Fruitfulness – Inducing Flowering in Fruit Plants

Fruitfulness is major problem in fruit orchard like mango, guava, litchi etc. in this article we will get detailed analysis about fruitfulness.

Factors affecting fruitfulness

Fruit growers face situations of poor or no fruiting of trees in their orchards, though the trees are old enough to bear sizable crop. The studies indicate that there are various external or internal factors associated with this sort of situation in the orchard.
Amongst the external factors, environmental conditions prevailing just before, during or at the end of blossoming or fruit set, may play dominant role in making plants fruitful of unfruitful. Also, the occurrence of pests, diseases, as well as nutritional status of the tree are all important.
Similarly, the internal factors of the plant itself i.e., hereditary characters, may be equally responsible for making a tree fruitful or unfruitful. Considering both the above-mentioned factors, the orchardist shall have to manipulate his orchard management practices in such a manner that he will be able to over-come them for making the plants productive.

Bending

In this operation, the erect growing branches of trees are bent towards the ground without breaking them and are kept in this position till sprouting. This is mostly adopted in tree crops which have erect growing habit.

Notching

In some fruit trees the branches growing erect do not sprout from the bottom part, but a few terminal buds sprout and produce fruits only near the top. The basal buds remain dormant reducing the total potential fruiting area of the tree. This is very true in fig plant. Therefore, this operation of notching, particularly just above the bud is carried out in order to induce more branches, thus increasing the fruiting area.
Notching is also done below the bud in order to induce the individual bud to turn into a fruit bud. But the practice of notching is quite cumbersome to follow on a large scale. Hence it has not become a commercial practice.

‘Ringing’ or ‘Girdling’

This method is followed in some fruit crops for increasing the fruit buds. In ‘ringing’ a narrow cut through the bark is given, whereas in ‘girdling’ wider piece of bark is removed. If the area from where the bark is removed is very wide, there is possibility that the gap may not heal at all, and the tree may die. Therefore, this practice of ringing or girdling may have to be followed cautiously, and in extreme conditions only. In crops like grapevines, the canes or shoots are girdled to improve the quality of the fruits.

Topping/Pinching

In fact, this is a method of pruning. But the severity is low. It is limited to either removal of succulent terminal shoots or just pinching of the last terminal small portion of the shoot. It is practised in fruit plants or vines which are throwing shoots that are fast growing and thus the sap flow is diverted at the terminal end. To check this tendency and to divert the flow towards the growing flowers or small fruits, this method is followed.

Bahar treatment

There is a tendency in some fruit crops including vine crops, to throw vegetative and flowery growth 3-4 times during the year. This behaviour of plant in an orchard is not very desirable. One good crop at a desired time is more desirable for good economic returns. Fruits developing and maturing at one time facilitate the orchard fertilization, irrigation to trees, watching, harvesting and all such other operations for a single cropping period. Usually, the fruit trees are treated for Ambe-bahar (spring flowering).
Therefore, this operation is carried out in fruit crops like guava, citrus and pomegranate in certain areas where they almost flower continuously to obtain a single good crop.
Simple Bahar treatment consists of with-holding of water to an orchard for a period ranging from about 3-6 weeks prior to the desired commencement of flowering depending upon the type of soil where the orchard is located. In heavy and water retentive soils, the period of withholding of water is more as compared to lighter types of soils. Sometimes, it is not possible to withhold the water for such a long time, particularly before the rainy season.
In other situations, in addition to simply withholding of water, additional treatment of root exposure is also employed. The surface soil under the tree canopy is opened up by digging and removing the soil little away and thus exposing the roots in the upper 15 to 22.5 cm layer of the soil. In this operation, some fibrous roots are cut or damaged. In extreme conditions, actually the roots in the exposed part of the soil are pruned and the basin is exposed for a week or ten days to facilitate good flowering.