CONTROL OF PHYTOPHTHORA FRUIT DROP IN SAPOTA BY PRUNING

ABSTRACT An experiment on pruning in sapota was conducted at Agril. School, Kosbad Hill, Dahanu, Dist. Palghar during the year 2008 to 2013 with three pruning treatments viz; heading back upto 3.0m, heading back upto 1.0 m, centre opening and thinning and untreated as control. The fifty years old over crowed  sapota trees were pruned as per the treatments in October, 2008. The three years (2011, 2012 and 2013) results  revealed that, all the treatments were significantly superior over control. The least per cent incidence of Phytophthora fruit drop (3.19, 4.13 and 4.25 per cent) was recorded in the treatment T 4 (Centre opening and thinning) followed by T 2 (Heading back 3.0 m) and T 3 (Heading back 1.0 m) respectively. The maximum fruit yield (104.4kg plant -1 and 10.4 tones ha -1 ) was recorded in T 4 i.e, Centre opening and thinning was found to be significant over treatment T 2 i.e, Heading back 3 m (16.60kg plant -1 and 1.66 tones ha -1 ). (Keywords : Sapota, fruit drop, pruning, yield )