Vol. 12, Issue 12 (2023)

The present investigation entitled "Rejuvenation of old and senile Custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) orchard cv. Balanagar" was carried out at AICRP on Arid Zone Fruits, Department of Horticulture, MPKV., Rahuri during May, 2022 to November, 2023 with an objective to standardize the rejuvenation technology to restore plant growth of old, senile custard apple orchard cv. Balanagar and to study the effect of rejuvenation on fruit yield of custard apple cv. Balanagar. The field trial was laid out in randomized block design with six treatments replicated four times. The results pertaining to growth parameters revealed that, treatment T₆ [Control] indicated least values for days to sprout (7.41 days), days to flowering (80 days), days to 1st crop (195.05 days) and maximum values for number of shoots at 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 and 120 days after rejuvenation (90.44, 103.85, 126.12, 144.90, 148.37, 150.74, 154.34 and 155.16, respectively). The treatment T₅ Recommended practice: University recommendation pruning at 75 days after harvesting with 25% pruning intensity reported the maximum value for leaf area (39.63 cm2). However, none of the treatments registered mortality after reiterative pruning.

Maximum number of fruits per tree was observed in treatments T₆ [Control] during first year, second year and in pooled mean. The corresponding values were 63.07, 60.83 and 61.95 respectively. The treatments T₆ [Control] was followed by the treatment T₅: Recommended practice: University recommendation pruning at 75 days after harvesting with 25% pruning intensity (52.66) during the first year. Whereas, it was at par with the same treatment during second year of study (57.40) and in the pooled mean (55.03) in terms of number of fruits. The treatment T₅: Recommended practice: University recommendation pruning at 75 days after harvesting with 25% pruning intensity has recorded maximum values for fruit length (7.94, 7.82 and 7.88 cm), fruit diameter (8.25,8.20 and 8.23 cm), fruit weight (289.23, 281.47 and 285.35 g) and yield (15.23, 16.15 and 15.69 kg/tree) during first year, second year and in pooled mean, respectively. During first year of trial no flowering and fruiting was observed in treatment T₁ [Retention of only main trunk at 45 to 60 cm height] Whereas, treatment T₂ [Retention of main trunk along with basal portion of the primary branches at 10 to 15 cm length reported the meagre flowering but no fruit setting.