Photo: Manoj Shrestha
Environmental Requirements
1. Temperature: the optimum
temperature of the mango is 24-27 degree Celcius. The ideal temperature for the
flower induction is 10-15 degree Celcius, flowering and fruit maturation is 33
degree Celcius and for vegetative growth is 25-27 degree Celcius. Mango cant
tolerate frost it will severely damage. Mango can be grown up to 1200 masl but
in case of commercial production, the production of mango is not high above 600
masl. The pollen viability declines if the temperature goes higher than 35
degree Celcius and lower than 15 degree Celcius.
2. Rainfall: even though mango
is a drought-resistant plant, for the best production of the mango 750-2500 mm
annual rainfall is required. Pattern rainfall affects mango production, during
the growing period rainfall is most important. During the flowering stage, low
rainfall is preferred, if heavy and continuous rainfall occurs, flowers are
susceptible to anthracnose disease.
3. Soil: Soil must be deep, fertile,
well-drained with any kind or types of soil. The optimum PH of soil for mango is
5.5 to 7.5. soil depth should be more than 2 m.
4. Light: light is very crucial
for the mango. For high production, best quality mango full sunlight is
required. The light helps in the photosynthesis, development of the best
quality, color, flesh, flavor of mango. But the shading prevents or delays the
flower bud formation, less fruit setting, more susceptibility to the disease. so
pruning is very important to facilitate the light penetration in the canopy of
the mango tree.
5. Photoperiod: photoperiod does not affect flower induction.
Flowering occurs in all photoperiods from 10-14 Hrs at an inductive temperature of
18 degree Celcius day and 10 degree Celcius. In day-neutral plants flowering
occurs in both season and offseason.
Cultivars
1. Dashehari: it is a mid-season
cultivar with small to medium-size fruit. It has fiberless, yellow-colored
flesh, medium size stone with a very sweet and aromatic flavor. Its fruit has an
elongated shape with green or yellow-green skin in the mature stage and becomes
golden-yellow when it ripe. It is an iregular fruit bearer but has good keeping quality. It is very susceptible to mango malformation.
2. Langra : it
is also a mid-season cultivar with medium-size fruit. It is the spreading type
of plant i.e. vigorous plant. The fruit has an ovate shape and lettuce green in
color. Fruit quality is good with a good blend of sugar and acid but keeping
quality is medium. It is a biennial bearer. Fruit dropping problem is very high
in this cultivar.
Source: freshindiaorganics.com
3. Chausa : it is the late-season
cultivar. trees are quite vigorous and show apical dominance. Fruit is ovate to
oval oblique in shape and large in size. The color of fruit is golden yellow and
fruit quality is good and keeping quality is medium but poor fruiting and
unpredictable bearing occurs at a young age. It is a biennial bearer and has
exceptionally sweet mango with a wonderful fragrance and deliciously soft,
succulent flesh with minimum fibre. This mango is very susceptible to floral
malformation.
Source: spotlessfruits.com
4. Bombay Green: it is also called Malda.
It is a biennial bearer and has poor keeping quality. It is the earliest variety
among the commercial types and has good taste and flavor with a good blend for
mango nectar. Fruit is medium in size with ovate-oblong and spinach green fruit
color. It is highly susceptible to both vegetative and flower malformation.
5. Alphonso: Alphonso is called the king of the
mangoes. It has a very sweet taste with fibreless pulp. It is a mid-season
variety available from April to June.it has good sugar and acid blend capacity
with excellent keeping quality. Fruits are medium in size about 250 gm, ovate
oblique in shape, and orange-yellow in color. Very suitable for the export and
also for table and canning. It has limited adaptability. The flesh has spongy
tissue, it is the biennial bearer.
6. Fazli: fruit is very
large with an obliquely oval shape and the fruit color is light chrome. It has
inferior fruit quality but keeping quality is medium. It is the late-season
variety with a biennial habit.
Source: holidify.com
7. Neelam: it is the
late-season variety and has precocious bearing capacity. It has good keeping
quality as well as fruit quality. It is the ideal variety for transporting to
distant places because it has high keeping quality. The fruit is ovate oblique
in shape with saffron yellow in color and has medium-size fruit. It has a dwarf
plant and it is a regular type.
8. Amrapali: it is the
hybrid variety derived from female dashehari and male neelum. It is a
late-maturing variety, regular bearing, and has dwarf height. This variety is
suitable for high-density planting with a general spacing of 2.5 m x 2.5 m. it
is precocious in bearing and prolific bearer. It has deep orange-red flesh with
high vitamin A than its parent. Has 2.5 to 3 times more beta carotene than
parents. It is a cluster in bearing and small-sized fruits and has a mango
malformation problem. It has good fruit quality as well as keeping quality with
good blending capacity.
Source:exportersindia
9. Mallika: it is also a hybrid variety
derived from female Neelam and male dashehari. It has very good keeping quality
and suitable for the export. It is a late-season high-yielding, regular bearing
variety with large size fruit i.e. 350-400 gm. It has oblong elliptical shape
fruit and saffron yellow in color. It has a very thin stone with fibreless and
firm pulp and tree in semi vigorous.
10. Ratna: it is the
hybrid cross of neelum x Alphonso. The tree is a moderately vigorous, precocious
bearer, and has medium-size fruit with attractive color. It is free from spongy
tissue.
Source: kopsnursery.com
11. Sindhu: it is the hybrid cross of Ratna x Alphonso. It is a regular
bearer with a very thin and small stone. Fruits are medium in size, fibreless,
and spongy less pulp in high quantity than stone.
12. Arka Neelkiran : it is the
hybrid cross of Alphonso x Neelum. It has medium-sized fruit with good pulp
color, excellent skin, and spongy free pulp. It is a vigorous type tree. It is
late season, regular bearing mango with attractive red blush.
Source: iihr.res.in
Cultural Practices
:
1. Propagation :
a. Sexual: sexual means propagation done through the seed.
Mango seed has a two-part kernel and hard endocarp or seed coat. To achieve
uniform germination kernel should be removed with the help of pruning shears
from the hard endocarp or seed coat. During sowing, the concave part of the seed
should face down and be buried 4-5 cm into sand or sandy mix. The sand allows
the seed to easy extraction of seedling with little damage for the root when
repotted. Mango seed should be planted in fresh because mango seed loses their
viability in a few weeks. To make it suitable for sowing we have to remove the
pulp from around the seed by fermentation or washing and dry in shade for a
couple of days..seedling should be grown in around 30 % shade.
b. Asexual:
Asexually mango can be propagated vegetatively by cuttings, grafting, budding,
or air layering. Air layering is not applied generally. Cutting can be
successfully achieved by using hardwood or semi-hardwood or semi terminal
cutting with adult leaves, cut surface should be treated with auxin. In a
commercial scale, mostly practiced method of propagation is grafting, epicotyl
or stone grafting, inarching, veneer grafting. The seedling can be grafted in
6-68 months if fertilized and irrigated properly.
2. Planting: pit digging
should be done at least 1 month prior to planting. Pit dig volume should be
0.75- 1 m3.transplanting should be done just before or early of wet season if no
irrigation is available cause later in the wet season they will get water for
their growth and development. If irrigation facility is available then
transplanting should be done during spring season. transplanting should be done
in balled and burlapped condition. planting distance depends upon its size,
vegetive structure. For vigorous tree, spacing should be 8-10 m x 8-10 m but in
high-density planting for the Amrapali spacing should be 2.5 m x 2.5 m. at the
process of transplanting graft union must be above from the soil surface and if
seedling needs support staking should be done.
Source: worldagroforestry.org
3. Irrigation: the irrigation
should be done immediately after the transplanting. The amount and interval of
the irrigation is depend upon the soil type, soil moisture, rainfall etc. one
important thing is that after each manure and fertilizer application we must
apply irrigation. Young transplant should be irrigation in the interval of 4-5
days for about 2-3 months and for the remaining of 1st year we should irrigate
in the interval of every 7-10 days. Also in 2nd year, irrigation is also done in
the interval of 7-10 days during summer and 15 days during winter. For the
fruit-giving tree in the tropics, we should keep dry for 3-4 months prior to
flowering, to reducing the vegetative flush growth. in dry areas irrigation
should be done after the inflorescence appears. During the 1st 4-6 weeks of
fruit development, cell division is most rapid, so moisture stress should be
avoided. Irrigation should be completely cut off from the fruit maturity stage
because dry conditions increase the sugar content in the fruit. Heavy irrigation
should be done immediately after the harvesting for the new vegetative growth.
Source: trust.org
4. Manure and Fertilization: manure and fertilizer is a very important factor
for the growth and development of mango. The right fertilizer and manure give
efficient tree growth, fruit yield, and fruit quality. There is no any standard
recommendation for the mango tree. Fertilizers should apply according to the
fertility status, age of a tree, soil PH etc. with increasing the age of tree we
should increase the amount of the fertilizer. for matured, fruit-bearing tree
fertilizers should apply twice a year. Ast is at the time is 1st inflorescence
begins to appear and is immediately after the harvesting to encourage new
vegetative flush. Placement of the fertilizer should be done in a proper way in
ground application, the height feeder-root density is approximately 90-175 cm
away from the trunk to the depth of 20 cm so we should apply fertilizer
accordingly. And irrigation is very necessary after the fertilizer application.
Source: mangoseedling.com
Ideal Mango :
These characteristics should be meet for the perfect mango
1. Regular bearing
2. Medium-sized
3. Fibreless
4. Firm pulp
5.
The blending of sugar and acid
6. Pleasing aroma
7. High keeping quality
8.
Small and thin stone
9. Red blushes in cheeks
10. Tolerant to disease
11. High
fruit quality