Articles
Pruning intensity and severity affect flowering processes in the mango tree
Article number
1346_9
Pages
67 – 74
Language
English
Abstract
Pruning is one of the most important management practices for the mango tree.
Pruning affects vegetative growth and may also affect mango tree flowering, at least indirectly, as close relationships exist between vegetative growth and reproduction.
The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of pruning on flowering in the mango tree.
An experiment was conducted in 2016 on Reunion Island on adult mango trees of the cultivar Cogshall. Pruning was carried out after harvest and characterized by pruning intensity (defined as the amount of fresh biomass removed per unit volume of canopy) and pruning severity (defined as the distance between the distal end of the axis and the pruning point). Vegetative growth was recorded on 30 pruned and 30 unpruned terminal growth units (GUs) per tree.
After vegetative growth and the resting period, flowering was described, in terms of probability, intensity, and dynamic, on four populations of terminal GUs partly formed as a result of pruning: daughter GUs produced by initial pruned and unpruned GUs, and initial pruned and unpruned GUs themselves when they did not produce daughters GUs.
The results showed the complex effects of pruning on mango flowering at the GU scale.
The effects of pruning intensity and severity on flowering probability, intensity, and dynamics varied among GU populations.
This suggested that mango tree flowering would depend on the proportion of each of these GU populations at the canopy scale, these proportions depending themselves on the pruning conditions.
As a next step, vegetative and flowering responses to pruning at the GU scale may be integrated into a functional-structural mango tree model to analyze further the global effect of pruning at the tree scale.
Pruning affects vegetative growth and may also affect mango tree flowering, at least indirectly, as close relationships exist between vegetative growth and reproduction.
The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of pruning on flowering in the mango tree.
An experiment was conducted in 2016 on Reunion Island on adult mango trees of the cultivar Cogshall. Pruning was carried out after harvest and characterized by pruning intensity (defined as the amount of fresh biomass removed per unit volume of canopy) and pruning severity (defined as the distance between the distal end of the axis and the pruning point). Vegetative growth was recorded on 30 pruned and 30 unpruned terminal growth units (GUs) per tree.
After vegetative growth and the resting period, flowering was described, in terms of probability, intensity, and dynamic, on four populations of terminal GUs partly formed as a result of pruning: daughter GUs produced by initial pruned and unpruned GUs, and initial pruned and unpruned GUs themselves when they did not produce daughters GUs.
The results showed the complex effects of pruning on mango flowering at the GU scale.
The effects of pruning intensity and severity on flowering probability, intensity, and dynamics varied among GU populations.
This suggested that mango tree flowering would depend on the proportion of each of these GU populations at the canopy scale, these proportions depending themselves on the pruning conditions.
As a next step, vegetative and flowering responses to pruning at the GU scale may be integrated into a functional-structural mango tree model to analyze further the global effect of pruning at the tree scale.
Publication
Authors
I. Grechi, S. Persello, F. Boudon, F. Normand
Keywords
Cogshall, growth unit, Mangifera indica, Réunion Island, vegetative growth
Online Articles (107)