Effect of different levels of pruning on quality of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cv. super Bhagwa

Abstract

The present investigation entitled “Effect of different levels of pruning on yield and quality of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Cv. Super Bhagwa” was conducted on a well-established pomegranate orchard of five years age, spaced at 2.5 x 3 m at post-Gangapur, Taluka and District-Latur during 2017-2018. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design with 07 treatments viz., T1 (10 cm pruning), T2 (20 cm pruning), T3 (10cm pruning), T4 (40 cm pruning), T5 (50 cm pruning), T6 (5 cm shoot tip pruning) and T7 (control) with three replications. The framed experiment was concentrated to find out optimum level of pruning for getting better quality of pomegranate. The observations on quality of pomegranate were recorded. The quality parameters of pomegranate were significantly influenced by different levels of pruning. Among the different levels of pruning, the maximum average fruit weight (276.12 g), volume of fruit (236.03 ml), weight of hundred arils (36.18g), rind thickness (4.98 mm), weight of rind per fruit (118.63 g) and weight of arils per fruit (153.49 g) were noted under the treatment T5 (50 cm pruning). The results revealed that, juice percentage (71.83%) was significantly increased by pruning treatment T5 (50 cm pruning). The significantly maximum total soluble solids content (16.75%), reducing sugars (11.90%) and total sugars (13.17%) were recorded in treatment T2 (20 cm pruning). The maximum non-reducing sugars (1.27%) and minimum titrable acidity (0.33%) were recorded under treatment T2 (20 cm pruning) but much difference were not observed among all the treatments under this quality parameters.