Abstract

The fairly frequent occurrence of lean years in mango production and the shy bearing tendencies of many reputed varieties are well-known to form the limiting factors in the successful mango culture all over the world. It is commonly assumed that there is alternate bearing or a definite periodicity of bearing in mangoes. Hartless (1914), Burns and Prayag (1921), Sen (1939) and Singh and Khan (1939) have maintained that lean and good years alternate with each other without exception, while Popence (1917 and 1927) states that heavy production in mulgoa occurs once in four years in Florida. One of us (Naik 1940) has recently shown that good or bad cropping years occur at indeterminate intervals and do not conform to any alleged conception of rhythmic or cyclic production. The causes of scanty fruiting in many varieties according to the senior author is due partly to the genetic make up of the individual and partly to the varietal characte ristics, while those for lean years in mangoes may be mainly environmental influences including pest and disease incidence. On the other hand, Burns and Prayag (1921) and Popence (1927) postulate that the problem is a physiological one connected with the nutritional conditions of the tree.

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