Alternate Bearing in Mango. ( आँप एक साल फाल्ने एक साल नफल्ने, यो किन हुन्छ ? कसरी हटाउन सकिन्छ ? )

 Alternate Bearing in Mango. 

(  आँप एक साल फाल्ने एक साल नफल्ने  )

Who doesn't love mango? We all do. Mango is the most famous tropical fruit. Some of us may also have Mango tree around our home. If yes, I have a question for you, does that tree gives fruit every year? Or goes for vegetative (branches/leaf) in alternate years ?

As name suggests, alternate bearing is a state in which mango plant bear fruit for one year and remain fruitless or bear very few fruit in successive year. It is also called biennial bearing. It is really sad and frustrating that we wait whole year to have the delicious taste of mango from our garden but it doesn't bear fruit. Now, what causes this? Here are some causes of alternate bearing of mango:- 

A. Genetic cause

 One of the major causes is the composition of gene in mango, some species if mangoes have genes that are designed in such a way that it shows alternate bearing. High sex ratio( male gene: female gene) is one of the cause. We know female ovule/ovary is later developed into seed/fruit but due to high number of male gene, formation of fruit is affected. 

B. Plant growth hormones

 Decrease in growth hormones like Auxin reduces the percentage of flower bud initiation and ultimately decreases the fruit formation. 

C. Ineffective management practice

 Insufficient nutrient supply, lack of good training and prunning makes ni growth after fruit harvest. There occurs poor vegative growth in the off season whose effect is seen in on year where there is more vegetative growth rather than fruit bed initiation. 

D. Imbalance in Carbon / Nitrogen  ratio has been considered as some of the major causes for biennial bearing or alternate bearing in mango.

So, how can we overcome this problem? 

 Genetic cause cannot be overcame but others, we can. 

A. Use of regular bearing variety

Mallika, Amrapali, Neelam, Bangalore, Red small are some of the regular bearing varieties of Mango. 

B. Use of PGR

 As we read earlier, decrease in PGR is one of the cause of alternate bearing. So, spray of NAA, Etherel (200 ppm) should be done to favour flower initiation. 

C. Effective management and cultural practice. 

Nutritive balance is very necessary. With that, deblooming ( removal of excessive flower) and thinning should be done by use of hand or by chemical spray ( 3- chloroisopropyl N- phenyl carbonate @250-300 ppm) . 

Also, operations like pruning, regular ploughing, optimum manuring, ringing and adequate irrigation helps to overcome biennial bearing. 

This is our habit to ignore the cultural operations and let plant grow in itself. That habit should be changed now. The above mentioned measures should be used to overcome the alternate bearing and then only can  have some delicious slices of mango from your garden, every year.