High density, dwarf rootstock guava variety
By Our Agriculture Correspondent
The dwarf rootstock reduced the size of the plants making them suitable for high density planting. (Inset) Medium to large fruits of attractive colour and sweetness.
SCIENTISTS AT the Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, have developed a dwarf rootstock of guava (Psidium guajava) for high density planting, according to Dr. S. Nagarajan, Director, IARI.
The new dwarf rootstock with Allahabad Safeda as scion was planted at a spacing of 3 m by 3 m to accommodate 1111 plants per hectare at the Todapur Orchard, and the results were quite impressive, according to him.
Promising rootstock
Two scientists, Dr. Y.K. Sharma and Dr. P.K. Majumdar of the division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology identified a promising aneuploid rootstock for guava, and successfully demonstrated its full potentials.
The results on growth have clearly highlighted the dwarfing effect of the rootstock on Allahabad Safeda. The tree size reduced significantly, and it also showed higher yield potential.
An estimated yield of 28.33 tonnes of fruits was got per hectare, according to the scientists.
Pest tolerant
The trees were found to be tolerant to guava wilt, which is a major disease of guava under field conditions. It produced fruits of better quality in terms of flesh thickness, vitamin C content, softness of seeds (due to light seed weight) and sweetness compared to Allahabad Safeda on its own roots, explained the scientists.
The trees grew to a height of 3 to 4 metres, and were ideal for high density planting at a spacing of 3 m by 3 m. The short-statured plants had short internodes and small cup-shaped and lanceolate leaves.
Seedless variety
The trees yielded medium to large fruits with attractive green colour and were sweeter than the Allahabad Safeda grown on its own roots. The dwarf rootstock is a tetrasomic guava developed by crossing a diploid (Allahabad Safeda) with a triploid (seedless) variety. It has a wider adaptability, dwarfness and field tolerance to guava wilt, according to the scientists.
Commercial varieties
All the existing commercially grown varieties of guava are vigorous in nature and generally planted at an espacement of 6 m by 6m to accommodate about 278 plants in a hectare.
This resulted not only in under utilisation of land area, but also accounted for low productivity and profitability per unit of land.
High density planting
High density planting in guava was possible only through dwarfing rootstock. But unfortunately, no dwarfing rootstock was available so far to reduce the tree vigour in guava, and it could not be adopted.
However, the concept of high-density orcharding had already been practised with dwarfing rootstock and found to be very successful in apple and other temperate fruit crops.
The two IARI scientists have succeeded in establishing this concept in guava. There has been a good demand for this dwarf from both the farmers and nurserymen.
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