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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is the leading fruit crop of India, belonging to family Anacardiaceae. The demand for mango fruit is growing annually and the requirement is not met with existing rate of production. So, there is good scope for increasing the area and productivity of mango in the country. One of the strategies to achieve this is by adopting high density planting, to increase the productivity per unit area. Hence, an investigation carried out with four different spacing i.e. D1- 2.5 × 2.5 m (1600 plants/ ha), D2- 5.0 × 2.5 m (800 plants/ ha), D3- 5.0 × 5.0 m (400 plants/ ha), D4- 7.5 × 5.0 m (267 plants/ ha) with three different combinations of mulching i.e. M1- Paddy straw mulch, M2- Plastic mulch (50 micron thickness), M3- Without mulch (control) and their interaction was studied. The experimental results reveals that the plant with spacing of 5.0 x 5.0 m showed highest growth increment in terms of height (47.02 cm) and plant spread (E-W) (38.17 cm) and the plants with the spacing of 7.5 x 5.0 m showed highest increment in stem girth (16.70 mm), canopy volume (2.20 m3) and plant spread (N-S) (22.44 cm). The plastic mulching resulted in highest increment in plant height (45.86 cm), stem girth (17.51 mm), canopy volume (1.57 m3) and plant spread in North-South (39.01 cm) and East-West (39.38 cm) directions compared to other mulches. The data on per cent fruit set revealed that the plants with spacing of 7.5 x 5.0 m showed significantly highest fruit set per cent (0.243 %) which was on par with spacing at 5.0 x 5.0 m. Plastic mulching (M2) showed increase in number of active roots which indirectly helps in increase in panicle length (39.76 cm), panicle breadth (20.62 cm), number of panicles (62) and vigorous in plant growth. The interaction effect revealed that, spacing of 7.5 x 5.0 m with plastic mulch (D4M2) showed maximum panicle length (41.33 cm) and per cent fruit set (0.3 %), whereas 5.0 x 5.0 m with plastic mulch (D3M2) showed highest panicle breadth (21.76 cm) and number of panicles per plant (78).