Assessment of girdling on fruiting and yield attributes of Litchi cv. Late Bedana

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Sainik Farm, Patharchatta, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand to study the effect of girdling on flowering and fruiting attributes in Litchi cv. Late Bedana. Twenty year old 21 litchi trees consisted of 7 treatments with two level of girdling severity of 25% primary branches and 50% primary branches with the combination of girdling width of 2 mm, 4 mm and 6 mm, along with ungirdled control which are tested with randomized block design with three replications. The results indicated that all the litchi trees which were subjected to different severity and width of girdling have more fruit set (%) and fruit retention (%), yield (kg/tree) and girdling also reduce fruit drop as compared to control. However, the treatment girdling of 50% of primary branches + 4 mm wide had significantly effect on improving fruit yield (57.02 kg/tree). Girdling blocks the downward flow of carbohydrate from leaves to roots thus the carbohydrate may accumulate above the girdled portion which resulted in additional supply of carbohydrates from leaves to fruits, therefore, the fruit yield and fruit quality of litchi may increase.