Many people like gardening at home, and it’s easy to understand why. Growing your own flowers, herbs, and veggies may be a fulfilling activity that makes you feel accomplished and satisfied. There are many tips and methods to help you get the most out of your gardening efforts, whether you are an experienced gardener or are just getting started. We’ll provide you some helpful home gardening information in this post to get you started on your gardening adventure. These suggestions can assist you in quickly growing a wholesome and fruitful garden, from picking the ideal area to harvesting your plants at the ideal moment.
Mango Gardening
Mango has a prominent place among the fruits produced in . It is also called the king of fruits because of its unique taste, attractive color and shape, pleasant aroma, production capacity suited to regions and climate, availability of commercial varieties and popularity among the masses. It has often been seen that in mango orchards that are 40-60 years old, the production capacity starts decreasing. The productivity of such gardens remains only up to 35-40 percent. Therefore, to re-establish the commercial production and quality of these old orchards, renovation techniques have been developed, following which gardeners can make their old dilapidated and unproductive orchards productive again.
restoration techniques
In restoration technique, mainly the woody part (unproductive wood) is reduced from old and unproductive trees. In this technique, in the month of December-January, the plants are cut with a saw at a height of 2.5 to 3 meters from the ground surface. Power saws are more suitable for cutting. After harvesting, paste of cow dung or copper oxychloride should be applied on the cut parts, so that there is no outbreak of fungus in it. Along with this, new buds emerge from the cut part. After one month, except the outer and at least 4-6 branches in all the four directions, the rest of the buds are thinned. For renovation, all the trees in the gardens are cut together.
Canopy Management
After renovation, beehive management work is done in June-July. In beehive management, 50 percent of the total length of buds is cut, so that new buds can be created again. The initial cost of restoration and loss during production can be compensated by increasing the income by selling the wood obtained from cutting and pruning of branches and by growing end crops.
nutrition management
After restoration, the tree needs nutrients. Therefore, the management of nutrients in the garden is very important at this time. After pruning the trees, 50 kg rotten cow dung manure, 4 kg neem cake, 2.5 kg nitrogen, 3 kg phosphorus and 1.5 kg potash should be given per tree per year. Half quantity of Nitrogen and full quantity of Phosphorous and Potash should be given in the month of January-February and the rest of Nitrogen should be given in the month of July. The mixture of manure should be mixed completely in the basin by hoeing 8-10 cm deep and 50 cm away from the stem. Light irrigation should be done after hoeing.
irrigation management
For proper development of newly developed buds, special care should be taken for irrigation in the garden during the process of restoration. The restoration process can be affected due to lack of irrigation. For proper canopy development of trees, irrigation at an interval of 10-15 days in summer is very necessary. Drip irrigation gives the best result (increase in production and quality of fruits) among different methods of irrigation.
mulching
A 15 to 20 cm thick layer of black polythene (100 microns) or dry grass or paddy residue etc. should be spread over the soil on the surface of the restored trees. The use of black polythene for mulching reduces the need for irrigation in the plants.
end crop
After pruning the trees, a lot of open space is available in the orchard and it takes 2-3 years for the canopy of the restored trees to develop. Therefore, additional income can be earned by growing intercrops in such gardens. Taking cauliflower, peas, potato, cabbage, marigold in Rabi season as intercrop and bottle gourd, cucumber, ridge gourd, parwal, cowpea etc. in Jayad can give good profit in initial stage. Apart from this, medicinal crops like Tulsi, Fenugreek, Satavar, Kalmegh etc. can also be grown successfully.
pruning
All unwanted branches of economically useless trees are marked and cut at a height of 2.5 to 3 meters from the surface in the month of December-January. Dry, diseased and dense branches between the trees are cut and removed. Only 4-6 branches are kept on the trees for the development of the foliage area. While harvesting, make sure that the branches are not unnecessarily torn from the lower part. Therefore, first cut about 15-20 cm downwards with the saw, then cut the upper part of the branch. After this, basins and irrigation drains must be made near the trunks of the trees in the middle of February.
thinning of buds
After about three to four months of pruning in the month of December (March-April), many new buds emerge on these pruned branches, which need to be thinned. For better canopy development, keeping 8-10 healthy buds per branch, the remaining unwanted buds are removed in June and August. In the month of April-May, new leaves should be sprayed with Carbaryl 3 gm/Litre to protect them from insects.
Pest and Disease Management
Immediately after harvesting, coat the cut surfaces of the tree with copper oxychloride or Bordeaux paste to protect the cut surfaces from fungal infection. To prevent stem borer, apply dichlorovas (5 ml/litre of water) in a cotton swab and put it in the affected hole and close the entrance of the hole with clay. If there is an outbreak of leaf eating insects in the month of June-July, then Dimethoate 30 E.C. Do 2 sprays of 2 ml at an interval of 15 days. To protect young leaves from anthracnose disease, take 2 sprays of copper hydroxide (0.3%), 3 grams per liter of water at an interval of 12-15 days.
flowering and fruiting
After taking timely care of the trees after restoration, the buds formed on the decayed branches start flowering and fruiting after about 2 years. On the basis of experiments, it has been found that an average yield of 60-70 kg of quality mango per tree is obtained from the restored trees. In this way, old and unproductive mango orchards become fruitful again for 20-25 years by renovation technique.
Under the National Horticulture Mission, a comprehensive program is being run for the renovation of old orchards in the districts of different states of the country and with the success of this technique, the economic condition of the orchardists is improving.
Dr. Pooja Pant
Assoc. Prof,
Faculty of Agriculture, S.G.T. University, Gurugram, Haryana
English Summary: Technique to increase production capacity of mango orchards Published on: 01 November 2021, 08:48 IST