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Crop: mango

Scientific name :
Common / Local Name :

February Posted by

Introduction :

Mango grows well in all types of soils such as lateratic, alluvial, sandy loam, and sandy soils. However, the best soil for mango is deep (2.0-2.5 m), well drained soil of loamy texture. Extremely sandy, shallow and stony soils, the soils having hard pan in subsurface and salt affected (alkaline and saline soils) should be avoided. In Goa, mango is successfully grown in lateritic and coastal sandy soils.Efforts are made to cultivate mango on hard rock by blasting rocks and refilling the blasted openings filled with good soil, at Deogad, sindhudurg district in Maharastra state. The pH of the soil in the range of 5.5-7.5 is suitable. The water table below 2 m through out the year is desirable.

            Mango is well adopted to tropical subtropical climate and hence grows well in dry-humid as well as dry climate. Commercial cultivation is feasible up to an altitude of  600 m above sea level and temperature in the range of 15 ?40 o C. It flowers and fruits well in region, receiving an annual precipitation in the range of 2500 ?3500 scattered for four months (June to September) followed by dry spell in the remaining period. Thus, climate of Goa is suitable for commercial cultivation.

 

Land preparation :

Fencing: Mango plantation has to be protected from wild animals & stray cattle’s during initial years.

New Orchard establishment starts with clearing of land and laying out of main field as per the recommended spacing and standard planting system.

 Spacing:  A regular spacing of 10m x 10 m in square system of planting is recommended accommodating 100 grafts per hectare. However, the recommended spacing varies with dwarf varieties like sindhu, amrapali etc (planted at 5x 5 m) distance and in high density planting system.

 Digging of pits: Dig  pits of 1 m x 1m x 1m size in the month of May, keeping top soil & sub soil separately and leave them open for curing under sun shine. Mix the top soil with a mixture of about 20-25 kg well decomposed FYM, 1.5 kg rock phospahate, 1 kg of neem cake, 50 g  methyl parathion or carbaryl powder . The pit should be filled before the onset of monsoon and left to settle down under the pre-monsoon showers for 15 days before the planting is done.

Varieties :

Local varieties of Goan Origin:
Mancurad- it is the most popular variety in Goa for its excellent quality of taste and pleasant flavor. It is alternate to irregular bearer with medium yield. Fruits are medium to small and skin is smooth, bright yellowish orange.
Hilario: Commonly known as Manghilar / Mangilal . It is a popular variety in Goa, after Mancurad .Bearing is alternate or irregular, one or two branches may bear fruits every year , medium yielder cluster bearing. Fruits are medium to small in size.

Malgeuesh- Alternate or irregular bearer, medium yielder fruits are medium in weight.
Mussarat- two verities of Mussarat are noticed in Goa1.Bardez Mussarat- comonly cultivated in North Goa and another is Salcet Mussarat- commonly cultivated in South Goa. Fruits are slightly red in colour. It is alternate bearer and high yielder .It is a late season variety (May-June)

Other Verities
Alfanso, Ratna, Sindhu, Kesar, Neelam and Amrapali are the other popular varieties suitable for commercial cultivation

Konkan Ruchi: The only variety released for Pickles .It is regular bearer and fruits are big in size.

Propagation :

1). Mango is commercially propagated by stone / epicotyl grafting and soft wood grafting. Grafting involves four steps- i. Raising of root stock, ii. Selection of scion, iii. Grafting and after care of graft.

i). Raising of root stock: Collect fresh stones in the season and put them in water to remove the floating ones. Wash sunken stones thoroughly, dip them in solution containing 40 g each of BHC 40% and Fytolan in 10 litres of water, for 5 minutes. Incorporate FYM (@3.0 tonnes/1000 m2) in to the soil thoroughly for preparing beds for sowing the stones. Prepare raised bed of 15 cm height and 1m width of convenient length. Sow the treated stones in a single layer and cove them with thin layer of soil and FYM mixed in 1:1 ratio. Irrigate the bed regularly. Stones germinate in 15 ?30 days. The seed-sprouts with good girth of epicotyl region and have just developed tender leaves are used as root stock for stone grafting (epicotyl grafting). After crossing this stage, subsequently, the seedlings can be used for soft wood grafting.

ii). Selection and preparation of scion:  Select the tree of scion variety of choice for propagation. Collect healthy, 3-4 months?old, matured shoots of 15 ?20 cm length which have dormant terminal or side buds on them. Each shoot forms a scion stick and can be used for grafting. Give two downward slant cuts (4 ?6 cm long) on opposite sides at the lower end of the scion stick to make it wedge shaped. 

iii). Grafting: For epicotyl grafting, uproot the seedling along with stone, from the bed before the leaves expand and decapitate it at the height of 8-10 cm. Make a cleft of 4 ?6 cm deep in the middle of the decapitated stem by giving a downward longitudinal cut. Now insert the wedge of the scion in to the cleft of the root stock in such way that the cambium of the scion and root stock come in perfect contact with each other. Tie the graft joint firmly with 1.5 cm wide and 30 cm long polythene strip of 100 gauge thickness. Plant the tied grafts in to polythene bag of 30cm X 20 cm size of 300 gauge with drainage holes and filled with potting mixture of soil, sand and cow dung in 2:1:1 proportion. Water the bagged grafts thoroughly. Planting in bag has to be done in such way that graft joint remains above the soil level in the polythene bag.

Similarly, for soft wood grafting also, make the cleft in the soft wood region of the seedling by retaining 2-4 fully expanded leaves just below the cleft region on the stem, insert the wedged scion in to the cleft and tied firmly in the joint region as described above. In this type, before grafting itself, the seedlings are transferred in to the polythene bags (30cm X 20 cm size of 300 gauge with drainage holes) containing the potting mixture (2:1:1) to encourage the pencil thickness of stem girth and 4-6 expanded leaves. Such grown up seedlings are used for soft wood grafting.

iv). Aftercare: Keep the grafted plants under hot humid conditions under shade for about 15 ?20 days, till the sprouting of the buds on the scion. Regularly water the grafts depending on the weather conditions. Periodically, remove the side shoots growing on the rootstock below the graft joint. Remove the polythene strip used for tying the graft joint, after three months to avoid girdling of the stem. Protect the grafts from leaf eating insects and shoot borers by spraying the grafts with Nuvacron 2ml / l of water, in the nursery. After six months shift the grafts to other place or just lift the grafts and keep them in the place once in a month to prevent them from striking roots in to the ground below.

 

2). In situ grafting in mango: In order to reduce field mortality, get better growth and  
Uniform establishment of orchard for early economic yield, in situ grafting of mango is followed.

Freshly extracted mango seed stone are sown in the pits filled with top soil and FYM to raise the root stocks in the main field itself. The vigorous seedlings when attain a growth of   12-15 months with 14-16 green leaves, subsequently, in the month of August or September, are veneer grafted with scion sticks of the desired variety. Favorable weather conditions during this period in Goa ensure higher rate of in situ graft success. The capping with poly bags can be done over the scion to get good success. Such grafts grow very fast and attain maturity in a few years due to undisturbed tap root system unlike in nursery-raised grafts. 

3). Topworking in mango: Trees of inferior fruit quality and old trees can be converted in to desired commercial varieties by this method. The trees to be converted are either side grafted ore coppice grafted on new flesh with scions of desired variety.

 

Selection of grafts and planting :

One year old, healthy and straight grafts with perfect graft union should be selected from nursery in order to ensure good field establishment. Avoid under and over aged grafts to reduce field mortality. Plant the selected graft in the centre of the pit after carefully removing the polythene bag so that the ball of the earth clinging to the root system is intact. Graft is to be planted in such way that graft union remains 5-10cm above the ground

After care of grafts.

  1. Grafts should be protected from stray animals.
  2. Provide staking to grafts to protect them from high speed winds.
  3. Side sprouts on root stocks should be removed periodically.
  4. Nip off the flowers, if any,  before three years of age 
  5. Mulch basins with dry leaves or grass to conserve the moisture and suppress weeds.

 

Manures and fertilizers :

Mango grafts need adequate manuring right from first year as given below.

Age of tree

Nutrient required /tree/year (g)

Fertilizers (g /tree/year)

FYM / Compost

Neem cake
(kg)

 

N

P2O5

K2O

Urea

Rock Phosphate

Muriate of Potash

1 year

160

60

60

350

300

100

10kg
(1ghamela)

0.5

2

320

120

120

700

600

200

20 kg

1.0

3

480

180

180

1050

900

300

30

 

4

640

240

240

1400

1200

400

40

 

5

800

300

300

1750

1500

500

50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 years

1600

600

600

3500

3000

1000

100 kg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full dose of recommended nutrients may be given in the month of August for rainfed gardens. Under irrigation facilities, nutrients may be given in two equal split doses ?once in August and another in March after fruit set. Juvenile grafts (non bearing plants) can be supplied with fertilizer in several spilt dosage.

 
Method of application: Remove weeds from the basins and apply the fertilizer mixture around the trunk  about 0.5 ? m away from the main stem / trunk depending on the age of the graft and incorporate up to depth of 15 - 20 cm under the canopy of the tree.

 

Cultural practices :

Intercropping : In an orchard with 10m X 10m spacing, intercrops can be taken during the initial years. Vegetables like bhendi, chillies and brinjal, pulses, ragi, groundnut,etc. and fruit crops like pineapple, papaya can be cultivated for initial income generation.

Irrigation: Under various soil & climatic condition, mango requires copious supply of water for initially 3 -4 years i.e 30 ltrs of water once in week during winter and twice in a week during summer.   The bearing trees are generally given 2-3 irrigations after the fruit setting at the interval of 15 days for in improving the fruit size and reducing the fruit drop. 
Mulching: It is advisable to mulch the basin with straw , hay, or any leaves material easily available in the garden.

Training and pruning:  Training is an essential practice in the initial 2-3 years which is done to provide good frame work so that the branches are spaced properly allowing proper distribution of sunlight
Mango requires little pruning that involves periodical removal of dead & diseased branches up to 3 feet above ground level. The best time for the pruning is after the monsoon.
Weed management:  Weeding has to be done manually by hand weeding or by spraying weedicides such as glyphosate 41 SL or Paraquote( Gramaxone, 5ml/l).

 

Disease Management :

1.Anthracnose

Causal organism: (Collectotrichum gloeosporioides/ Glomerella cingulata)
Symptoms

  • The disease produces leaf spot, blossom blight, wither tip, twig blight and fruit rot symptoms. Tender shoots and foliage are readily affected finally resulting in the ‘dieback ‘of young branches.
  • The characteristic feature of the disease is the appearance of black necrotic areas on the leaves, shoot, inflorescence and the fruits.
  • The affected leaves show oval or irregular, grayish brown spots which may coalesce to large area of the leaf resulting in drying and shredding.
  • Leaves on infected petioles droop and fall.
  • The bloom blight may vary in severity from slight to a heavy infection of the panicles.
  • The affected young shoot finally show die back symptoms.
  • When fruits are attacked, black spots are formed and the skin becomes discolored. Young infected fruit develop black spots, Shrivel and drop off.
  • The fruit pulp beneath the spots become hard, cause cracking and decay at the ripening.
  • The infection at maturity stage will carry the fungus into storage and considerable loss occurs in storage, transit and marketing stages.
  • The pathogen survives in the detached diseased leaves and twigs on the surface and in the diseased twigs attached to the tree.

Management

  • Prune and burn dead and dried twigs.
  • Spray copperoxy chloride @ 3g/litre of water or carbendazim @ 2g/litre of water three times during the year-once in February, 2nd in April and 3rd n September.
  • Harvested fruits should be dipped in hot water at 51°C for 15 minutes or in carbendazim (1g/litre) for 1 minute before storage.

2.Powdery Mildew

Causal organism: (Oidium mangiferae)
Symptoms

  • The disease is characterized by the appearance of greyish white powdery areas on the tender foliage and inflorescence.
  • The infection spreads from tip of the inflorescence and covers the floral axis, young leaves, stem and fruit lets.
  • The disease affects the flowers before fertilization and fruits in their earliest stages.
  • The affected fruit drops off prematurely or show malformation and discoloration.
  • The incidence of the disease is favoured by high humidity accompanied by cloudy weather and low night temperature during the period between panicle development and the fruit set.

Management

  • Spray wettable sulphur (2.5g/litre) or calixin (0.1%) or carbendazim (0.1%) first at pre bloom stage as a preventive measure in areas more prone to the incidence of this disease.
  • In case of severe attack the spray should be repeated twice at full bloom and fruit set stage at 15 days interval.
  • Interval of spraying may be reduced according to the severity of attack.

3.Mango malformation

Symptoms

  • The disease is a result of complex factors and so the various types of symptoms can be grouped into (A) Vegetative Malformation and (B) Floral Malformation.

(A) Vegetative Malformation

  • In case of vegetive malformation compact leaves are formed in a bunch at the apex of the shoot or in the leaf axil giving bunchy top appearance.
  • In other type the small leaf rudiments are crowded together on the short shootlets in which the growth of shoot let  is arrested and subsequently several shootlets arise from the axil of the scay leaves.
  • Shoot let of the bunch is thicker than the main stem.

(B) Floral Malformation
(a)  In case of Floral Malformation the individual flower is greatly enlarged and the florescence gets hypertrophied.
(b) The floral malformation is of three types viz. light, medium and heavy. In heavy type the fruit setting fails. Such panicles are characterized by a condensed mass of flower buds which are mostly male. In the medium and light types, flowers of both sexes are found on the panicles and some fruit set can be seen rarely. In such cases part of the panicle is malformed and some part is healthy.
(c) The incidence of floral malformation in early flush of panicles is more than in late emerged panicles.

  • Both the medium and heavy types normally do not bear fruits.
  • The light type of panicles is compact and bears fruits in some varieties.
  • The malformed panicles give a leafy appearance because of larger bracts.

 

Management

  • A single spray of NAA (200ppm) in the first week of October for increasing the productivity of plants which are made unproductive due to malformation and for deblossoming.
  • Spraying of carbendazim (0.2%) to be done for improving the conditions of trees once at the bud burst stage.
  • Prune the diseased trees.
  • Use planting material from certified nurseries

 

4.Dieback

Causal organism: Botryodiplodia theobromae

Symptoms

  • The disease is characterized by drying of branches; a twig followed by complete defoliation and gives an appearance as if it has been scorched by fire.
  • The onset of die-back is evident by the discolouration and darkening of the bark from the tip, (young green twigs start withering first at the base) and then along the veins of leaf edge.
  • At this stage the twig or branch shrivels, exudes gum, dies and falls.
  • Brown streaking of vascular tissue is seen on splitting the stem length- wise along the axis.
  • The disease is noticeable at any time of the year but most conspicuous during September- December.

Management

  • Preventive measure for nursery
  • Selection of scion from healthy tree
  • Sterilisation of budding knives.
  • Placement of budding/ grafted plants in dry environment and gradual exposure to full sunlight.
  • For Trees
  • Pruning of disease twigs followed by application of Bordeaux paste.
  • General spray of Bordeaux mixture or copper fungicide (1%).

1.Bacterial canker

Causal organism: (Xanthomonas compestris, var. mangiferae)

Symptoms

  • Angular, cankerous, raised lesions surrounded by chlorotic halos are seen on the leaves.
  • In severe infections the leaves turn yellow and drop off.
  • On branches and twig, the lesions are initially water soaked, later become raised and dark brown with longitudinal fissures.
  • On fruits, the initial water soaked lesions gradually develop into cankers and release gummy ooze.

 

Management

  • Monthly spraying of copper oxychroride (0.1%) followed by Agrimycin (1g/10 litre water)

2.Red rust

Causal organism: (Cephaleuros spp)
Symptoms

  • The disease can be easily recognised by the rusty reddish brown spots mainly on leaves and sometimes on petioles, bark and young twigs.
  • The affected areas crack and scale off. In serious cases the bark becomes thickened and the twigs get enlarged and remain stunted.

Management

  • Avoid close planting. Spraying of Bordeaux mixture (1%) or copper oxychloride (0.3%) before appearance of the disease checks its development.

 

3.Mistletoes/Bhendur/ (Loranthus longifolia) and Viscum sp.

  • Two types of mistletoes are seen infesting mango in Goa.
  • The Viscum sp. has round leaves while the other has long leaves.
  • These parasites suck the sap from the tree and reduce yields.
  • One can see quite often large tree on the verge of death by the infestation of these parasite. The parasite spreads through its sticky seeds which are deposited by the birds after eating the fruit.

 

Management

  • The best method is mechanical removal by using bill- hook (bhendurlem). A loranthus remover can be used which is more efficient.
  • Severely infested shoots may be cut from below the tumour or swelling where infestation is seen and removed.

 

4.Spongy tissues in fruit

This is a physiological disorder, the exact cause of which is not known.
The fruit looks fine externally but when cut open, reveals formation of sponge like patches generally of a lighter colour than normal pulp without or with an air pocket.
This has been observed in Mankurad, Fernandin, Udgo and Costa.
Adopting scientific manuring practices, avoiding exposure of harvesting fruit to sun and harvesting at correct stage, may help to alleviate the problem.

 

Diseases in mango in nursery
Mango seedlings are severely affected due to root rot caused by fungal pathogens as recorded during the last few years in several nurseries in the State. Both the root stocks and the grafts are damaged resulting in death of seedlings and grafts. In literature, more than 50 fungal diseases have been reported and root rot is caused by many fungal species.

I. Rotting of mango stones (seeds) and wilting of root stocks
Symptoms

  • Due to infection, the stones fail to germinate if infected in the early stage or the germinated seedlings wilt.
  • The first signs of infection, though usually undetectable, are dark-brown lesions on the stem at or just beneath the soil level.
  • The first visible symptoms are progressive yellowing and wilting of the leaves.
  • The fungus produces abundant white thread-like fluffy mycelium on and around the stones and on the soil surface.
  • Relatively uniform size sclerotia are produced on the mycelium. Sclerotia are round and white when immature then becoming dark brown to black. Mature sclerotia resemble mustard seeds.
  • Once infected, seedlings are very susceptible and die quickly. Older plants that have formed woody tissue are gradually girdled by lesions and eventually die.
  • Infected tissues are pale brown and soft, but not watery.

Pathogen
Sclerotium rolfsii.
II. Wilting or death of mango grafts
Severe mortality was observed in one month old mango grafts of Amrapali and Mankurad. The mortality of grafts is up to 30% and all the varieties are susceptible.
Symptoms

  • Sudden wilting of grafts followed by withering of terminal leaf flush.
  • Shredding of stem portion near the ground level and rotting of main roots.
  • Discolouration and death of secondary roots.
  • As a result complete death of grafts occurs within 4 to 6 days of initial appearance of symptoms.
  • The above ground portion of the infected seedling comes out easily when pulled out

Pathogens
Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani
Integrated management of seedling rot disease
Preventive methods

  • Use clean and properly dried mango stones for raising root stock
  • Select disease free area for raising root stock
  • Provide optimum watering and avoid flooding
  • Use well decomposed farm yard manure to prepare nursery mixture
  • Use disease free soil mixture for planting the mango grafts
  • Don’t reuse the soil from previous season for grafting
  • Solarize the soil during summer to reduce the population of pathogens
  • Treat the soil with talc based formulation of Trichoderma spp. @ of 50g/50kg of soil before placing the nuts
  • Apply talc based formulation of Pseudomonas fluorescence or Bacillus spp @ 10g/ graft during planting

Curative methods
Since the commonly available fungicides were not effective against S. rolfsii and shown little effect in controlling soil borne R. solani, it is recommended to use biological control agents which were found very effective in controlling the disease.

    • After grafting apply 5g of talc based formulation of Trichoderma spp per graft
    • If the disease is noticed in the grafts, apply 2.5g of talc based formulation of Trichoderma spp or P. fluorescens or Bacillus spp per plant by pouring the solution prepared using water
    • In case of severe infection the above treatment may be repeated after 20 to 25 days

     

    Harvesting :

    The fruits should be harvested when they have obtained full size, so that they develop characteristic taste & flavor of the variety after ripening. Fruits mature between 90 to 120 days from the fruit set. Criteria for judging maturity are -
    1. Physical development of the fruit i.e rounding of vertical edge and development of pink blush or red color.
    2. When one or two ripe fruits fall from the tree naturally.
    The improved mango harvester is very handy for harvesting fruits. This has long bamboo pole fitted with a cutting shear on a ring with fruit collecting net at the distal end. Fruits are to be harvested with stalk of 1-2�attached to them.

    Though mango grafts may start flowering in the second year after planting, crop should be taken only after 4th or 5th year. The commercial production can be obtained in about 7 years and fruit yield will be stabilized after 10 years.

     

    Age of tree

    Average fruit yield per tree

    5 - 8

    50 - 250

    9 -10

    250 - 500

    After10 years

    500 -   >1000

     

     

     

    Use of cultar( paclobutrazol) for regular and early bearing:

    Many of the mango varieties are alternate/ irregular bearers. However, to induce regular bearing in such mango varieties, use of paclobutrazol is recommended as indicated below:
    a) Time of Application: once in a year between 15th July and 15th Aug.
    b) Dosage : Depending upon the age of the tree as given below.
    c) Method of application: After cleaning the basins from weeds, the recommended dose of paclobutrazol mixed in the water is applied equally in small holes of 10-12 cms depth at a distance of one foot from each other and covered with soil. Full dose of recommended fertilizer should be applied to the trees where cultar is applied.


    Sr.No

    Quantity of paclobutrazol

    Quantity of water     ( in litres)

    No. of pits in the basin of tree

    1

    10 -20 ml

    3-5 ltr

    30 nos

    2

    30-40 ml

    6-8 ltrs

    60 nos

    3

    50-75 ml

    10-15 ltrs

    100 nos

    4

    125-150 ml

    20-25 ltrs

    100 nos

     

     

     
    Economics and cost of cultivation:

           Cost of Cultivation for 100 grafts / ha for 5 years( non bearing stage)
    1 st year


    Sr.No

    Activity

    Amount

    1

    100 nos of Pits 1mt X 1 mt filled with FYM/Compost, rock phosphate , Carbaril /malathion dust

    20000

    2

    Cost of Grafts @ of Rs. 50 inclusive of Transport and 10%  mortality

    5500

    3

    Planting stacking , basins and irrigations (60 nos ) etc

    5500

    4

    Miscellaneous labour

    5000

     

     

    36000

    2nd Year

    1

    Irrigation (30 irrigation)

    3000

    2

    Cost of fertilizer & its application

    1000

    3

    Pesticides

    500

    4

    Labour (Miscellaneous

    5000

     

     

    9500

    3rd Year


    1

    Irrigation (30 irrigation)

    3000

    2

    Cost of fertilizer & its application

    2000

    3

    Pesticides

    500

    4

    Labour (Miscellaneous

    5000

     

     

    10500

    4th Year


    1

    Irrigation (30 irrigation)

    3000

    2

    Cost of fertilizer & its application

    3000

    3

    Pesticides

    500

    4

    Labour (Miscellaneous)

    5000

     

     

    11500

    5th Year


    1

    Cost of fertilizer & its application

    4000

    2

    Pesticides

    1000

    3

    Labour (Miscellaneous)

    7000

     

     

    12000

     

    Input availability

    Input availability

    Address/Contact details
    Seeds

     

    Fertilizers

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    Pesticides

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    Machineries