Productivity is negatively related to shoot growth across five mango cultivars in the seasonally wet-dry tropics of northern Australia
| Autor: | Warren J. Müller, Sean L. Bithell, Josef Wiebel, Steve Cole, E. K. Chacko, Ping Lu, Heinz Schaper |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Fruits. 68:279-289 |
| ISSN: | 1625-967X 0248-1294 |
| Popis: | Introduction . Mango productivity is low in seasonally wet-dry tropical areas where breeding programs require information on factors affecting productivity of mango cultivars. Specifically, our study tested a novel hypothesis that, among Australian- and Florida-bred cultivars, the greater growth of vegetatively vigorous cultivars would contribute to lower levels of fruit production in comparison with less vegetatively vigorous cultivars, in a wet-dry tropical environment. Materials and methods . A field experiment was conducted on trees of the cultivars ‘Kensington Pride’ and ‘Strawberry’, both polyembryonic cultivars, and ‘Haden’, ‘Irwin’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’, all monoembryonic cultivars. Results . Shoot growth was recorded over two years; in both years the polyembryonic cultivars produced more new shoot length than the monoembryonic cultivars; ‘Irwin’ was the least vigorous cultivar in both years. Across cultivars, there was a negative relationship between normalised (by flowering intensity and canopy area) fruit number or yield and vegetative vigour as represented by new shoot length. Conclusion . The results supported the hypothesis that the greater shoot growth of vegetatively vigorous cultivars contributed to lower levels of fruit production in comparison with less vegetatively vigorous cultivars in a tropical environment. This is the first study which demonstrates that the extent of seasonal shoot growth had a fruit production cost for mango. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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