
 High atmospheric humidity during the rainy season helps them to minimize the transpiration loss.
 The evergreen plants can also be transplanted during the onset of spring with equal success provided
an ample quantity of irrigation water is available.
 Early regeneration of rootlets due to high temperature and available moisture during this period helps
in early establishment of the plants in most of the cases.
Deciduous fruit plants:
 The deciduous fruit plants are planted during winter when they are dormant.
 Their planting must be completed before the start of new growth i.e., up to middle January in case of
peach and plum and up to middle of February in case of pear and grapes.
 The bare rooted ber can also be planted during January and up to middle of February.
 It would be wise, if the planting operation in deciduous fruit plants could be done well before the
dormancy is broken and the plants start their growth afresh during subsequent period.
 Planting should be avoided during hot and dry spells of weather.
 The fruit trees should preferably be planted in the afternoon and on cloudy and humid days rather
than in bright sunshine and dry weather.
@@@@@
34

ORCHARD MANAGEMENT
 Orchard is an area, often enclosed, devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees and as a unit it
encompasses various resources like land, water, trees and external inputs.
 All these resources have to be well utilized to the best advantage for higher production per unit area
on sustainable basis without adversely affecting the quality of environment.
 We should also understand that a good manager is one who gets maximum out of various inputs
consistently without any loss of fertilizers and manure, plant, plant protection chemicals, produce etc.
 Therefore, one should understand the management of these qualities of both resource and output.
Various resources are soil and water.

Resources for better comprehension of orchard management are;

1) Soil management
2) Water management
3) Nutrition management
4) Pruning and training (plant management)
5) Weed management
6) Plant protection against insect pests and diseases.
7) Bearing, fruitfulness and causes of unfruitfulness.
8) Maturity and harvest.
9) Post harvest handling, utilization and marketing.

Soil management/Floor management:

 Soil management aims at maintaining soil in good condition, or improving the condition if necessary.
 This includes protection from direct sunlight and from the impact of rainfall and wind erosion.
 In annual crops like vegetables and flowers which do not leave vacant space.
 There is no such problem except that one has to replenish nutrients harvested by crops and leached
out but in tree crops, wherein, it is usually several years after planting before a tree which form such
an extensive canopy that it can provide adequate protection to the soil, the vacant space needs to be
productively utilized and protected through different management practices like intercropping, cover
cropping, cultivation, sod culture, mulching, rotation, high density planting.

Objectives of soil management:

1) To create favourable conditions for moisture supply and proper drainage.
2) To maintain high fertility level and replenishment against losses.
3) To provide proper soil conditions for gaseous exchange and microbial activities through
addition of organic matter.
4) To check or reduce soil erosion.
5) To ensure supply of nutrients for growth and development of plants.
6) To utilize vacant land for additional income because such a loss is inconceivable for small
holders. 35
7) To reduce the cost of cultivation with high economic returns.
8) To suppress weed population.

1) Intercrop: Any crop other than main crop grown between the rows of perennial tree crops is known
as intercrop and the cultivation there of is intercropping.

2) Green manure crop: The crop other than main crop grown for the purpose of enriching the soil for
organic matter is called green manure crop.

3) Cover crop: The crop grown to provide a cover to soil to protect it from erosion. It may be green
manure crop also.

Methods of Soil Management:

Appropriate soil management method is important for the control of weeds, incorporation of organic
and inorganic fertilizers and to facilitate absorption of water in soil.
The common soil management practices are,
(1) Cultivation
(2) Sod Culture
(3) Mulching and
(4) Rotation

Choice of the system is determined by many factors as mentioned below:

(i) Type of crop
(ii) Rooting depth of the crop
(iii) Slope of the soil
(iv) Rainfall of the area
(v) Climatic condition of the place
(vi) Economic condition of the farmer
1. Cultivation:
 Cultivation in context with soil management refers to working of the soil by ploughing, harrowing,
disking or hoeing.
 It is essential for removal of weeds, incorporation of manures and fertilizers, green manuring and to
facilitate water and nutrient absorption through better aeration.
 Depth of tillage and areas are determined by root depth and spread of the canopy of the tree. In
cultivation different modifications are made under specific conditions.

(i) Clean cultivation: In this method of soil management the space between plants is kept clean by tillage
and removal of weeds.

Advantages:

 Removes competition of weeds for light, water and nutrients from crop and avoidance of
alternate host for pests and diseases.
 Improves soil physical condition through better aeration by breaking clods.
36
 Helps in breaking hard top and abstructions in the infiltration of water.
 Improves soil biological activities through better aeration.

 Loss of organic matter.

 Loss of soil through erosion even on flat lands through water and wind.
 Loss of nutrient through excessive leaching.
 Injury to roots and creation of entry points for pathogens.

 Due to several such disadvantages, clean cultivation is not advisable in fruit farming.

(ii). Cultivation and cover crops:

 In areas where soil is eroded during rains and drainage is poor, soil is cultivated and cover crops are
grown between the rows during rains.
 The crop may and may not be turned into soil.
 These crops not only increase water retaining capacity of soil and biological complex of the soil but
also add organic matter when ploughed in besides checking erosion.
 As cover crops, legumes should be preferred because they add extra N in soil through fixation of
atmospheric-N in their nodules.
 They also suppress weeds during rainy season.
 Crops like greengram, blackgram, cowpea, cluster bean, and soybean should be preferred during
kharif season
 While pea, fenugreek, broad bean and lentil can be preferred in winter season as cover crops.

Advantages:
a. Adds organic matter in soil.
b. Improves soil condition.
c. Improves soil fertility.
d. Increases water retention capacity of soil.
e. Increases biological complexes of soil.
f. Checks soil erosion.
g. Checks nutrient losses through soil erosion.

(ii) Cultivation and intercropping.

 In this case of orchard soil management, cultivation is done for the purpose of raising intercrops.
 Intercropping is growing of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field so that crop
intensification occurs in both time and space dimensions and there is intercrop competition during all
or part of crop growth. This can be mixed strip or relay cropping.
 In context of an orchard or a plantation of perennial fruit trees, however, the practices of growing
annuals or relatively short duration crop in the interspace during their formative years is referred to
as intercropping and the growing of perennial in the interspacing of perennials is called mixed
cropping.
 The term multi-storey cropping refers to a multispecies crop combination involving both annuals
and perennials with an existing stand of perennials. 37

Disadvantage:

 If the main plantation is not given proper care, serious losses may occur as a result of root restriction,
damage and infection, undue exhaustion of the soil, perpetuation of viral, fungal and nematode
infection.
 Intercrops should therefore, receive secondary importance and fulfill the following criteria.
 Should not be tall growing and spreading type.
 They should not be exhaustive.
 Should not function as alternate host for common pests and diseases.
 The water requirement schedule should match or phenology of crop should match so that
operation could be synchronized.
 Should be compatible with main crop.
 Besides, it is necessary that separate provision for nutrients should be made for intercrop to avoid
competition.
 Normally if one selects intercrop on the basis of agro-climate, resource, market and compatibility of
crop with perennial plantation it should be a successful choice.
 Annual crops particularly legumes and shallow rooted vegetable crops like tomato, onion, beans,
radish, spinach, etc. are preferred.
 Some perennials like pineapple, phalsa, banana, papaya are also taken as intercrops and popularly
referred as filler crops.
 Based on experience and experimental evidences some recommendations for intercropping in young
orchards exist. They are being presented in Table 4.

Table 4: Intercrops in different orchard crops.

Sl. No. Crop Duration for Recommended Intercrops

intercrop
1 Apple 4 years Tomato, Cabbage, Beans, Strawberry, Early potato, Peach and
Valeriana wallihi
2 Banana 5 months Green gram, Cowpea, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Yam, Elephant foot,
Onion, Black gram, Turmeric, Brinjal, Colocasia, Dioscoria,
Chillies and Okra
3 Ber 2 years Green gram, Moth, Cluster bean, Cowpea, Cumin and Chillies
4 Citrus 4 years Beans, Carrots, Tomatoes, Berseem, Senji, Onion, Potato, Chillies,
Pulses, Cucurbits, Okra, Gram, Peas, Potato and Cabbage
5 Date palm 5 years Citrus medic , Guava and Sapota 38
6 Grape 1 year Vegetables relevant to area.
7 Guava 3 years Cauliflower, Peas, French bean, Cowpea, Cluster bean, Black
gram, Green gram, Okra, Onion, Turmeric, Garlic, Cabbage,

SOD CULTURE
 In this system, in the space between trees, grasses are allowed to grow without tillage or mulching.
 Sometimes cover is mixed with grasses to improve fertility such as grasses are simply mowed and
the surface is kept neat and tidy.
 This system is commonly followed in temperate region of Europe and America for apple and pear
orchards and does not exist in tropical and subtropical region of India due to scarcity of available
nutrients and soil moisture in most part of the year.
 It is the best system for the control of soil erosion and maintenance of soil organic matter and soil
structure.
 In this case manures and fertilizers are not applied individually to trees but provided with sod allover
the field and the system is satisfactory for deep rooted crops.
Modifications in Sod System
i. Grasses are allowed to grow without cutting is not desirable because organic matter is lost.
ii. Grasses are grown cut as required and removed for making hay not desirable because organic matter
is lost here also.
iii. Grasses are grown cut and left behind to decompose.
iv. Grasses are grown and pastured i.e., animals are allowed to graze.
v. Temporary sod. Sod is allowed for two years or so, then soil is ploughed, cultivated and sod is
reseeded.
 Sod is not being followed in India due to lack of cool and moist weather. 39
 Lack of aeration, rat holes in sod prove harmful and trees die.
 Nutrient deficiency is also common especially of potassium.

 Mulching is the practice of covering the soil around the plants to make conditions more favourable
for growth and conserve the available soil moisture.
 In this management system the open soil is put under loose cover of straw, hay, crop residue, leaves,
saw dust and plastic.
 It is essentially a surface barrier against evaporation and checks weed growth reducing competition
for nutrients.
 This is one of the important soil management practices adopted in certain countries in orchards. It
offers a number of advantages at the same time suffer from disadvantages too.
Advantages
1. Conserves moisture by suppressing weed growth, regulating soil temperature and protection
from sun and wind.
2. Improves soil structure.
3. Reduces soil temperature fluctuations.
4. Increases soil organic matter level.
5. Controls erosion.
6. Improves water infiltration rate.
7. Improves nutrient availability through better soil condition micro flora.
8. Avoids competition for nutrient and moisture with main crop.
9. Controls weed growth.
Disadvantages:
(i) High cost.
(ii) Transportation.
(iii) Disease and pest infestation through dead plant material.
(iv) Fire hazards.
(v) Roots grow shallow due to the effect through soil temperature and moisture.

 Therefore, in first year mulching may not be advisable.

 Among all the mulching materials, plastic mulches are becoming popular especially black polythene
mulch, where weed control is desired.
 Mulching is common in tropics especially in crops like banana, citrus, pineapple.
 Some of the recommendations made for different crops are being presented in Table 5.
Table 5: Recommended mulches for different fruit crops.

Sl No. Crop Mulch material

1 Banana Polythene, Straw mulch, Banana trash and Sugarcane trash.
2 Mango Straw mulch especially effective against spongy tissue.
3 Pomegranate Sugarcane trash, Paddy husk and Groundnut husk.
4 Ber Sugarcane trash, Wheat straw, Black polythene, Trash of Sachrarum munja and
Local grasses.
5 Sapota 200 gauge black polythene.
6 Grape Black polythene.
7 Acid lime Dry leaf mulch.
8 Strawberry Black polythene, Cut grasses and Pine needles. 40
9 Guava Organic mulches.
10 Lemon Dry grasses and Black polythene.
11 Coorg mandarin Dry leaf mulch and Weed scraping.

ROTATION:

 Planting of different crops in a regular sequence on a given piece of land is referred as rotation.
 When this technique is used for soil management, it is necessary that sequence in the year or the
rotation includes legume as one of the crops.
 Even in plantations of perennial fruit crops like papaya, banana, pineapple, after clearing of fields,
these crops should be followed by leguminous green manure crop before planting them again. Choice
of the legumes can be decided on the basis of climatic region. Generally sesbania, crotolaria, cluster-
bean and cowpea, are preferred as they add higher quantities of organic matter and nitrogen.

Advantages
(a) Helps in controlling insect pests and diseases.
(b) Helps in equalization of available nutrients.
(c) Avoids bad effects of continuous mono-culture through elimination of build up of toxins, diseases
and pests.

Some of the recommendations are as under:

 Banana : Crotolaria or Sesbania or Cowpea.
 Papaya : Crotolaria or Cowpea.
 Pineapple : Sesbania or Glyricidia.

Besides in young orchards when intercrops are taken up, some of the recommended rotations of
intercrops are as under:
Citrus Orchard
 Cowpea / Moong / Urd/Cucurbits / Turnip / Cauliflower /Carrot / Radish /Pea
Mango Orchard
(i) Brinjal — Cowpea
(ii) Tomato — Clusterbean
(iii) Tomato — Cowpea—Soybean—Coriander
(iv) Soybean — Pea — Cowpea — Palak — Chillies.
Banana Orchard
(i) Moong — Toria
(ii) Cowpea — Radish
(iii) Moong —Turmeric
(iv) Ragi — Bean
(v) Groundnut — Bean
Guava Orchard
(i) Cowpea/ clusterbean/Blackgram/Greengram /French bean.
Litchi Orchard
(i) Cauliflower/Peas.
(ii) Cucurbits / Greengram / Blackgram / Cowpea—Radish / Beat / Turnip / Carrot
Pomegranate Orchards 41
(i) Cowpea/Green gram — Beans/Peas/Tomato/Carrot/Onion/Radish

Legumes should be included in rotation and crops like papaya, banana, pineapple and vegetables should
be preferred for higher returns.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15

AGRO FORESTRY SYSTEMS

 It is sufficiently clear that any increase in food production has to come primarily from raising the
productivity of existing agricultural land rather than bringing more area under agriculture or
horticulture.
 Therefore, agro forestry should become an important land use system, even in degraded soils, so that
we not only meet the food and wood requirement of the people, but also protect this good earth from
environmental hazards.
 In agro forestry systems, many options are available combining horticulture like agri -horti, Horti-
silvi, Horti-pasture which combine horticultural crops with trees, pasture and agricultural crops.
 Among these horti-silvipastoral system appears to be one of the most efficient system for soil
management.
o This encompasses any and all techniques that attempt to establish or maintain forests,
horticultural crops, forage trees and pasture grasses on the same piece of land.
o It aims at systematically developing land use systems and practices where the positive
interaction between trees and crops is maximized and seeks to achieve a more productive,
sustainable and diversified output from the land than is possible with the conventional mono-
cropping systems.
o In this system fruits and vegetable crops provide seasonal revenue, while forest trees are
managed at 5 to 10 years rotation to give returns from timber, fuel wood and fodder.
o Horti-silvipastoral land use is considered to be an effective method of soil management
satisfying multiple needs of farm families.

It offers a number of advantages:

(i) This system has higher employment potential being labour intensive.
(ii) As conservation farming system can help in the control of erosion in catchment.
(iii) It is an excellent substitution for shifting cultivation in vogue in north-east region.
(iv) Degraded lands can be renovated by this integrated management system.
(v) It has potential to increase productivity under rainfed condition and provides stability in
income.
(vi) Inclusion of drought hardy fruit tree component can ensure regular income in drought prone
area.
 In this system ber, pomegranate, aonla, mango, annona, jamun, tamarind, and karonda as fruit trees;
 Acacia tortalis, Albizia amara, Leucena leucocephala, Eucalyptus spp. as forest trees and
 Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus setigerus and Stylosanthes hamata as grass component have been found
highly useful under rainfed semi arid conditions.
42

Some common systems in vogue are -

(i) Coconut/Cocoa/Ppineapple/Pepper
(ii) Coconut/Hybrid Napier and legume (Stylosanthes grandis).
(iii) Coconut/Arecanut/Cocoa/Black pepper/Pineapple.

 This system is becoming most popular being efficient for effective utilization of solar energy and soil
management.

HIGH DENSITY PLANTATION:

 Planting density in general depends on kind of fruit tree, its growth habit, rootstock utilized, pruning
and training needs and rainfall of the area and soil type.
 However, recommended planting densities in fruit crops results in under utilization of interspace
during early stage of orchard‘s life.
 This makes orcharding unattractive, particularly on small holdings because of long gestation period
before giving returns and soil management problematic for vacant space.
 Therefore, high density planting with more than optimum number of plants per unit area is being-
considered as soil management strategy for making maximum use of land to achieve high yields in
the early periods of orchard life along with ease in its management.
 This has been successful in fruit crops like apple, pear, banana, pineapple, mango, guava, citrus, ber
and pomegranate.
 This can be achieved through the use of one of the following factors like dwarf genotypes, dwarfing
rootstock, interstock, pruning and training, use of retardants, adjustment of planting geometry and
induction of viral infection.
 Soil is an important but finite natural resource on which agriculture based.
 It is necessary to maintain this in optimum state of productive capacity and put in appropriate use for
sustainable crop production.
 Therefore, appropriate (strategy) of management should be adopted depending on crop, climate, 43
topography, resource and socio-economic condition of the farmer.
 In any case management system should be such that quality of this resource is improved for which
right decisions are necessary after proper evaluation of all the factors involved.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
Table 6: Recommended densities of some fruit species:

Fruit Variety Spacing System of planting Number of

plants/ha
Amrapali 2.5 x 2.5 m Triangular system 1600
Mango
Dashehari 3.0 x 2.5 m Rectangular 1333
6 x 6 feet Square system using trior 3025
citrange as a rootstock
8 x 8 feet Karna Khatta as rootstock 1780
Citrus Kinnow
10 x 10 feet Soh Sarkar as rootstock 1111
Cavendish group 1.2 x 1.2 m Square System 6944
Banana
1.0 x 1.0 x 2.0 m Paired row system 6666
Pineapple 25 x 60 x 75 cm Double row system 63000
Spur type on rootstock 4x4m Square system 625
MM 111, MM 109
Non spur type MM 106, 5x5m Square system 400
Apple MM 109
Spur type on MM 106, M7 3x3m Square system 1111
Non spur type on M9 2x2m Square system 2500
Aneuploids 3x3m Square system 1111
Guava
Lucknow-49 6x2m Square system 833
Papaya Pusa Nanha 1.25 x 1.25 m Rectangular system 6400
Acid lime Kagzi 4.5 x 4.5 m Square system 484

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WATER REQUIREMENTS AND IRRIGATION METHODS FOR

HORTICULTURE CROPS
 Water is one of the most important inputs essential for the production of crops.
 Plants need it continuously during their life and in huge quantities.
 It profoundly influences photosynthesis, respiration, absorption, translocation and utilization of
mineral nutrients etc.
 Both its shortage and excess affects the growth and development of a plant directly and consequently
its yield and quality.
Soil needs the application of water to:

 Remove stress condition.

 Release nutrients in the soil solution for absorption by plants.
 Leach or wash out injurious salts from the soil.
 Preparation of land for raising crops.
 To maintain the temperature and humidity of the soil micro-climate and the activity of soil microbes
at optimum level.
 For the normal aeration and functioning of roots and shoots of the plants.
 Excess water needs to be removed for the normal aeration and functioning of roots and shoots of the
plants
 Excess water creates unworkable soil condition.

IRRIGATION:

 It is defined as ―the artificial application of water to the plants in the event of shortage of natural
rains in order to obtain rapid growth and increased yields‖.
 It is an essential item in the cultivation of crops.
 Success in gardening depends on how efficiently irrigation is provided to gardens because it is
governed by many factors such as frequency, duration, intensity, source and method of supply.
Factors affecting the supply of irrigation water to plants:
• Topography and soil characteristics.
• Kind of plant (root depth, water absorption capacity, growth habit, etc.).
• Weather condition.

When to irrigate?

 The time when a plant needs irrigation can only be judged by a keen observing eye.
 The plants need water when their new leaves begin to show a wilting appearance. A little before the
trees show the sign of wilting. 45
 The shedding of broad leaves in orchard shows distress symptoms.

• If water supply is limited, only a light irrigation can be given at a time with higher frequency of
irrigation.
• If water is available in plenty, the irrigation may be heavy with longer intervals between successive
irrigations.
• However, inadequate irrigation reduces the growth and fruiting of the trees while, over irrigation
serves no useful purpose and it may even prove to be harmful.
• It may create water logging, the nutrients may get leached and fruits may become watery and develop
poor quality.
• Plants which have suffered from drought should not be given liberal doses of irrigations all at once.
That may result in the splitting of fruits and even the splitting of bark of the branches and trunk.
SYSTEMS OF IRRIGATIONS:
• Different systems of irrigation are followed in different parts of the country. The best system is the
one which meets the moisture seepage and evaporation.

Principally, irrigation systems can be divided under three broad headings:

I. Surface irrigation : a. Flooding b. Basin type c. Furrow type d. Ring type

II. Sub-surface irrigation : a. Trench method b. Through underground pipelines
c. Perforated pipelines.
III. Overhead or aerial irrigation : a. Sprinkler b. b. Revolving nozzles
IV. Drip or trickle irrigation

I. SURFACE IRRIGATION:

a. Flooding:
• When the land is flat, letting in water from one end floods the entire area.
• This system is commonly practiced in canal or tank bed areas.
• It is the easiest method and permits the use of bullock drawn implements in the orchards.
• But in this there is wastage of water and leads to soil erosion also.
• It encourages growth of weeds and spread of diseases like gummosis in citrus and collar
rot in papaya.
b. Basin system:
• In this system, circular basins are provided around the trunk of the tree.
• The basins are inter-connected in series and are fed through the main channel running
perpendicular to the tree rows.
• When compared to flooding, this system minimises the loss of water.
• In this system of irrigation, the water close to trunk may bring about certain diseases like
gummosis and nutrients are likely to be carried over from one basin to the other. 46

 This is accomplished by pumping water from original source into the main supply line from
where it is distributed to perforated pipes, which operate at low pressure (80 to 120 lb per
square inch) and supply the water in a fairly uniform rectangular pattern.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 They have a high rate of application, usually 1‖/hour or higher. Because of the high
application rates, their use is restricted to soils with high infiltration rates, such as sandy or
gravelly.
 Revolving nozzle is also at times used, which operated on either low or high pressure.
Usually the rate of application followed in the rate of 0.2‖ to 0.3‖ per hour.
SPRINKLER IRRIGATION:

 May have definite economic advantages in developing new land that has never been
irrigated, particularly where the land is rough or the soil is too much porous, shallow or
highly erodable.
 It is quite useful where only small streams are available, such as irrigation wells of small
capacity.
 It is helpful in irrigating at the seedling stage when the furrowing is difficult and flooding
leads to crusting of soil.
 Fertilizer materials may be evenly applied by this method.
 This is usually done by drawing liquid fertilizer solutions slowly into the pipe.
 It has several disadvantages like
o High initial cost,
o Difficult to work in windy location,
o Trouble from clogging of nozzle,
o Interference in pollination process and
o Requirement of more labours while removing or resetting.
o In general, this system is best adopted for areas where ordinary surface systems are
inefficient.

IV. DRIP OR TRICKLE SYSTEM:

 This is the most recent system of irrigating the plants.

 It is usually practise for high value crops, especially in green houses and glass houses.
 There will be an installation of pipelines with nozzles very close to the soil.
 The nozzle is fitted in such a way that water is dripped almost in the root-zone of the plants.
 Water is allowed to move in pipes under very low or no pressure and it drop at regular
interval.
 This system of irrigation has advantages like no disturbance of the soil; soil moisture is
maintained, lesser leaching of nutrients from the soil.
@@@@

WEED MANAGEMENT IN ORCHARDS

 Weeds in orchards reduce crop yields by competing for moisture, nutrients, light and space.
 They also harbour insect pests and diseases.
 When they become large they interfere with orchard operations.
 Some of weeds climb on the trees and shade the foliage.
 There are some weeds which are parasitic partially or completely on the host tree.
Ex : Striga and loranthes on mango.

Commonly noticed weed species in fruit orchards:

 There are more than 30,000 species of weeds distributed world over, out of which 18,000 are noxious
and cause serious losses.
 Around 250 species are causing serious economic losses.
i. Monocot weeds (Narrow leaf/Grasses): Cyprus, Cynodon, Poagrass, Rye grass, Quackgrass etc.
ii. Dicot weeds (Broad leaf weeds) : Dandelion, Chenopodium spp., Parthenium, Solanum,
Euphrobia spp., Ground ivy etc.

Methods of weed control in orchards:

Broadly classified as:

1. Cultural methods
2. Biological methods
3. Chemical methods
4. Integrated weed control
5. Soil solarisation

Losses caused by weeds (Harmful effects):

1. Weeds compete with fruit crops for nutrients, moisture, air and light.
2. They increase the cost of production.
3. Reduction in crop yield.
4. They impair the quality of crop.
5. Weeds harbour pests and diseases.
6. They bring problems in irrigation, drainage etc.
7. Weeds reduce human efficiency through allergism and poisoning.

Cultural or mechanical control includes:

1. Hand weeding
2. Tillage operation
3. Growing of intercrops
4. Use of mulching 49

It involves the use of natural enemies of the weeds which includes fungus, bacteria, insects, fish,
animals and plants (through competitive replacement eg: Cassia spp. replacing parthenium).

Characters of successful bioagents:

1. Host specific.
2. Easily adjustable to new environment.
3. Rapid destroyer of the target weed.
4. Easy to multiply.
5. Effective against several kindsof weeds.
6. Should not affect other cultivated species.

Insects as bioagents:

Weed Bioagent Kind of bio-agent

Cyprus rotundus Bactra verutana Insect (shoot boring moth)
Echinochola spp. Emalocera;Tripos spp. Insect (stem boring moth)
Parthenium Zygogramma bicollarata Leaf eating insect
Epiblema strenerana, Conotrachelus spp. Stem girdling insect
Orabanche Sclerotinia spp. (Fungus) Plant pathogen
Rumese spp. Uromycis rumicis (Fungus) Plant pathogen
Mycoherbicides products Content Weeds controlled
De-vine Liquid suspension of Phytopthora pamivora (Root Merrenia odorata in citrus
rot of weed) plantations
Bipolaris Suspension of fungal spores of Biopolaris Sorghum halepense
sorghicola
Biolophos Microbial toxin produced as fermentation products Non-specific can be used
of Streptomyces hygroscopicus on general vegetation
Chemical control

 It refers to use of herbicide to suppress or kill weeds.

 Herbicide is any chemical that has phytotoxic properties.
 Herbicides include wide variety of compounds classified on the basis of :
1. Chemical structure.
2. Selectivity (selective and non-selective).
3. Contact or translocated (systemic).
I. Selective herbicides: are those which kill certain kind of specific weed without causing any
significant injury to others.
For example: 2, 4-D (controls herbaceous dicot weeds), MCDA (controls cyperus rotundus,
plantago spp. etc.),

II. Non-selective herbicide: will indiscriminately kill all the plants that come in contact.
For ex. : Glyphosate, paraquat (destroy green tissue only).
III. Systemic herbicides: 50
They are also referred as translocated herbicides; they are absorbed by leaves, stems or roots of
treated plants. Herbicides are translocated through either phloem or xylem.
For example: Atrazine, Simazine, Diuron, Alachlor.

1. Use correct recommended concentration.

2. Sprayers should be properly calibrated; nozzles should be directed towards the target weeds away
from the fruit tree trunk.
3. Young weeds are killed easily than older ones or established ones.
4. Application should be avoided during raining or windy situations.
5. Wetting agent should be added to facilitate spreading of herbicide more uniformly on leaf surface.
6. If the leaves of fruit trees are accidentally sprayed the sprayed portion should be immediately be cut
off.
Note: The efficiency of weedicide is good, when it is used on weeds with new sprout/growth.

Integrated weed management:

This is a weed management system that suppresses weeds by combining two or more weed control
methods. IWM seems to be best suited for control of weeds in tropics or in fruit orchards.

Practices:

1. Deep ploughing during summer.

2. Repeated tillage and hand weeding/use of chemicals.
3. Intercultivation/cover cropping, intercropping etc.
4. Organic mulching in basins.
5. Use of herbicides—2-3 times per year.
6. Use of bioagents whenever possible.
7. Proper regulation of irrigation.
8. Use of drip irrigation.
@@@@@

Allen and Arnon (1955) laid out following criteria for categorising nutrients essentiality to plants:

1. Complete or partial lack of the element in question must make normal plant growth impossible
2. Deficiency symptoms must be reversibly by the addition of the elements in question
3. The element must play specific role in the plant metabolic symptom

They are:

1. Basic elements : Carbon (C),Hydrogen(H) and Oxygen( O) (03)

2. Macro elements : Nitrogen ( N), Phosphorus( P) Potash( K), Calcium( Ca)
Magnesium (Mg) and Sulphur(S) (06)
3. Micro elements : Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum ( Mo), Chlorine (Cl), Zinc ( Zn),
Boron (B), Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe) (07)

Macro elements: The nutrients that are required in relatively large quantity are termed as macro elements.
Micro elements: are those required in relatively less quantity are termed as micro nutrients.

 Besides some nutrients like Aluminium (Al), Cobalt (Co), Sodium (Na), Silica (Si) and Vanadium
(V) are not considered necessary always because either their essential character has been proved only
in some plants or in certain metabolic processes that are not always necessary.
TYPES OF FERTILIZERS
Inorganic fertilizers

• Industrially manufactured chemicals.

• Contains higher nutrient than organic manures.
• Nutrient input is lost through leaching, runoff, volatilization, fixation by soil or consumption by
weeds etc.
Organic fertilizers
• These are plant and animal wastes that are used as nutrients after decomposition.
• Improves the soil tilth, aeration, water holding capacity and activity of micro-organism.
WHERE TO APPLY THE MANURES?
• In fully grown trees, the manures and fertilizers should be given over the area, where their active 52
roots are spread.
• Fertilizer should be given in restricted area i.e., in the surrounding area of about 1 to 1.5 m away
from the trunk of the trees.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
TIME OF FERTILIZER APPLICATION
• It must be applied when the plants need it.
• Timing depends on the type of fertilizer and climate.
• Fruit trees require more nutrients at the emergence of new flushes and differentiations of floral buds.
• Utilized more during the course of fruit development.
• Nutrients should be available to them in February –March.
• So, it would be better to apply them in October-November to be available to the trees in February to
March.
NUTRIENT CONTENT OF ORGANIC MANURES

ORGANIC MANURE N% PO % K O%
2 5 2
BULKY ORGANIC MANURES
1. Cattle dung 0.40 0.20 0.17
2. Poultry manure 3.03 0.63 1.40
3. Farmyard manure 0.50 0.25 0.50
4. Rural compost 0.75 0.20 0.50
5. Urban compost 1.75 1.00 1.50
6. Vermicompost 3.00 1.00 1.50
CONCENTRATED ORGANIC MANURE
1. Castor cake 4.37 1.85 1.39
2. Coconut cake 3.00 1.80 1.90
3. Neem cake 5.22 1.08 1.48
4. Blood meal 12.00 2.00 1.00
5. Groundnut cake 7.30 1.50 1.30
6. Pressmud 2.10 4.40 0.80
Composition of inorganic manures.

Fertilizer Composition %
N P2O5 K2o
1. Sodium nitrate 16 - -
2. Calcium nitrate 15.5 - -
3. Potassium nitrate 13.8 - -
4. Anhydrous ammonia 82 - -
5. Urea 46 - -
6. SSP - 16 -
7. Double SP - 32 -
8. Triple SP - 46-48 -
Methods of fertilizer application:
Broadcasting:
• Fertilizer in solid state or granular or dust are spread uniformly over the entire field.
53
• Leaching loss may be more.

Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
ORGANIC FARMING:
 Green revolution has brought spectacular increase in production as well as productivity of crops in
our country.
 But after the initial success, it had shown the symptoms of fatigue evident from the undesirable side
effects on natural resources, such as soil, water and biodiversity and thus human health.
 The vast areas of soils once fertilizer was degraded due to soil erosion, salinisation or general loss of
soil fertility.
 Water resources have been over-exploited and polluted due to excessive requirement of irrigation
water for high yielding varieties and intensive use of agro-chemicals.
 Many plants and animal species were wiped out and are endangered.
 Residues of harmful pesticide in food and drinking water endangered both farmers and consumer
health point of view and thus excessive use of external inputs consumes a lot of energy from non-
renewable resources.
 Organic farming is a way of conserving the soil and maintaining the fertility, protect soil flora and
fauna/diversity.
 It has lesser effect on pollution either of ground water, lakes and rivers.
 Organic agriculture does not utilize non-renewable external input and energy.
 Since no chemical or pesticide is used in crop production, there is very low chance of pesticide
residues in food.
 At the same time the organic products are healthier and have better product quality like taste, aroma
and storability.
 Input cost is drastically reduced in organic cultivation but the market price leading to higher income
for farmers.
Aims of organic production and processing:
 To produce sufficient quantities of high quality food, fibre and other products.
 To work compatibly with natural cycles and living systems through the soil, plants and animals in the
entire production system.
 To recognise the wider social and ecological impact of and within the organic production and processing
systems.
 To maintain and increase long-term fertility and biological activity of soils using locally adopted cultural,
biological and mechanical methods as opposed to reliance on chemical inputs.
 To maintain and encourage agricultural and natural biodiversity on the farm and surroundings through
the use of sustainable production systems and protection of plant and wildlife habitats.
 To maintain and conserve genetic diversity through attention to on-farm management of genetic
resources.
 To promote the responsible use and conservation of water and all life therein.
 To use, as far as possible, renewable resources in production and processing systems and avoid pollution
and wastes. 56
 To foster local and regional production and distribution.
 To create a harmonious balance between crop production and animal husbandry.
 To provide living conditions that allows animals to express the basic aspects of their innate behaviour.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 To utilise biodegradable, recyclable and cycled packaging materials.
 To provide everyone involved in organic farming and processing with a quality of life that satisfies their
basic needs within a safe, secure and healthy working environment.
 To support the establishment of an entire production, processing and distribution chain which is both
socially and ecologically responsible.
 To recognise the importance of, and protect and learn from, indigenous knowledge and traditional
farming systems.
Organic food products exported from India:
 Organic cereals: Wheat, Rice and Maize or Corn.
 Pulses: Red gram and Black gram.
 Fruits: Banana, Mango, Orange, Pineapple, Passion fruits, Cashew nut and Walnut.
 Oilseeds and oils: Soybean, Sunflower, Mustard, Cotton seed, Groundnut and Castor.
 Vegetables: Brinjal, Garlic, Potato, Tomato and Onion.
 Herbs and spices: Chilli, Peppermint, Cardamom, Turmeric, Black pepper, White pepper, Amla,
Tamarind, Ginger, Vanilla, Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Mace.
 Others: Jiggery, Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Cotton and Textiles.

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TRAINING AND PRUNING

Horticultural plants are grown for their produce like fruits, vegetable, flowers, medicinal
components, spices (oleoresins), aromatic (essential oils) etc. Therefore, these plants should be managed in
such a way that human desires for the purpose of growing them are fully satisfied in terms of quality and
quantity of produce. This demands direct manipulation of plant growth itself or plant environment through
various inputs. In manipulation of plant development, training and pruning are important for which our
knowledge about plant development and its phenology has to be complete. These practices are important in
fruit crops.

TRAINING:

Definition:

Physical techniques that control the shape, size and direction of plant growth are known as training
or in other words training in effect is orientation of plant in space through techniques like tying, fastening,
staking, supporting over a trellis or pergola in a certain fashion or pruning of some parts.

Objectives:
 To improve appearance and usefulness of plant/tree through providing different shapes and securing
balanced distribution.
 To ease cultural practices including inter-cultivation, plant protection and harvesting.
 To improve performance like planting at an angle of 45° and horizontal orientation of branches make
them fruiting better.

Methods of Training

Method of training of a plant is determined by the nature of plant, climate, purpose of growing,
planting method, mechanization, etc. and therefore, intelligent choice is necessary.

Training in herbaceous annuals and biennials:

These plants are usually grown without any attempt to alter their growth patterns because even if
useful not practical being in large number in field. However, for some of ornamental value and creeping
nature following types of training is affected.
1. Staking or supporting of vine like plants.
2. Training on pergola or trellis of vine type fruit plants or even indeterminate type tomatoes.
3. Nipping of apices for encouraging lateral growth to give bushy appearance or fulsome appearance in
pot plants like aster, marigold and chrysanthemum.
4. De-shooting or removal of lateral buds for making single stem for large flowers as in chrysanthemum
and Dahlia. 58
5. Staking with bamboo sticks and tying together various shoots in potted chrysanthemum.

The woody perennials, which are widely spaced and remain on a place for a long duration, are
trained for develop strong framework for sustainable production of quality produce and for ornamental
beauty in different shapes (topiary). In these plants following types of training are followed.

(i) Open centre system (Vase shaped):

 In this system the main stem is allowed to grow to a certain
height and the leader is cut to encourage lateral scaffold from
near the ground giving a vase shaped plant.

This is common in peaches, apricots and ber (Fig. 7.1).

(ii) Central leader system (closed centre):

 In this system the central axis of plant is allowed to grow unhindered
permitting branches all around.
 This system is also known as closed centre system and common in use in
apple, pear, mango and sapota (Fig.7.2).

(iii) Modified leader system:

 This system is in between open centre and central leader system wherein
central axis is allowed to grow unhindered upto 4-5 years and then the
central stem is headed back and laterals are permitted.
 It is common in apple, pear, cherry, plum, guava (Fig.7.3).

(iv) Cordon system :

 This is a system wherein espalier is allowed with the help of
training on wires.
 This system is followed in vines incapable of standing on their
stem.
 This can be trained in single cordon or double cordon and
commonly followed in crops like grape and passion fruit (Fig.
7.4).
(v) Training on pergola:
 To support perennial vine crops pergola is developed by a network of criss-cross wires 59
supported by RCC/angle iron poles on which vines are trained.
 This is common for crops like grape, passion fruit, small gourd, pointed gourd and even
peaches.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
(vi) Training in different shapes:
 Generally ornamental bushes are trained in different shapes for the purpose of enhancing
beauty of places.
 These shapes could be vase, cone, cylindrical and rectangular box, flat and trapezoid.
 Presently for the convenience of mechanization these shapes are being utilized in fruit trees.
 Such shapes are given to adjust the geometry of plantation like hedge row system, box, and
unclipped natural in fruits like guava, mango, sapota and citrus.

Details of Training:
1. Height of the head: This is the height from ground to first branching or scaffolding.
Depending on the height the trees could be divided in three groups.
a) Low head: 0.7—0.9 m. This is common in windy areas. Such plants are easy to maintain.
b) Medium head: 0.9—1.2 m. This is the most common height which combines both effects, ability to
stand against wind and easy management.
c) High head: More than 1.2 m. Common in tropics in wind free areas. Operations under the canopy
are easy to perform.
2. Number of scaffold branches: It refers to allowing of number of scaffolds on the primary axis of the
tree which vary from 2 to 15 but extremes are undesirable. In fruit trees 5 to 8 scaffolds are preferred to
make the tree mechanically strong and open enough to facilitate cultural operations.
3. Distribution of scaffolds: Scaffolds should be distributed in all the directions spaced at 45-60 cm
allowing strong crotches through wide angles of emergence.
A well trained tree is an asset to the farmer and therefore, efforts should be made for training trees
appropriately in formative years for sustainable production. In fact the process should have begun from
nursery itself.

Pruning
Definition:
It refers to removal of plant part like bud, shoot, root etc.. to strike a balance between vegetative
growth and production. This may also be done to adjust fruit load on the tree.
Objectives:
1. To maintain the growth and vigour of the trees and to have a balance between the vegetative vigour
and fruitfulness, so as to be conductive for production of optimum crop of best quality.
2. To shape the tree to make the best use of the space between trees while allowing the necessary
access.
3. To regulate the size and quality of the fruits by way of proper distribution of the fruiting area.
4. To regulate the succession of crop and to have the crop where it can be managed easily and cheaply.
5. To spread the trees for economic orchard management.
6. To remove the dead, diseased and over aged wood.
60
7. For effective spraying of pesticides to the crop.
8. To minimize biannual bearing and consequent risk of die back.
9. To get maximum plageiotrophic shoots/stems.

Principles of pruning:

1. Excessive pruning should be avoided as it affects the growth of the plant by dwarfening and may
induce more of water suckers, fasciations (union of a number of parts side by side in a flat plane) and
thus affect the bearing potential.
2. In pruning, only that wood which is not necessary for the tree should be removed.
3. Pruning of larger limbs should be avoided as far as possible.
61
4. Pruning of young trees should be done more carefully than the yielding trees, since severe pruning of
young trees delays the cropping and much more of yield area will be removed than what is desired.

 It is a technique or method of rejuvenation where in the objective is to upgrade seedling plantations

of inferior varieties with superior commercial cultivars or hybrids suitable for domestic or export
market or the desired variety of the grower.
 The technique involves grafting with procured scions of desired variety on shoots emerged on pruned
branches by adopting softwood grafting during monsoon season (Season of top working slightly
varies from species as it also depends on availability of good shoot and scions). The scion shoots and
the emerged shoots should be of same thickness.

Advantages of top working:

1. Increase the tree productivity /orchard productivity.

2. Conversion of old and senile orchards into productive orchards.

3. Conversion of seedling or inferior variety plantation /orchard into new orchard with desirable
variety or varieties through top working.

4. Possibility of grafting several varieties on the same plant.

5. Increasing the fruit set of orchard by grafting few shoots with polliniser varieties.

6. Additional income by selling the pruned wood during non bearing season or period.

Disadvantages:

1. Chances of death of plant if not done properly or on severe pruning.

2. Need good management post pruning period.

3. Loss of crop for 2-3 years

4. Chances of pest and disease occurrence (stem borer, anthracnose etc.).

5. Needs skilled labour for thinning of shoots, removal of side shoots etc.

 Top working technique can be successfully followed in crops like mango, sapota, aonla, cashew,
guava, tamarind, jackfruit, etc.

@@@@

 Planting and transplanting are the important horticultural operations of placement of a plant in the
prefixed place.
 The word planting generally refers to transfer of a plant from a pot to its permanent place in the
ground.
 The word transplanting on the other hand refers to transfer of plants originally raised in seed beds for
early intensive care to their permanent place in the ground.
 In transplanting seedlings, particularly of annuals, one has to avoid bunching and haphazard
distribution.
 If one needs only a few plants to be transplanted, thinning is the best method otherwise;
transplantation can be done according to the grower‘s wish.
 The transplantation is beneficial to most plants whose seeds are very small and it also allows
economy and convenience in the use of seeds. With normal care, a majority of the seedlings can be
transplanted safely.

Season for planting and transplanting:

 The best season for planting and transplanting varies from place to place and species to species.
 Hot weather is generally avoided since there is a great risk about their establishment.
 In places where the rainfall in moderate, the beginning of the rainy season is best suited for
transplanting.
 On account of the fear of water logging in heavy rainfall area, planting and transplanting operation
are best postponed till about the close of the rainy season.
Transplanting seedlings – Annuals
 Once the seed germinates the seedlings emerges from the surface soil and it is ready for
transplantation when the second pair of leaves emerges.
 A few annuals such as celosia, chrysanthemum and phlox need early transplantation i.e. within 15
days after sowing.
 Further, balsam, salvia and zinnia are usually transplanted when they are 21 days old.
 Some others such as amaranthus, hollyhock, snapdragon and verbena can be delayed up to 30 days.
 On the other hand seeds of flax and tuberose are sown.
In-situ

 The seed bed/seed pan should be soaked with water 1-2 hours before pulling the seedlings so that
injury to the thin fibrous roots can thus be avoided. 63
 Seedlings are lifted with a ball of earth by using a trowel or any other short flat equipment and
separated and planted in holes made by using dibbler or planted in places where they are to grow
permanently by pressing in soil down gently but firmly round the collar of the seedlings.

Transplanting corms, bulbs and tubers:

 During dormancy (resting period) the underground corms (caladiums and gladiolus), bulbs (amaryllis
and lily) and tubers (Begonia and dahlia) are to be separated.
 Washed, treated with plant protection chemicals and stored in sand until the next season.
 Runners or suckers of chrysanthemum (Perennials) and ferns, when over crowded, can be
transplanted by dividing the rooted side shoots to other pots especially in the beginning of the
monsoon. 64

 These are organic compounds other than nutrients, which in small amounts promote, inhibit or
otherwise modify any physiological process in plant. Or
 It may be defined as any organic compounds which are active at low concentrations (1-10 ml) in
promoting, inhibiting or modifying growth and development in plants.
 The naturally occurring (endogenous) growth substances are commonly known as plant hormones,
while the synthetic ones are called growth regulators.
Plant hormones:
 It is an organic compound synthesized in one part of plant and translocated to other parts, wherein
very low concentration causes a physiological response.
 The plant hormones are identified as promoters (auxins, gibberellin, and cytokinins), inhibitors
(abscisic acid and ethylene) and other hypothetical growth substances (Florigen, death hormone,
etc.).

AUXINS:

 Auxin is a Greek word derived from Auxin which means to increase.

 It is a generic term for chemicals that typically stimulate cell elongation by loosening cell wall but
auxins also influence a wide range of growth and development response.
 The chemical isolation and characterization was done by Kogi et al. (1934).
 Auxins are the first identified hormones of which IAA seems to be the major naturally occurring
endogenous Auxin in plants and crops.
65
 Besides IAA, plants contain three other compounds which are structurally similar and elicit many of
the same response as that of IAA, Chloro indole acetic acid (CIAA), Phenylacetic acid (PAA),
Indole butyric acid (IBA).

 Site of Auxin synthesis: Auxins are synthesized in stem tips and in young tissues and move mainly
down stem (Basipetal movement) i.e., from shoot tip to root.

Synthetic compounds are classified into five major categories:

1. Indole acids
2. Napthalene acids
3. Chlorophenoxy acid
4. Picolinic acid.
5. Derivatives.

Role of Auxin:
1. Cell division and enlargement: IAA + GA, example - cambial growth in diameter.
2. Tissue culture: Shoot multiplications (IBA and BAP), callus growth (2, 4-D), root multiplication
IAA and IBA (1-2 mg).
3. Breaking dormancy and apical dominance (inhibition of lateral buds): NAA
4. Shortening internodes: Apple trees (NAA) dwarf branch fruit.
5. Rooting of cutting: (10-1000 ppm-NAA, IAA, Phenyl acetic acid)
6. Prevent lodging: NAA develop woody and erect stem.
7. Prevent abscission: premature leaf, fruit and flower fall (NAA, IAA and 2,4-D).
8. Parthenocarpic fruit: Grapes, Banana and Orange (IAA).
9. Flower initiations: Pineapple uniform flowering and fruit ripening (NAA) and delay flowering (2, 4-D).
10. Weed eradication: 2, 4-D.
GIBBERELLINS:

 It is the active principle isolated from the soil borne fungus Gibberella fujikuroi.
 The concentration of GA3 is usually the highest in immature seeds, reaching up to 18 mg/kg fresh
weight in Phaseolus species, but it decreases rapidly as the seeds mature.
 In general, roots contain higher amounts of GA3 than shoots. Gibberellins have also been found
effective in overcoming both kinds of dormancy in buds as well as seeds.
Role of Gibberellins:
1. GA: Synthesis in leaf and induce shoot elongation (IAA + GA3), by effecting cell elongation or cell
division or both.
2. Enhance metabolic activity: Mobilization of reserved food material, promote growth and height,
increase root activity and kinetin production in root- translocate to growing bud.
3. Shoot elongation: GA3 spray increases height of seedlings.
4. Delay senescence: Increase photosynthetic and protein synthesis so decrease abscission.
5. Increase cambial growth and differentiation: Induce flower and fruit set (IAA+GA3).
6. Dwarf plant (genetically) to normal height: GA3.
7. Promote flowering in Long Day Plants: Substitute for long day condition and cold treatment
(vernalization).
8. Induction of parthenocarpy in grapes: Three physiological events: Rachis cell elongation, flower 66
thinning and berry enlargement.
9. Breaking dormancy and leaf expansion.

 First endogenous cytokinin was isolated from maize kernels named as zeatin.
 Germinating seeds, roots, sap streams, developing fruits and tumor tissues are rich in cytokinins.
 Cytokinins imbibed seeds germinate better in dark than unimbibed lettuce seeds.
 Similarly cytokinin together with gibberellins effectively breaks the photodormancy of celery (Apium
graveolens) seeds.
 Synthetic cytokinins are: Kinetin, Benzyladenine and Ethoxy ethyladenine.

Role of cytokinin:

1. Cell division, elongation and enlargement.

2. Tissue culture morphogenesis.
3. Induction of flowering and fruit development.
4. Parthenocarpy.
5. Apical dominance overcoming.
6. Breaking dormancy.
7. Delay senescence.
8. Improves N2 metabolism.

ETHYLENE:

 Neljubow (1901) is credited with having identified the active growth regulating component of the
illuminating gas as ethylene.
 Ethylene is formed naturally in plants in amounts sufficient to bring about regulatory effect and it
might be considered as plant hormones.
 Recently a synthetic chemical known as ethrel, ethephon, chloroethyl phosphonic acid (CEPA) has
been reported to release ethylene when applied to plants.
Role of Ethylene:
1. Breaking dormancy.
2. Induce ripening of fruits.
3. Induce abscission of leaves.
4. Inhibit elongation and lateral bud growth.

GROWTH RETARDANT:

The term growth retarding chemical or growth retardant is that chemical slows cell division and cell
elongation of shoot tissues and regulate plant height physiologically without formative effects.

E.g: AMO 1618, Phosphon-D, CCC, Chloromequat and Alar.

These do not occur naturally in plants and acts in retardation of stem elongation, preventing cell division.

Plant growth retardants are defined as synthetic organic chemicals that cause a retardation of cell division
steps in pathways of hormone biosynthesis without evoking substantial growth distortions.
67
Inhibitors: These suppress the growth of plants. There are phenolic inhibitors and synthetic inhibitors and
abscisic acid (ABA).

Phenolic inhibitors: E.g. Benzoic acid, Salicylic acid, Coumaric acid and Chlorogenic acid.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
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HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
Synthetic inhibitors: E.g. Maleic hydrazide, Tri-Iodobenzoic acid(TIBA), SADH etc.

An inhibitor from young leaves of Betula sps. prevent the growth of apical buds .

E. g. ABA and Dormin.

Role of Abscissic acid (ABA): should appear as 5th growth regulator in the group; add introduction to ABA;
take this before growth retardant

1. To stop elongation.
2. Induce dormancy.
3. Delay germination.
4. Inhibit growth process.

Add method of preparation of growth regulator formulations

Methods of Application:

Growth regulators can be applied in different ways like:

1. Spraying method.
2. Injection of solution into internal tissues.
3. Root feeding method.
4. Powder form.
5. Dipping of cuttings in solution.
6. Soaking in dilute aqueous solution.

Various uses of plant growth regulators:

1. Propagation of plants:

A number of plants are propagated by stem, leaf cutting and by layering. For promotion of rooting, the
most commonly utilized hormone is IBA followed by NAA.

Gibberllic acid causes inhibition of root formation in cutting. Cytokinins also help in quick and
profuse root formation in cuttings and layers. By use of auxins, profuse root formation is observed in cuttings
of guava, fig, pomegranate, crotons, rose, hibiscus, etc.

2. Seed germination:
Many seeds have natural dormancy which can be got over by dipping the seeds in auxins.
Soaking seeds of French beans and peas in 10-20ppm solution of GA for 12 hours before sowing,
significantly improves the yield and quality. Dipping sweet potatoes in 5ppm GA solution for
5minutes before sowing increases sprouting and yield of potatoes.
3. Control of plant size :
In fruits and vegetables, application of higher doses of nitrogenous fertilizers spraying cycocel
(growth retardant), the superfluous growth of leaves is checked. By spraying 10ppm solution of
morphactin in potato, the growth of plant is reduced and thereby the size of tubers is increased.
The growth retardants are useful in checking the growth of hedges in ornamental gardens there by 68
reducing the cost of trimming the hedges.

@@@@@

 In an orchard all the fruit trees do not bear equally or regularly and sometimes fail to flower and fruit
under similar conditions where another fruit tree bears heavily.
 This failure to set fruits may be attributed to unfruitfulness.
 To understand the problem of unfruitfulness in orchards a familiarity with following terms is
necessary.
1. Fruit setting: It refers to initial growth of ovary and its associated parts after blossoming and taking
it to maturity.
2. Fruitfulness: It is the state of plant when it is not only capable of flowering and fruit setting but also
takes these fruits to maturity and inability to do so is unfruitfulness or barrenness.
3. Infertility: Ability of a plant not only to produce fruits but develop viable seeds and the inability to
do so is referred as sterility or infertility. All fertile plants are fruitful but all fruitful plants are not
fertile (Seedless fruits).
4. Self fruitfulness: Ability of a plant to mature fruits after self pollination.
5. Self fertility: Capacity of a plant for the production of viable seeds after self pollination.

 The ability of a plant to produce optimum crop is Fruitfulness. Where as,

 The inability to achieve this is referred to as Unfruitfulness.
o This unfruitfulness is one of the serious problems of many orchards and its causes need to be
understood properly for effective control and obtaining economically acceptable production
level.
o
The causes to this problem can be many and they have been broadly grouped into two
categories
(A) Internal factors
(B) External factors.
A. Internal factors associated with unfruitfulness: There are a number of internal factors which are
associated with unfruitfulness or sterility. They have further been categorized into three major
categories, they are
1. Evolutionary tendencies.
2. Genetic influence.
3. Physiological factors.

1 EVOLUTIONARY TENDENCIES: In the process of evolution, a number of situations may lead to

imperfect flowers or varied developmental periods leading to unfruitfulness unless suitable measures
are adopted.

i. Monoecious and Dioecious nature:

 A plant with stamens and carpels in different flowers on the same plant is monoecious. 70
Eg. Coconut, Arecanut, Pecan nut, Capri fig and Hazel.
 In monoecious fruit plants in general there is no or very little problem of pollination,
fruit setting and fruitfulness. Nevertheless, pollinators need to be ensured.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
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HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15

 Plants which bear male and female flowers on different plants are known as Dioecious. Eg.
Papaya, Date palm and Strawberry.
 Likewise a few varieties of plum produce too little pollen to call them bisexual.
 Profuse flowering without fruit set in ornamental pomegranate is a result of their being unisexual.
 A number of sex forms have been reported in papaya by different scientists.
 In case of figs two types of flower clusters are borne namely staminate and pistillate flowers.
 In Capri fig staminate flowers are borne near the eye and pistillate flowers are borne near the end.
To ensure good fruit set, retention of a few staminate trees (9:1) is essential as pollinizers.
ii. Heterostyly:
 A condition in the flower where length of the style, relative to other parts of the flower, differs in
the flowers of different plants.
 In this case in some flowers styles are short with long filaments and in some of the flowers of
some species or varieties styles are long with short filaments.
 Thus styles and stigmas at different height prevent self pollination.
 In case of brinjal there are 4 types of flowers according to their length of style i.e. long, medium,
pseudo short and true short. Out of these pseudo short and true short do not produce any fruit.
 Similarly in delicious group of apples extreme upright positions of the stamens accompanied by
spreaded petals do not permit bees to do pollination while collecting nectar.
 When the pistils of heterostyled plants are pollinated with pollen from the same flowers or from
other flowers containing stamens of an equal height the union may be fruitful but it is likely to be
of varying degree of sterility. Here arrangement for cross pollination needs to be created.

(ii) Dichogamy:
 When stigmatic receptivity period does not coincides with pollen viability in monoecious
plants it is known as dichogamy.
 In dichogamy self pollination is prevented in perfect flowered plants, due to maturity of two
sex elements at different times.
 If the stamens ripe before the stigmas become receptive the flowers are known as
protoandrous and if stigmas become receptive before the stamens produce viable pollens it
is known as protogynous. This results in low production of fruits.
 Protogyny is present in monoecious plants like walnuts, hazels, etc. whereas protandry is
present in many coconut varieties.
 Majority of dioecious plants are also protogynous.
(iii) Abortive Flowers or aborted pistils or ovules:
 This occurs in the developing flower‘s pistils and stigmas of many species and is responsible 71
for failure in fruit setting.
 Abortion of partially developed flower buds is common. Setting and maturity of two sexes
depend on the erosion of two properly formed sex cells.

2. GENETIC INFLUENCES

 Self sterility is a condition determined by the inheritance received but can develop in
favourable environment. Self sterility affects it‘s off springs as well as hybrids.

(i) Sterility and unfruitfulness due to hybridity:

 Generally wider the crossing, greater is the degree of sterility encountered.
 The cross between peach and plum bears abundance of flowers but they are without pistils
with malformed stamens.
 Flower characteristics were constant sterile and barren.
 A hybrid between the pear and the quince was seedless.
 Most of the citranges (cross between sweet orange and Citrus trifoliata) produce no fertile
female gametes.
 Seedlessness in most of the banana and pineapple varieties is due to hybrid nature of their
ancestors.
 Most of the triploid apple varieties produce aborted pollen.
 A number of hybrids between Vitis rotundifolia and Euvitis are completely sterile.
 Similar was the case with hybridization of Vitis vinifera and Vitis rotundifolia.

(ii) Incompatibility :
 One of the most common causes of self unfruitfulness and self sterility is due to
incompatibility between the pollen and ovules of the same plant or of the same variety.
72
 Pollen and ovules are fertile but they fail to affect conjugation.
 In apple, pear, plum and aonla self incompatible varieties require another pollinizer varieties
for fruit setting.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 Self incompatibility has been reported in some of the mango varieties like ‗Langra‘,
‗Dashehari‘ and ‗Chausa‘.
 Self sterility and self unfruitfulness has been reported in apple, pears, plums, almond,
apricot, the Clementine‘ mandarins, may be attributed to incompatibility where normal
processes of fertilization fails somewhere between production of functional gametes and the
fusion of sex cells.

3. PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES:
(i) Slow pollen tube growth:
 Slow growth of the pollen tube results in unfruitfulness.
 Differences have been found in the rate of growth in selfed and crossed apples, pears, cherries and
certain citrus fruits.
 This may be considered one type of incompatibility due to chemotropic or hormone influences.
 Besides this, fertilization should take place within a short time failing which abscission will take
place at the base of the style, ovary pedicel or peduncle and fruit setting does not take place.
(ii) Premature or delayed pollination:
 Premature or delayed pollination leads to unfruitfulness.
 Tobacco flowers are very susceptible to injury from premature pollination.
 When mature pollen grains are applied to immature pistils they germinate, penetrate the style, enter
the ovule and if the ovules are not ready for fertilization the flowers fall.
 However, in case of oranges premature pollination did not have any deleterious effect whereas some
injury was noticed in tomato.
 Lower setting due to premature pollination was noticed in persimmon, Pear, plum and peach.
 Similarly, if pollination is delayed the flowers fall without setting.
 Delay in pollination for 1 or 2 days did not affect fruit set. However, further delaying may result into
polyembryonic seeds in some species.
(iii) Nutritive Condition of Plant:
 Nutritive condition of plant just before or at or and just after the time of blossoming is an important
factor determining the percentage of flowers carrying for setting and for maturity.
 It may affect the pollen viability or fertility of pistils.
a. Effect on pollen viability - There was significant difference in germination percentage of
pollen collected from old apple trees and from strong young trees of the same variety.
b. Effect on defectiveness of pistils:
 Exhaustion of tree by over bearing, drought or poverty of soil leads to production of
defective pistils.
 Over bearing weakens the fruit tree and in coming season production is adversely
affected.
 Close correlation was reported between defective pistils and unfruitfulness in
73
American plums.
 In case of Vitis vinifera carbohydrate deficiency is the common cause of flower drop.
Due to carbohydrate deficiency flower abortion and ultimately unfruitfulness also
occur in green house grown tomatoes.
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HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
(iv). Fruit setting of flowers in different positions:
 Fruits borne on terminal growth have more competition in many fruit crops and mature and set under
normal nutritional conditions but percentage of set is small.
 This positional competition takes place between fruits and branch as well as between different fruits
influencing fruitfulness.
Strong and weak spurs:
 Nutritional condition of spurs has positive correlation with fruit setting in apple. Spurs on vigorous
limbs with large leaves set more fruits than those borne on weak limbs.
 More flowers ultimately lead to more fruit set and more flowers are generally borne on strong limbs.
Likewise flowers borne singly set fruits and mature as fruit and majority of those borne in clusters
drop down.
 Ringing or girdling also lead to accumulation of an extra store of food material leads to fruitset and
develop parthenocarpically.
 In the process of fruitifications the embryo is more important for development i.e. if nutritive
condition is favourable, it accompanies the development of the seed coat and fruit wall, if not, only
the latter portions are in high degree retardation in development.
 Under insufficient nutrient supply the numbers of seed forming ovules are diminished and under
extreme nutrition deficiency both fruit wall and large number of ovules are diminished leading to
enabling to form seed.
 In case of green house cucumbers, nutritional deficiency leads to arrest of growth of growing fruits
depending upon the position of the fruits and time of pollination. If a few of the cucumbers are
harvested remaining fruits resume growth.
 In case of strawberries producing bisexual flowers may lead to produce pistillate flowers if
nutritional deficiency was observed.
 However, nutritive condition has indirect influence on compatibility.

B. Unfruitfulness associated with external factors

1. Nutrient supply:
 In certain families like Graminae, Cruciferae and Leguminaceae sterility normally occur due
to over feeding.
 ‗Jonathan‘ apple self sterile in rich soil becomes self fertile in poor soils.
 High fertility level is generally associated with good pistil development and low level with
poor pistils and good stamens in grapes.
 In olives low fertility leads to partial or complete degeneration of pistils.
2. Pruning and Training: Pruning tends to produce more true hermophrodite condition in grape
variety ‗Hope‘. If pruning is not done the variety tends to remain sterile and produces aborted pistils.
3. Locality: Jonathan apple which is sterile in one location is reported to be self fertile in another
location.
74
4. Season: Hybrid grape ‗Ideal‘ is self impotent early in season but becomes self potent later on.
5. Temperature: High temperature at flowering dries up stigmatic secretion and prevents pollination.
Tomato varieties grown at high temperature do not produce any fruit.
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HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
6. Light: Exposure of strawberry plants to long photoperiod results in development of stamens and
pistils in strawberry flowers.
7. Pests and diseases: Mango hopper, powdery mildew, etc. adversely affect the fruit set and
development in mango and grape.
 Spraying the trees when they are in bloom i.e. spraying at flowering reduces fruit set.
 Some of the fungicides gave inhibitory effect on pollen grains i.e. copper fungicides at 200 to
10000 ppm prevent the germination of pollen grains on the stigma.

Steps to overcome the problem of unfruitfulness:

 Having known that there could be many reasons for unfruitfulness, it is necessary to make necessary
corrective measures which should begin from planning level and extend to an established orchard.

 Choice of the crop and variety should be made on the basis of climatic and edaphic conditions of
the site of orcharding.
 Provision of windbreak and shelter belts for areas prone to wind damage.
 Before planting an orchard soil should be brought to optimity by incorporating organic matter,
amendments and nutrients based on soil analysis.
 In case of problems of pollination due to heterostyly, dichogamy incompatibility, sterility,
embryo abortion, hybridity, etc. a mixture of varieties should be grown by introduction effective
pollinizer varieties and pollinators (Honey bees).
 Unfruitfulness due to slow growth of pollen tube, premature and delayed pollination, use of
plant regulators can be affected after standardization in terms of chemical concentration and
timing of application.
 The problem due to old age could be overcome by replanting or rejuvenation of old trees.
 Problem due to overbearing can be managed through thinning at appropriate stage.
 Irrigation management would be key role in situations with drought and waterlogged conditions.
 Problem due to uneven distribution of flowers on tree should be managed through thinning and
crop regulation.
 Maintenance of critical nutrient status in tree leaves for optimum crop production by adopting
correct nutritional programme based on plant and soil analysis.
 In crops requiring regular pruning standard practices will have to be adopted based on crop,
variety and its phenology.
 Unfruitfulness due to pathogens should be managed through effective plant protection measures
following integrated approach.
 Problem of unfruitfulness due to tendency of alternate bearing should be over come through
replacement of regular bearing varieties and crop regulation.
It is important to analyse the problem and then corrective measures should be suggested. Basically the
planning should be so done that future is problem free and then should be followed by adoption of correct
75
package of practices.
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GROWTH, FRUITING HABITS AND METHODS FOR INDUCING

FRUITFULENSS IN HORTICULTURAL CROPS

 Every plant has two distinct phases of development namely vegetative and Reproductive.
 In the vegetative phase, the plant only vegetative growth i.e. leaves, shoots etc.,
 In the reproductive phases the plant produces reproductive growth i.e. flowers and fruits.
 In case of annuals, these phases occur for a short period, each phase occurring only once and that too
within the same season.
 In the biennials also there is vegetative phase and reproductive phase.
 In perennials, the vegetative phase lasts for several years depending upon the variety and species.
This is known as the pre-bearing period.
 Later the plant switches on to the reproductive phase and starts producing flowers and fruits.
 Once the perennial tree completes its pre-bearing period, the cycle of vegetative and reproductive
phases might occur in each season or the reproductive phase may occur simultaneously along with
vegetative phase without much distinction between the two.
 In certain trees the vegetative and reproductive growth may occur in alternate years which are known
as alternate bearing.
 In some other trees, the vegetative growth may occur for two, three or more years followed by
reproductive growth for one year and again vegetative growth for two or more years. This is known
as irregular bearing.
 The growth of the plant, either vegetative or reproductive takes its origin in the buds which are
situated on the stems.
 These buds are normally found towards the apex of the shoot and the axils of the leaves (single bud).
 But in some cases more than one bud is found in the leaf axils as in the case of peach, Japanese
plum, grape etc. The extra buds are normally called as ―Supernumerary buds‖ or accessory buds.
 Any bud on sprouting produces only a vegetative shoot is known as a vegetative bud, while
 The one which produces floral parts only or a shoot with flowers is known as flower bud, fruit bud
or the blossom bud.
 In case the bud produces only floral parts, it is known as a pure flower bud and if it produces a
shoot with flowers and leaves it is known as mixed bud.
 In early stages, all the buds are vegetative in character.
 In its youth every bud is potentially a flower bud. That is if favourable conditions are provided any
bud can develop and gets differentiated into a flower bud, but after getting formed into floral bud it
cannot revert to a vegetative bud again.
 The physiological and morphological changes that occur in a vegetative bud in its preparation to
change over to the reproductive phase or to become a flower bud may be called as the ―flower bud
initiation”. 76

 If one observes a mango tree, he/she may find it does produce the fruits terminally on a shoot and it
citrus he/she finds the fruits always produced laterally in the leaf axils.
 The manner or patter in which a plant produces its fruit is known as bearing habit or fruiting habit.
 Bearing habits are specific to the kind of plant.
In determining the bearing habit of any plant three points are to be considered.
1. The origin or position of the flower or fruit bud which may be either terminal or lateral on a shoot.
2. The nature of the bud, which may be either pure flower bud or a mixed bud.
3. Position of flowers or fruits on the flowering shoots especially in case of mixed bud. The flowering
shoot may end with the fruits or carry fruits laterally on it.

 Considering the above three points, the bearing habit of fruit plants are broadly classified into six
groups.

Group I : Fruit bud terminal, pure flower bud producing only flower parts, e.g., mango, cashew.
Group II: Fruit bud terminal, mixed bud with flower parts situated terminally on the flowering shoot, e.g.,
apple, pear.
Group III: Fruit bud terminal, mixed bud, with flower parts situated laterally on the flowering shoot, e.g.,
guava.
Group IV: Fruit bud lateral, pure bud producing only flower parts, e.g., citrus, coconut, date, gooseberry.
Group V: Fruit and lateral, mixed bud, with flower parts terminally on the flowering shoot, e.g., grapes,
cashew and Annonaceous fruits.
Group VI: Fruit bud lateral, mixed bud, with flower parts laterally on the flowering shoot e.g. fig, mulberry,
ber etc.
 Of these six groups, the first three come under terminal bears, through we see fruits laterally on the
flowering shoot in Group III.
 The other three groups are lateral bearers through we see fruits terminally on the flowering shoot in
group.
 In addition to these six main groups we do find some different bearing habits in some plants which
cannot be conveniently classified under any of these six groups.
 These are therefore classified into separate groups. They are; 77

Group VII: Flower buds borne sub terminally in the leaf axils, pure flower bud. This could be treated as a
lateral bearer e.g., papaya and sapota.

 In case of these groups occasionally the plants may bear in different pattern also deviating from its
own characteristic pattern but majority of its bearing will be always as per the classification.
 The knowledge of bearing habits will be of much importance for regulating the bearing of any plant
by means of pruning, terminal bearers are not normally pruned.
 Whereas in case of lateral bearers pruning certainly increase the bearing, as it encourages the
sprouting of lateral buds.

METHODS FOR INDUCEING FRUITFULENSS:

The fruitfulness of a tree is governed by various external and internal factors.

 The most important external factors are environment, insect pests, disease and nutrient supply to
the plants.
 The important internal factors are sex distribution, heterostyly, dichogamy, aborted organs, non-
viability of pollen, genetic incompatibility and nutritional status of the plant.
EXTERNAL FACTORS:
The environment comprises of temperature, rainfall, wind and light.
1. Temperature plays on important role in determining the fruitfulness.
 Chilling is required for breaking dormancy and lack of it during winter is responsible for low yields
of an apple at Connor.
 Pollen of many deciduous fruit plants may germinate very freely at optimum temperature.
2. Light intensity also influence on fruit set to a certain extent
 Interior branches of a tree, which bear fewer fruits.
 In strawberry the flowers developed stamens when they are exposed to long daylight.
3. Rainfall also determines the extent of fruitfulness.
 The period of water stress appears to be a most potential factor for influencing flowering in tropical
fruit trees.
4. Infestation of Insect Pests and Diseases also reduced the fruit set considerably.
 The best examples are mango-hoppers, malformation of mango inflorescence and anthracnose in
grapes.
 By preventing the attack of these pests and diseases by suitable control measures in the beginning
itself, one can actually increase the fruitfulness of these trees. 78

 In some of the fruit plants, individual plants are self-unfruitful as their flowers are unisexual i.e.,
flowers of one sex may be present in one plant as in case of papaya, strawberry, fig and date
palm.
 The fruitfulness of these plants can be improved by inter planting of the plant bearing opposite
sex flowers.
 Prevention of self pollination in perfect flowers may be due to the difference in the time of maturing of
male and female sex organs and this is known as Dichogamy, as found in Avocado.
 Genetic incompatibility is another cause of unfruitfulness. The pollen of some varieties are not capable
of fertilizing the flowers of the same variety or certain other varieties as in the case of apple, sweet
cherry, plum, pear, almond, mango, sapota etc, in such plants to improve the fruitfulness, certain suitable
combination of varieties which would successfully cross pollinate each other should be planted.

 Fruitfulness of a tree is to a great extend determined by the nutrient supply and the nutritional status
of the plant.

 Application of manures and fertilizers a few days before blossom emergence is generally believed to
increase the fruitfulness.
 Relationship between C/N ratio and fruitfulness:
 The fruit bud formation, setting of the fruit and its development mainly depends upon the requisite
balance of nutrients in the branches of the trees at certain critical seasons.
 Plants with plenty of nitrogen and high carbohydrate accumulation are found to make moderate
growth and produce satisfactory crop. Whereas, plants with plenty of nitrogen and moderate
carbohydrates are found to grow vegetatively, the expense of fruit production.

By adopting some of the horticultural practices like root exposure, root pruning, bending, girdling or
ringing, notching and smudging, the plants can be made to accumulate more of carbohydrates at the desired
positions of the plant and these make them more fruitful.

 For giving such treatment one should have the knowledge as to when the plant puts out new growth
and flowers, when it takes rest or creases to grow vegetatively and it matures its wood.

1. Root pruning:

 This is a recognized practice in the dwarf fruit tree culture.

 Every year a trench is dug a few centimeters away from the trench of the previous year.
 The trench is then filled with manures liberally and watered.
 As a result of this, circular mass of fibrous roots increases very slowly from year to year and the tree
becomes short but stocky and well matured shoots will be rich in their reserve food material and will
be more fruitful.
2. Root exposure:
79
 This is commonly practiced to force flowering and fruiting of orange, guava and other citrus fruits
in the desired season. It is called as Bahar Treatment.

3. Bending:

 This is widely practiced for increasing the fruit production in guava, especially in the erect growing
varieties.
 The large branches in their erect and upright position have a natural tendency to produce fruit bearing
shoots near about their ends, while the lower branches remain more or less dormant.
 When such large branches are bent and tied and pegs fixed in the ground in an arch fashioned way,
the fruiting area is considerably increased due to the increased umber of side branches produced on
the lower parts of the main limbs.
 This practice is not necessary in spreading varieties like Sardar guava (Lucknow- 49)

4. Ringing or Girdling:

 This is one of the well known methods of increasing fruit bud formation.
 The operation consists of removing a strip of bark of a tree.
 It interrupts the downward movement of carbohydrates and thus causes them to accumulate above
the ring or girdle.
 In India girdling is sometimes practices on mango to force flowering in over vegetative trees, which
normally do not bear satisfactory crops.
 The branches of 15 to 20 cm thick are girdled by removing a strip of bark about 2 cm wide all around
at the base of the branch or little above the point where it joins another branch.
 In santra, saw passed round the branches is just enough to cause the ring.
 It is usually done between 15th of April and 15th of May.
80
 The healing of the ring and complete restoration of new bark on the girdled portion is highly
imperative after fruits have set.
 The ring of bark removed should be such as not to injure the cambium.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
 It is recommended to practice the girdling on the trees which are vigorous in growth. The exhausted
trees should be avoided.
5. Notching:

 This is practiced in fig. This consists of removal of the small narrow strip of bark just above a
dormant bud.

Notching affects the sprouting in three ways.

 Firstly, it prevents the inhibitory influence of certain compounds in the bud.

 Secondly, it cuts off the supply of carbohydrates synthesized from the leaves above and increased
the supply of nutrients from below.
 Thirdly, the bud which was once one of the lower most of the branches becomes apparently the
top most due to construction in the bark connection with the part of the branch above the notch.
Notching can be given below bud also.

6. Smudging:

 This is practiced for mango in Philippines to produce off season crop.

 This consists of burning trash wood on the ground and allowing the smoke to pass through the crown
of the tree.
 To direct the smoke to different parts of the tree, a cone shaped enclosure with a tall chimney at the
top is built with wooden stakes and thin bamboo strips woven together.
 The tree will be smoked heavily and continuously for a week and then mild fire are made at regular
intervals for about a month or till the tree comes into bloom or till the terminal buds start swelling
and show the symptoms of sprouting.
 Smoke is known to contain ethylene, which is a flowering hormone.

INDUCTION OF FLOWERING:

 Length of the day and temperature are the two most important factors controlling this process.
 Plants can be made to flower or kept vegetative to the convenience and benefit of growers in
important.
 Many of the cultivated varieties of pineapple are short day plants and flower in the month of
November and do not synchronies their blooming and obviously ready for harvest at different times
and some times interval between first and last picking will be few months and fruits so formed will
considerably vary in size.
 However, plants promptly flower when about 0.5mg of NAA in aqueous solution is applied on the
crown and this technique is being commercially exploited.
 Therefore, growth regulators may be employed to force a batch of plant to bloom and mature at once.

@@@@@ 81

CROPPING SYSTEMS IN HORTICULTURE

Systems of cropping are the way in which different crops are grown. Sometimes a number of crops
are grown together or they are grown separately at short interval in the same field. The cropping systems
may be broadly divided into, 1. Sole cropping; 2. Mono cropping ; 3. Mixed Intensive cropping.
I Sole cropping: One crop/variety grown alone is pure stands at normal density.

II. Mono cropping: This system is the repetitive growing of the same crop on the same land.

III. Mixed cropping: Mixed cropping is the process of growing two of more crops together in the same
piece of land. This system of cropping is generally followed in areas where climatic hazards such as flood,
drought, frost etc. are frequent and common. Besides to enhance the income or to meet the daily needs of
marginal farmers.

Under mixed cropping, the time of sowing of all the crops is almost same. However, they may
mature either together e.g., Tomato + Marigold, 2. Chilli +Tomato,

They mature at different times e.g.,

1. Chilli+Onion +cotton

Mixed cropping may be classified into the following groups, based on their method of sowing.

a. Mixed crops: In this group the seeds of different crops are mixed together and then sown
either in lines or they are broadcasted. This system is not scientific and it causes problems in
performing all the cultural operations and harvesting of the crops.
b. Companion crops: Under this system the seeds of different crops are not mixed together but
different crops are sown in different rows e.g., between two rows of arhar two to three rows
of groundnut are sown. This method of sowing facilitates in weeding, inter-culture, plant
protection operation and even in harvesting.
c. Guard crops: under this system of cropping the main crop is grown in the center,
surrounded by hardy or thorny crops such as safflower around pea.
d. Augmenting crops: When sub crops are sown to supplement the yield of main crops, the
sub crops are called augmenting crops, such as Japanese mustard with be seem. Here the
mustard helps in getting higher tonnage of fodder in spite of the fact that be seem gives yield
in first cutting.
Principles of mixed cropping:

The most important point is the selection of crops. Crops which compete with each other should not
be chosen. Therefore, the following points should be considered while selecting crops.
1. Legumes should be sown with non-legumes e.g., Beans with Chilli.
2. Tall growing crops with short growing crops e.g., Brinjal with onion. 82
3. Deep-rooted crops with shallow rooted crops.
4. Bushy crops with erect growing crops.
5. Crops being attacked by similar pests, insects and diseases should not be sown together.

1. All the crops do not fail under adverse climatic conditions e.g. frost kills only legumes; flood kills
only dicots and drought kills the monocots or shallow rooted crops. Thus the farmer gets some crop
instead or shallow rooted crops. Thus the farmer gets some crop instead of losing the entire crops.
2. The epidemic attack of any pest, insect or disease kills only one crop without affecting the rest of the
crops.
3. The farmers grow different crops which balance their daily need or demand for cereals, pulses and
oil seeds.
4. Mixed cropping checks soil erosion, weed etc.
5. It improves or maintains the soil fertility.
6. Family labour and cattle are employed throughout the year.
IV. Intensive cropping:

 Intensive cropping is the process of growing a number of crops on the same piece of land during the
given period of time.
 In other words, when the area is limited and the number of crops to be grown is increased within a
definite period of time, this cropping method is termed as intensive cropping.
 The main objective is to increase the income per unit area within a specified period of time.
Pre-requisites of intensive cropping:

1. High yielding and short duration crop varieties.

2. Availability of inputs viz. labour, capital, irrigation etc.
3. Marketing facility
4. Better and efficient plant protection measures.
5. Excellent soil condition (leveled and fertile soils).
Methods of intensive cropping:

1. Multiple cropping: It may be defined as cropping systems in which two or more crops are grown in
succession with in a year.
a. Relay cropping:
 Relay cropping is analogues in a relay race where a crop hands over a land to the
next crop in quick succession.
 The best examples of relay cropping are –Cluster bean – early potato-coriander.
b. Overlapping system of cropping:
 In this system of cropping the succeeding crop is sown in the standing preceding
crop.
 Thus, in this system before harvesting one crop the seeds of the next crop are sown. 83
Eg. Potato – coriander.

a. Parallel cropping:
 Two crops are selected which have different growth habits and have a no competition
between each other and both of them express their full yield potential. Eg. Tomato with
coriander.
b. Companion cropping:
 In companion cropping the yield of one crop is not affected by the other.
 In other words, the yield of both the crops is equal to their pure crop.
 Thus, the standard plant population of both crops is maintained. E.g., chilli, onion, potato
etc. with fruit crops.
c. Multistoried cropping:
 Growing of plants of different heights in the same field at the same time is termed as
multistoried cropping.
 It is mostly practiced in orchards and plantation crops.
 Example: Eucalyptus +papaya + berseem; sugarcane + potato + onion (seed crop); sugarcane
+ Mustard + potato.

d. Synergetic cropping: Here the yields of both crops grown together are found to be higher than
the yields of their pure crops on unit area basis. Example; sugarcane and potato.
e. Row intercropping: Growing two or more crops simultaneously where one or more crops are
planted in rows. Often simply refereed to as intercropping.
f. Patch cropping: The component crops are planted in patches.
g. Strip intercropping:
 Growing two or more crops simultaneously during the part of life cycle of each.
 A second crop is planted after the first crop has reached its reproductive stage of growth but
before it is ready for harvest, often simply referred to as relay cropping.
h. Relay intercropping:
 Growing two or more crops simultaneously during the part of life cycle of each.
 A second crop is planted after the first crop has reached its reproductive stage of growth but
before it is ready for harvest, often simply referred to as relay cropping.
i. Alley cropping: 84
 A farming system in which arable crops (crops which require cultivation) are grown in alleys
formed by trees or shrubs established mainly to hasten soil fertility restoration and enhance
soil productivity.
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
Lecture No. 20
CLASSIFICATION OF FRUITS

Classification is the system of grouping or placing of individuals according to nomenclature. It is very

useful to the pomologist. It helps to:
 To identify and naming the crop.
 To study the close relationship.
 To know their hybrids and crossing behaviour.
 To know their compatibility & inter grafting ability.
 To know their adoptability to soil & climate.

POMOLOGY:

Pomology is a branch of horticulture which deals with study of various aspects of fruits loke, rising
of saplings, growing them properly and providing various intercultural operations.

 The term pomology is a combination of two Latin words „Pome‟ means ‗Fruits‟ and ‗Logos‘ means
‗study‟.
 “Poma” in Greek also meaning fruits later subsequently “Pome” in Latin word means fruits, logos-
study.
 Basic Pomology: Study of basic aspects of fruit production like training, water management, use of
PGR‘s.
 Commercial Pomology: It is concerned with commercial production of fruits.
 Systematic Pomology: It may be concerned with classification and nomenclature like kingdom,
order, class, genus and species.
A. Classification of fruits based on climate adaptability.

In this classification, the fruits trees are categorized into three recognized groups.

i. Temperate fruits:
 Temperate fruit plants are exacting in their climate requirement.
 They are grown only in place where winter is distinctly cold, require as exposure of specific
chilling temperature for certain period without which they do not flower.
 These fruit plants are generally deciduous and stand frost. Eg. Apple, almond, peach, pear,
plum, strawberry, apricot, persimmon, cherymoya, walnut, peanut, hassle nut, cherry,
pistachios and kiwifruits etc.
ii. Tropical fruits:
 Tropical fruit plants are generally evergreen and are extremely sensitive to cold.
 They do well under lesser fluctuations of diurnal temperature, light and dark periods they
require a moist warm climate but are capable of withstanding dry weather in some cases
Eg; mango, banana, papaya, sapota, etc.,
iii. Sub-tropical fruits:
85
 The fruit crops grown under a climatic condition between temperate and the tropical are
known as subtropical fruit crops.

B. Classification based on bearing habit:

On the basis of bearing habit, fruit trees are classified in to six categories to facilitate cultural operation
like pruning, skiffing, heading back etc.
1. Fruit buds bore terminally and giving rise to inflorescence without leaves e.g. Mango, Cherry, etc.
2. Fruit buds borne terminally and unfolding to produce leafy shoots which terminate in flower clusters.
e.g. Apple
3. Fruit buds borne terminally and unfolding to produce leafy shoots with flower or flower clusters e.g
Guava
4. Fruit bud borne laterally containing flower parts only and giving rise to inflorescence without leaves
or leaves present, they are reduced in size., e.g. Citrus
5. Fruit bud borne laterally and unfolding to produce leafy shoots terminally in flower clusters this type
of flowering is noticed in grapes and cashewnut.
6. Fruit buds borne laterally and unfolding to produce leafy shoots with flower clusters in leafy axils.
eg.Fig.

C. Fruit morphology:
1) Simple fruit - Berry: Banana, Papaya, Grape, Sapota, and Avocado
2) Modified berry-
i. Balusta : Pomegranate
ii. Amphisarca : Woodapple, Bael
iii. Pepo : Water melon
iv. Pome : Apple, Pear, Laquat
v. Drupe (Stone) : Mango, Pear, Plum
vi. Hesperidium : Citrus
vii. Nut : Cashew, Litchi, Walnut, Rambutan
viii. Capsule : Anola, Carambola

3) Aggregate fruits : Etario of berries –Custard apple, Raspberry

4) Multiple fruit : Syconus- Fig
: Sorosis- Jackfruit, Pineapple, Mulberry

D. Based on rate of respiration:

Climacteric Fruits Non-climacteric Fruits

Mango, Banana, Sapota, Guava, Papaya, Citrus, Grape, Pomegranate Pineapple Litchi,
Apple, Fig, Peach, Pear, Plum, Annona, Ber, Jamun, Cashew, Cucumber, Cherry,
Tomato Strawberry.
86
(Climacteric fruits produce much larger amount of ethylene than non climacteric fruits)

E. Based on photoperiodic responses

F. Based on relative salt tolerance

Highly tolerant Medium tolerant Highly sensitive
Datepalm, Ber, Amla, Guava, Pomegranate, Cashew, Fig, Mango, Apple, Citrus,
Coconut, Khirni Jamun, Phalsa Pear, Straw berry

G. Based on relative acid Tolerance

Highly tolerant Medium tolerant Highly sensitive
Stawberry, Raspberry, Fig, Pineapple, Avocado, Litchi -
Bael, Plum

H. Based on longevity:
a) Very Long longevity - >100yrs- Datepalm, Coconut, Arecanut
b) Long longevity - 50-100yrs - Mango, Tamarind
c) Medium - 10-50yrs - Litchi, Guava,Pomogranate
d) Short - Pineapple, Banana

I. Based on consumers preference or weight of fruits

a) Very light - 50-100gm Grape,Ber,Banana

b) Light - 100-150gm Sapota,Pomegranate
c) Light medium - 150-300gm Mango
d) Medium - 300-350gm Avocado
e) Medium to heavy - 800-1000gm Mango
f) Heavy - 1-5kg Bread fruit, Pineapple
g) Very heavy - >5kg Jack Fruit

2. Botanical classification based on botanical relationship with genomes:

ANGIOSPERMS:

COMMON NAME BOTANICAL NAME FAMILY TYPE OF FRUIT CHROMOSOME

NO.
Monocotyledanae:
Banana Musa paradisiaca, Musaceae Berry 22,33,44
Musa sapienturn
Pineapple Ananas comusus Bromeliaceae Sorosis 50
Panargh Palm Borasus flabellifera Palmae Drupe
Date palm Phoenix dactylifera Palmae Drupe 36
Dicotyledanae:
Mango Mangifera indica Anacardiaceae Drupe 40
Pistachionut Pistachia vera Anacardiaceae Nut
Cashew Anacardium occidentalle Anacardiaceae Nut
Custardapple/ Annona squamosa, Annonaceae Aggregate of berry
Seetaphal A. glebra
87
Hanumanphal Annona reticulata Annonaceae Aggregate of berry
Lakshmanphal Annona muricata Annonaceae Aggregate of berry
Ramphal Annona cherimoya Annonaceae Aggregate of berry
Karonda Carissa carandus Apocyanaceae Berry
Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
Kiwi fruit Actinidia chinensis Actinidaceae Berry
Durian Durio zibetinus Bombaceaceae Berry 28
Guava Pisidium guajava Myrtaceae Berry 22
Jack fruit Atrocarpus heterophyllus Moraceae Sorosis 56
Bread fruit Artocarpus altilis Moraceae Sorosis 56
Papaya Carica papaya Caricaceae Berry 18
Aonla/Nelli Emblica officinalis Euphorbiaceae Berry 28
Mongosteen Garcinia mangostana Guttiferae Berry 24
Avacado Perisa americana Lauraceae Berry 24
Tamarind Tamarindus indica Leguminosae Pod
West Indian cherry Malphigia puncifolia Malphigiaceae Drupe
Fig Ficus carica Malphigiaceae Berry
Guava Psidium guajava Myrtaceae Berry 22
Jamun Syzygium cumini Myrtaceae Drupe
Roseapple Syzygium jambos Myrtaceae Drupe 20
Olive Olea europaea Oleaceae Drupe
Carambola/ Star Averova carmbola Oxalidaceae Berry 24
fruit
Passion fruit Passiflora edulis Passifloraceae Berry 18
Pomegranate Punica granatum Punicaceae Balasta
Ber Ziziphus jujuba Rhamnaceae Drupe
Loquat Eriobotrya japonica Rosaceae Pome 34
Sweet orange Citrus sinensis Rutaceae Hesperidium 18
Mandarin Citrus reticulata Rutaceae Hesperidium 18
Mandarin Citrus unsu Rutaceae Hesperidium 18
Rough lemon Citrus jambheri Rutaceae Hesperidium 18
Lemon Citrus limon Rutaceae Hesperidium 18
Bael Aegle marmelos Rutaceae Amphisarea
Wood apple Feronia limonica Rutaceae Amphisarea
Litchi Litchi chinensis Sapindaceae Nut 30
Rumbutan Nephelium lappaceum Berry
Sapota (Achras zapota) Sapotaceae Berry 26
Manilkara
Phalsa Grewia subenaequalis Tiliaceae Drupe
Grape Vitis vinifera Vitaceae Berry 38

SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE OF FRUIT CROPS:

 Fruit growing is one of the important and age old practices, practiced in India since ancient times.
 Cultivation of fruit crops plays an important role in overall status of the mankind and the nation.
 The standard of living of the people of a country is depending upon the production and per capita
consumption of fruits.
 Fruit growing have more economic advantages.

Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S
HRT. 101: Fundamentals of Horticulture and Production Technology of Fruit Crops; (2+1): I Semester 2014-15
1. Economic importance:
 High productivity: high yield per unit area: From a unit area of land more yield is realized from
fruit crops than any of the agricultural crops. The average yields of Papaya, Banana and Grapes are
10 to 15 times more than that of agricultura crops.
 High net profit: Through, the initial cost of establishment of an orchard is high; it is compensated
by higher net profit due to higher productivity or high value of produce.
Eg. Wheat/ground nut/Ragi : Yield :3.0 - 4.0 tonnes/ha; 25000-00 to 35,000-00
Grapes/Mango/Banana 20-40t/ha ;1.5-2.5 lakh/ha.
 Source of raw material for agro based industries: Fruit farming provides raw materials for
various agro based industries- canning and preservation (fresh fruits), coir industries (coconut husk),
pharmaceutical industry (Aonla, Papaya, Jamun) Transporting and packaging industries etc.
 Efficient utilization of resources: Growing of fruits being perennial in nature, enables grower to
remain engaged throughout the year in farm operations and to utilize fully the resources & assets
like machinery, labour, land water for production purpose throughout the year compared to
agronomic crops.
 Utilization of waste and barren lands for production: Although, most of the fruits crops require
perennial irrigation and good soil for production, there are many fruit crops of hardy in nature,
Mango, Ber, Cashew, Custard apple, Aonla, Phalsa, Jamun etc. which are grown on poor shallow,
undulated soils considered unsuitable for growing grain/ agronomical crops.
 Foreign exchange: Many fresh fruits, processed products and spices are exported to several
countries earning good amount of foreign exchange.
2. Nutritional importance:
Importance of fruits in human diet is well recognized. Man cannot live on cereals alone. Fruits and
vegetables are essential for balanced diet and good health. Nutritionist advocates 60-85g of fruits and 360
gm. Vegetables per capita per day in addition to cereals, pulses, egg etc. fruits and vegetables are good
sources of vitamins and minerals without which human body cannot maintain proper health and develop
resistance to disease they also contain pectin, cellulose, fats, proteins etc.
Fruits- as sources of vitamins:
1. Vitamin-A- Mango, Papaya, Jack, Banana, Dates.
2. Vitamin-B- Cashew nut, Almond, Banana, Apple, Bale, Litchi, Papaya and Pomegranate.
3. Vitamin-C- Aonla, Citrus fruits, Pineapple, Ber, Guava, Strawberry, Tamarind etc.
Fruits as a source of minerals such as Ca, Fe, P- the fruits are- Almond, Cashew, Guava, Jamun, Fig,
Karonda, and Mango.
Digestive enzymes- Papaya- papaine-9, proteolitic enzyme.
Fruits have medicinal value: The fruits like aonla pomegranate, Kokum, Jamun, Bael, Ber. etc, have great
medicinal value,
1. Papaya reduces night blindness,
2. Citrus juice reduces acute diorrhea.
3. Aonla triphala (chamanprash)- digestion.
4. Jack fruit (Jackoline) - prevents Aids.
Other importance: fruit growing in kitchen gardens helps to reduce family budget on purchase of fruits.
 Planting of fruits trees, maintains ecological balance and to increase precipitation of the locality.
 Fruit tree farming also reduces soil erosion, silting and air pollution. 89
 Generate employment being highly intensive & skillful enterprise generates employment even for
trained persons.

Prepared By Dr. B. Hemla Naik, Professor & Head (Hort.) cum Coordinator (PPMC) & Dr. D. Thippesh, Professor of Horticulture, CoA Shimoga;
[email protected]; 94488 62225 | UAHS, S

Horticulture JRF Notes by Akash Sir
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