Studies on Effect of Pruning and Nutrition on Yield and Quality of Fig (Ficus carica L.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on “Studies on the effect of pruning and nutrition on growth, yield, and quality of fig (Ficus carica L.)” fig orchard located at the College of Agriculture, Badnapur, during the year 2021-2022. The field experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) replicated thrice with twelve treatments, where factor ‘A’ is heading back of 30 cm central leader, heading back of 30 cm side branches and pruning with alternate limbs and control and factor ‘B’ is soil application of N: Received: 15 Apr 2024 Revised: 22 Apr 2024 Accepted: 14 May 2024 P2 O5 : K2 O at different levels. The pruning was done in 11th October of 2021. Observations were made on physiological, flowering, and quality traits. The results of the investigation revealed that the morphological, physiological, and quality characters were significantly influenced by different pruning levels and fertilizer treatments. Among the different treatments, T6 (Heading back of 30cm side branches with soil application of N: P2 O5 : K2 O @ 900: 250:275g/plant) influence the yield characters viz., number of fruits per tree, number of spur or flowers per plant and, yield of fruit per tree, yield of fruit per hectare. The quality characters like total soluble solids, ascorbic acid content, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and weight of pulp were higher in T6 (Heading back of 30 cm side branches with Soil application of N: P2O5:K2O @ 900: 250: 275g/plant). In conclusion of this study, it was inferred that T6 (Heading back of 30cm side branches with Soil application of N: P2O5: K2O @ 900: 250:275g/plant). Termites are predominant invertebrate fauna of pedolith, and they live a well-organized social life. They are the only social insects comprises king, apart from queen, workers and soldiers. Though they are reported to be an ecological engineer responsible for the formation of macroaggregates in soil and the decomposition of litter in the soil ecosystem, they are also the major pests of crops and wooden structures. Their ability to digest cellulose enables them to feed on many kinds of cellulosic materials. The symbiotic microbes present in the termite hindgut play a vital role in the biochemical fragmentation of cellulose fed by the termites. Termites are recently classified under the order Blattodea which also consists of wood eating cockroaches. The termite families Mastotermitidae, Termopsidae, Hodotermitidae, Kalotermitidae, Serritermitidae, and Rhinotermitidae have them, and Rhinotermitidae has a population of lower termites. The higher termites are of Termitidae, which has widely occurring species. The flagellates occupy the guts of lower termites, whereas it is absent in higher termites. The life of termites depends on gut symbionts, which can starve the termites in their absence. The gut microflora is diverse with termite species, and it depends on chance circumstances. Hence, this investigation was carried out to know the microbial diversification of termites which may be considered as a part of developing novel termite management strategies. of the area of the fig is under Daulatabad and Dinkar varieties. In the world, the area under fig cultivation is 4,15,780 hectares with production of 10,47,230 MT (Anonymous, 2015). Egypt is the leading fig producing country followed by Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and Iran. In India, fig cultivation is carried out in area of 5600 hectares with the production of 13802 thousand tonnes and with the productivity of 12.32 tonnes per hectare (2014). It is minor fruit crop in Northern India. On commercial scale it is cultivated in Pune district of Maharashtra state. Also the commercial farming of common (edible) fig is mostly confined to parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The main objective of pruning in figs is to induce the growth of flower-bearing wood and thereby improve the yield of fruits. In addition, pruning increases the fruit weight in early cultivars. Nevertheless, as the fruits are borne in the axils of current season’s shoot maintaining adequate shoot vigour with sufficient number of leaves is also important to get good fruit yield in fig. Keeping these in view, a field experiment was carried out to find out the effect of different levels of pruning and fertilizer application on the yield and quality of fruit. Location: The study was conducted at Research farm, College of Agriculture, Badnapur, Tal- Badnapur Dist- Jalna during the year 2021-22. The geographical coordinates of Badnapur are: Longitude - 75° 43’ East, Latitude – 19° 52’ North, Badnapur stands at 347 meters above sea level (MSL). Gram-type staining was done on 48-hour-old cultures of bacterial isolates colony by the standard staining technique (Hucker and Conn, 1987). A pure isolate colony was made on a clean glass slide, dried in air, and fixed by passing through the flame of a burner. The smear was stained with crystal violet, subsequently by gram iodine and safranin and water rinsing after each staining. Simmons citrate agar test was carried out with the pure colonies of termite gut bacteria which were inoculated on nutrient agar for eighteen hours (Ayitso and Onyango, 2016). Then streaked using a sterilized inoculating loop on the surface of the simmons citrate agar plate. The plates were then incubated at 30°C for 48 hrs. Nutrient agar containing 0.2 per cent soluble starch was used for starch hydrolysis test. Test cultures were spotted on the Petri plates and incubated for 48hrs. Then Lugol’s iodine solution was added and a colourless zone around the bacterial growth in contrast to the blue background of the medium was observed as positive reaction (Schaad, 1992). The experiment was laid out in a Factorial Randomized Design with 12 treatments and 3 replications. The levels of bunch trimming were P1- heading back of 30 cm central leader, P2- heading back of 30 cm side branches, P3- Pruning with alternate limbs and P0- control (no pruning) and fertilizer combination of F1: 80 % RDF through chemical + 20 % through FYM, F2:60%RDF through chemical+20% through FYM+20% Neem cake, F0:100% RDF through chemical. The basins were prepared by digging the soil around tree trunk. The plants of experimental orchards were pruned from15 September to 15 October. The manures and fertilizers applied immediately after the pruning. Number of fruits per plant: In the case of pruning, the significant maximum number of fruits per plant (204.05) was recorded in treatment P2, and the minimum number of fruits per plant (177.99) was noticed in treatment P0. In the case of fertilizer, the significant maximum number of fruits per plant (213.12) was recorded in treatment F0, while the minimum number of fruits per plant (175.08) was noticed in treatment F2.The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer was found to be significant. The maximum number of fruits per plant (259.16) in treatment P2F0, while the minimum number of fruits (151) was found in treatment P3F1. Weight of fruits per plant: In the case of pruning, the significant maximum weight of fruit per plant (87.44) was recorded in treatment P1, while the minimum weight of fruit (81.05) was noticed in treatment P2. The effect of fertilizer on weight of fruit per plant was significantly maximum(84.70) was recorded in treatment F0 while the minimum number of flowers (83.03) was observed in treatment F2.The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer on the weight of fruit per plant was found to be significantly maximum (89.33) in treatment P2F0, and the minimum weight of fruit(75) was observed in treatment P2F1.An appraisal of data showed that T2 was superior in respect of average fruit weight(89.33 g). Pruning increases the ability to take water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make carbohydrates or sugars that ultimately encourage trees to produce higher yields. Similarly, pruning increases photosynthetic activity and fruit set by reducing fruit drop, and thereby higher number of fruits and ultimately, higher fruit yield. These findings are in accordance with the results obtained by, Ghum (2011) in custard apple, Prakash et al. (2012) and Adhikari and Kandel (2015) in guava. Yield per tree (kg) : In case of pruning, the significantly maximum yield per tree (16.79) was noticed in treatment P1 and minimum yield (14.82) was recorded in treatment P0.In case of effect of fertilizer, the significantly maximum yield (18.09) was noticed in F0 while the minimum yield (14.72) was found in treatment F1.The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer was found to significant. Ascorbic acid: In the case of pruning, the significant maximum percent of ascorbic acid (30.90) was recorded in treatment P2, while the minimum percent (24.00) was noticed in treatmentP3. In case of fertilizer, the maximum ascorbic acid percent (27.70) was found in treatment F0 and the minimum percent (25.43) was observed in treatment F1.The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer was found to be significantly maximum (34.33) in treatment P2F0, and the minimum percent of ascorbic acid (22.80) was noticed in treatment P3F1. Reducing sugar (%): In the case of pruning, the maximum percent of reducing sugar (8.42) was recorded in treatment P2,while the minimum percent of reducing sugar (7.03) was observed in treatment P1. In case of effect of fertilizer, the maximum percent of reducing sugar (7.78) was recorded in treatment F0 while the minimum (7.09) was noticed in treatment F1. In the case of the effect of pruning and fertilizer, the significant maximum percent of reducing sugar (9.21) was recorded in treatment P2F0,while the minimum (6.90) was noticed in treatment P1F1. Non-reducing sugar (%): In the case of pruning, the maximum percent of non-reducing sugar (3.02) was recorded in treatment P2,while the minimum percent of non-reducing sugar (2.02) was observed in treatment P3.In the case of the effect of fertilizer, the maximum percent of non-reducing sugar (2.61) was recorded in treatment F0,while the minimum (2.38) was noticed in treatment F1.In case of effect of pruning and fertilizer, the significantly maximum percent of non-reducing sugar (3.13) was recorded in treatment P2F0 while the minimum (1.85) was noticed in treatment P3F0. Juice content (%): Incaseofpruning,themaximum Circumference of fruit (cm): In the case of pruning, the significant maximum circumference of fruit (12.81) was recorded in treatment P2, and the minimum circumference (10.57) was noticed in treatmentP3. In the case of the effect of fertilizer, the maximum circumference of fruit (12.22) was recorded in treatment F1, while the minimum (11.57) was noticed in treatment F0.The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer was found significantly maximum circumference (14.26) in treatment P1F1 while the minimum (10.23) was observed in treatment P3F2. Weight of pulp: In the case of pruning, the significant maximum weight of pulp (23.2) was noticed in treatment P0, while the minimum weight of pulp (21.8) was observed in treatment P1. In the case of the effect of fertilizer, the significant maximum weight of pulp (23.2) was noticed in treatment F0, while the minimum weight (22.2) was recorded in treatment F2. The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer on the weight of pulp of fruit was found to be significantly maximum (25.3) in treatment P2F0 while the minimum weight of pulp (21.3) was noticed in treatment P0F2. Weight of fruit rind: In the case of pruning, the significant maximum weight of the rind (5.02) was noticed in treatment P0, while the minimum weight of the rind (4.3) was observed in treatment P1. In the case of the effect of fertilizer, the significant maximum weight of rind (4.70) was noticed in treatment, while the minimum weight (4.42) was recorded in treatment f The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer on the weight of the rind of the fruit was found significantly maximum (5.06) in treatment, P0F1while the minimum weight of the rind (3.7) was noticed in treatment P2F0o. Pulp: rind ratio: The data recorded on the effect of pruning and fertilizer treatments on pulp and rind ratio in fig presented in Table 2, the significant maximum pulp: rind ratio (5.42) was recorded in treatment while minimum ratio (4.60) was noticed in treatment P0. The interaction effect of pruning and fertilizer on pulp: rind ratio was found to be significant. Maximum ratio (6.86) was recorded in treatment P2F0, while the minimum (4.56) was noticed in treatment P0F0.It may also act as a catalyst in the formation of more complex substances and in the acceleration of enzyme activity, which ultimately leads to an increase in the pulp:seed ratio of the fruits. Kundu et al. (2007), Dhomane et al. (2012) observed similar results in guava.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.300011

Pages

71 - 77

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

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