Effect of severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of custard apple

Abstract

The experiment entitled effect of severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of custard apple was carried out at Highway Block, CFN unit, Dr. PDKV, Akola, during year 2016-2017 with the objectives to study the effect of different severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of custard apple and to find out the optimum severity of pruning for obtaining maximum yield and quality of custard apple. The pruning was done on main shoot, subsequent secondary and tertiary shoots from top to end on whole plant. The data obtained were analyzed using FRBD model with four different severity treatment i.e. P1 -15cm, P2 -30cm, P3 -45cm and P4 (control). Which were replicated three times. Results revealed in respect to plant growth, plant volume, mean of plant spread, leaf area, was recorded Significantly maximum in 30 cm pruning severity. Minimum number of days for flowering was recorded in shoots without pruning (70.18 days). Highest numbers of flowers per shoot were registered in 30 cm of pruning severity (13.07). In case of yield and fruit attributes the highest fruit set was registered (62.56%), highest numbers of fruits per tree (76.00), maximum fruit yield was obtained (16.40kg), maximum fruit weight (234.34g), Maximum fruit diameter (9.65cm) in 30 cm of pruning. Whereas, the results regarding seed weight, stem diameter and stony fruit percentage and Splitting Fruit Percentage were found to be non- significant.