Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 11.9.
Relation between yield of marketable fruit and the water application as a
fraction of pan evaporation (Awada
et al.
, 1979).
56 l water/day but 114 l maximum during the dry season, the delivery system
must have the capacity to deliver the maximum requirement. One emitter per
tree has been sui cient for the fi rst 3-4 months, but thereafter two emitters,
one on each side of the tree, have been found necessary. A single micro-
sprinkler (30 l/h) can also meet requirements.
Pruning
Normal tree pruning is not practised. Side shoots produced by some cultivars
during the juvenile stages or enforced when the plant apex is damaged are
removed as early as possible to maintain a single-stemmed tree. If the apex
is damaged or destroyed, one shoot nearest the terminal is maintained to re-
establish the tree. Some lower leaves are removed to facilitate harvesting,
improve penetration of spray materials and generally to increase marketable
yields (Ito, 1976). No statistical dif erences are found in total soluble solids,
fruit size, number of fruits and marketable yield after a year of leaf pruning
when only 15 fully expanded leaves are retained. One fully expanded
mature leaf can provide photosynthetates for about 1500 g of fruit on the
column on 'Solo' varieties. Trees that have very large fruits (4-5 kg each)
