Rejuvenation of old and uneconomical ber trees and its effect on growth, yield and fruit quality under rainfed conditions of western India

Abstract

A study was conducted to rejuvenate a 33-year-old orchard of ber under rainfed conditions during 2011-12. Trees were headed back from ground level and newly emerged shoots were budded with early, mid and late season cultivars, i.e. Gola, Seb and Umran, respectively under two alley spacings, i.e. 6 and 12 m, keeping plant to plant spacing in both the alleys at 6 m. Tree height and stem diameter were recorded higher under closer spacing, whereas, tree spread were recorded maximum in wider spacing of ber alleys. Within three years of rejuvenation, trees attained good canopy and was slightly higher in 6 m × 12 m spacing in all the cultivars. Though the trees started fruiting in the same year after rejuvenation but the yield was negligible but it increased remarkably during third year. The variety Gola recorded 3.55 times higher yield (36.4 kg tree-1) compared to yield level just before the process of rejuvenation. Higher percentage (80) of ‘A’ grade fruit was obtained in Umran followed by Gola (78%) and Seb (72%). The morphological attributes of fruit obtained from rejuvenated trees were significantly higher than non-rejuvenated trees of each cultivar. The chemical attributes, i.e. TSS, TSS:acid ratio and total sugars were found slightly higher in fruits from non-rejuvenated trees. Hence, rejuvenation technology helped in restoring the productivity of old, unproductive and seedling orchards in shortest possible time.