Tropical and subtropical fruits (2+1)

Flowering and fruiting

Flowering

• Annona plants starts bearing from 3 years of planting and economic yields starts from 5-6 years after planting.
• Flowering periods extends from spring to the end of the rainy season.
Factors affecting fruit set

• Failure of many flowers to form fruits due to lack of pollination.
• It is desirable to set fruits early in the season, but in India the early flowers produce no pollen and hence natural pollination is difficult. Hand pollination gives about 85 percent fruit set compared to natural pollination (30 percent).
• Dichogamy: The stigmas are not receptive when the pollen is shed and the receptivity also remains for a short period. Some custard apple trees shed pollen on the morning and others in the afternoon.
Increase in fruit set is possible by application of NAA at 20ppm during flowering for 3-4 times at 8-10 days interval and spraying with GA3 at 50ppm.