Response of yield and quality of winter guava to severity of summer pruning

Abstract

An experiment was undertaken to improve the fruit yield and quality of monsoon flushed guava crop by regulating flowering of spring-flushed crop using varying shoot pruning intensities (25 to 75%) under subtropical condition of Western Uttar Pradesh. Summer pruning of spring flushed bearing shoot of current season was found significantly effective in increasing the production of superior quality fruits in winter guava. With the increase in summer pruning severity, yield and quality of winter guava was improved significantly up to 33% pruning intensity. On the other hand, rainy season crop showed almost a reverse trend and fruit yield was inversely related to severity of pruning. The maximum yield in rainy season was recorded with unpruned shoot trees, while fruit yield was significantly reduced in trees receiving severe pruning. However, the fruit quality of rainy season guava was improved maximum with moderate pruning (33%). Among all the shoot pruning treatments, the maximum total cumulative yield (57.30 kg/tree) and better quality fruits of both the seasons were obtained with moderately pruned trees. Hence, moderate pruning of bearing shoot of current season’s growth just before bud opening in summer was significantly most effective in improving the production of monsoon flushed crop and fruit quality of spring and monsoon flushed crops in guava.