Mango-Inter cultivation
Carry out intercultural operations by ploughing or digging twice during the year in June and October.
Green leaves (25 kg/plant) and wood ash (10-15 kg/plant) may be applied additionally. Apply organic manures in May-June with the onset of monsoon.
Apply the fertilizers in one dose during May-June until bearing stage and thereafter in two equal split doses, the first during May-June and the second during August-September.
Apply manures and fertilizers in trenches 30 cm deep taken at a distance of 2.5 to 3 m from the base of the tree.
Grow vegetables, horse gram, black gram, pineapple and banana as intercrops in young orchards.
Remove root stock sprouts and low lying branches nearer to ground to facilitate easy cultural operations. Remove overlapping, intercrossing, diseased, dried and weak branches in old trees to get good sunlight and aeration.
Do not allow flowering upto three years. Remove the inflorescences as and when they appear.
Pruning is done in September to October on current season flushes to activate flowering.
Retain two healthy shoots by trimming away the weak shoots among the crowded terminal shoots during August-September annually. Prune back 20 cm of annual growth of the terminals immediately after harvest
For reducing fruit drop and to improve productivity, hormone NAA at 10-30 ppm (1-3 ml in 100 liters of water) concentration may be sprayed to the entire inflorescence at the peak stage in the second week after fruit set.
Application of Paclobutrazol (5 gram/10 litre of water) for non-bearing trees as soil drenching 60 cm away from tree trunk. It is done during first fortnight of September and will induce flowering and fruit set yield during off years. Irrigate the trees after the application.
Base banding of the root or base of Loranthus plant with 2 4 D (2 ml/100 ml of water) with the help of a strip of cotton (20 cm long 1 cm width) after removing the bark in a circle is effective in its control.
Irrigate twice a week during summer months till the plants are 4-5 years old. However, for bearing tree, giving a stress by withholding irrigation favors flowering and fruit set.