Achievements
Crop Improvement
Mango
The total collection in mango stands at 538. Evaluation of germplasm showed that the variety Sora had the maximum fruit weight (1166 g) followed by the variety Tenneru (945 g). It was to be minimum in Kalakai (88 g). Screening of the 32 mango varieties for fruit fly showed that the varieties Bhuto Bombay and Virudhunagar when exposed to fruit fly under artificial conditions did not record any infestation. The varieties Gopal Bhog, Bhutto Bombay, Manipur, Manibhatta Appe and Virudhunagar did not show any stone weevil infestation.
Arka Udaya: It is a hybrid (Amrapali x Arka Anmol) which possess the semi vigorous growth , bunch bearing characteristics, fruits medium sized (230-240g) and oblong, peel colour of Arka Anmol with pulp characteristics of Amrapali, firm pulp (77%) with deep yellow having high TSS(24°Brix), total carotenoids (13.55mg/100g) and has yield potential of 18-20t /ha with the spacing of 5x5M.
Guava
The total collection in guava stands at 76 including five species.
Arka Kiran: It is a hybrid (Kamsari X Purple Local) possesses the semi-vigorous plant habit. It bears the medium sized round shaped fruits ( 200-220g), Pulp deep pink in colour with Lycopene content of 5-7 mg/100 g, high TSS (14-15 °Brix), medium soft seeds (7.0 kg/cm2 ). It has the yield potential of 35 to 40 t / ha.
Arka Rashmi: It is a hybrid (Kamsari X Purple Local) possess the semi-vigorous plant habit. It bears the medium sized round shaped fruits ( 200-215g), Pulp deep pink in colour with Lycopene content of 4.93 mg/100 g, higher ascorbic acid (235.5 mg /100 g ),high TSS (12-14 °Brix), medium soft seeds (9.0 kg/cm2 ). It has the yield potential of 35 to 40 t / ha.
Sapota
Germplasm of 33 Sapota accessions are being maintained in the field. An open pollinated seedling progeny of Cricket Ball (no.63) isolated has been multiplied by grafted and 20 grafts are planted in field for further evaluation.
Jamun
Nine accessions of Jamun were collected from various sources like KRCC, Arabhavi (6 accessions), CISH, Lucknow (2 accessions) and one Konkan Bahadoli from Regional Fruit Research Station, Vengurle.
Underutilized fruits
At present, 42 accessions of underutilized fruits are being maintained. A total of 19 accessions in jackfruit and 9 in pummelo have been evaluated. The accession G-65 continued to be superior in jackfruit. In pummelo, a pink pulped accession has also been found good with respect to quality.
Papaya
Papaya-drought tolerance
As pollen germination under stress is one of the indirect ways of assessing drought tolerance, different accessions of Carica papaya were evaluated by artificial pollen germination. Amongst the 32 accessions tried, V. cauliflora, Dwarf Lilly and CO6 recorded pollen germination over 50 per cent.
Pomegranate
Two accessions of pomegranate have been introduced from Afghanistan one with acidic taste and the other with sweet and seedlings raised from them. Screening of nearly 500 progenies of Daru, Nana (Yellow) and Nana (Red) was taken up and found that Daru had highest per cent (51.41) of population resistant to BBP. Nearly 5000 seedlings of Daru, Nana and OPs of Bhagwa were raised for evaluation against BBP. Two hybrids of DF x N with less spines were identified as a source of breeding lines.
Strawberry
Sixty six accessions were added. Three hundred forty four putative disease tolerant hybrids with various degree of tolerance to different fungal diseases (based on one season of screening/field survival) are being furthered for rigorous screening.
Passion fruit
A total of twelve genotypes are being maintained.
Production Technology
Canopy architecture (Mango, grapes and fig)
In the field trial involving planting densities of 1111 (3m x 3m), 400 (5m x 5m) and 178 (7.5m x 7.5m) ‘Alphonso’ trees / ha. on ‘Vellaikulumban’ and ‘Olour’ rootstocks with or without the application of paclobutrazol, the vegetative growth parameters were lower for paclobutrazol applied trees and those on Vellaikulamban rootstock. Flowering was more at wider spacing and on trees that received paclobutrazol treatments, the trend being more pronounced with Olour rootstock. The highest fruit yield of 14.63 t / ha during the twelfth orchard year was obtained with 3m X 3m spacing using Olour rootstock and 1.25 g paclobutrazol / tree compared control at 10m X 10m spacing (100 trees / ha) on random Totapuri rootstock without paclobutrazol yielding only 4.64 t/ha. The treatment combinations did not significantly affect fruit quality, though acidity tended to be more for closer spacing. Paclobutrazol residues in surface soil (0-15 cm) samples collected from under mango tree canopy at the time of fruit harvest were in the range of 0.044 to 1.145 mg / kg for the lower application rate (0.125 g / tree / year of age) and in the range of 0.096 – 1.88 mg / kg for the higher application rate (0.25 g / tree / year of age), but fruit samples from all the treatment combinations were free of any paclobutrazol residues.