The impact of panicle and shoot pruning on inflorescence and yield related developments in some mango cultivars

The effect of different kinds of pruning treatments was studied on Keitt and Tommy Atkins cultivars over two seasons. The trial was conducted at Bavaria Estate, around Hoedspruit area, Northern province of South Africa (latitude: 24o25’S; longitude: 30 54’E; elevation: 600m). With regard to inflorescence development, panicle pruning (during full bloom) at the point of apical bud attachment proved to induce re-flower, more rapid fruit development and more fruit per panicle than the other panicle pruning treatments. Renewal (early in the season when fruit were on the tree) as well as post harvest pruning (especially for early cultivars) treatments were also observed to effect a well-synchronized inflorescence development and adequate number of productive inflorescences per season. Post harvest pruning treatments produced a significantly higher result for the vegetative growth parameters in both cultivars while the control trees showed the lower result. Pertaining to yield, the trend showed that, promising increment could be expected after the second season (with vigilant management of the trees) especially from panicle pruning at apical bud attachment and shoot pruning treatments on ‘Tommy Atkins’. ‘Keitt ’ was found to be not responsive to the pruning treatments applied for various parameters observed. Key words: Mango, panicle and shoot pruning, inflorescence development, yiel