- Root and shoot systems of trees/crops may have either competitive or complimentary effects on each other depending upon the kind of management practice is followed in a particular orchard.
- The shoot/root growth of fruit trees and shrubs is influenced by external conditions like moisture, aeration, soil temperature, availability of nutrients. All these factors are greatly influenced by practices such as mulching, inter-cropping, weed management, cover crops, sod culture, fertilizer application and irrigation, which in turn affect the above ground tree growth.
- For example, use of mulch around the tree is helpful in conserving soil moisture, and thus improving root growth, nutrient uptake and consequently improving the growth of shoot system. However, roots under mulch tend to be distributed nearer to the soil surface.
- When main purpose of the orchard management is to increase land use efficiency as in case of inter cropping or multi-species cropping, losses to the main crop may occur due to competition among the crops for root growth, water, nutrients, light etc. especially if selection of inter crops and management are not planned properly before and these will have an adverse effect on the growth of shoot system of the main crop as well as that of inter crop.
- An efficient orchard management programme always improves the performance of fruit trees in the following ways:
- It reduces the competition of roots for water and nutrients and in the absence of weeds, it increases the availability of soil water for absorption, increases the root growth due to less soil compaction, improved soil structure, optimal soil temperature etc., which have complimentary effect on shoot system and thus the overall performance of trees.
- In multi species cropping system, complimentary interaction in plant is known as annidation. It augments yield and performance of both crops.
- In temperate fruit orchards, primary objective in their management involves sustainability of soil fertility, weed and soil erosion control and moisture conservation. These can be achieved through appropriate weed management system(s), use of mulches around the tree basins, clean cultivation, chemical weed control, sod culture etc.
- Temperate fruit orchards in India are mainly rainfed; therefore more emphasis is laid towards water conservation and its proper use during critical periods, through efficient irrigation systems.
- Judicious training and pruning are important to impart proper shape to the trees, produce high quality fruits, besides maintaining a balance between growth and fruiting.
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