Current Horticulture

An experiment was conducted to improve the yield and quality of Nagpur mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) at ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur, during 2020.The pre-harvest foliar application of 20 or 25 ppm of GA₃ along with 1.5% urea delays the senescence of tissues and makes albedo tissues compact which helps in increasing the yield by delayed harvesting, improving the quality of fruits by maintaining their firmness. The yield and yield attributes, viz maximum yield per plant and total estimated yield per hectare was noted in GA₃ 20 ppm + urea 1.5% (130.73 kg/plant and 36.21t/ha) in ambia bahar and in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5% (82.48 kg/plant and 22.84 t/ha) in mrig bahar. Minimum number of creased fruits recorded in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5%in both the seasons (38 in ambia bahar and 19 in mrig bahar). Maximum fruit firmness (2.33 kg/cm²) recorded in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5% in ambia bahar and in GA₃ 20 ppm + urea 1.5% (2.65 kg/cm²) in mrig bahar indicating fruits are less matured compared to other treatments. Fruit physical characteristics viz. maximum fruit weight and volume were recorded in GA₃ 20 ppm + urea 1.5% (162.70 g and 159.50 cm³ respectively) in ambia bahar and in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5% (146.25g and 144.00 cm³ respectively) in mrig bahar over the control. The biochemical characteristics viz. highest TSS was recorded in the control in both ambia and mrig bahar (10.10% and 11.97% respectively) indicating that fruits were ripen earlier compared to the fruits of other treatments, whereas lowest TSS (8.92%) was recorded in GA₃ 20 ppm + urea 1.5% in ambia bahar and in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5% (9.92%) in mrig bahar shown delayed ripening of the fruits. Maximum acidity was noted in GA₃ 25 ppm + urea 1.5% in both ambia and mrig bahar (0.89% and 0.84% respectively) compared to other treatments.