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Canopy management in fruit crops under AET

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Title Canopy management in fruit crops under AET
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Creator Maneesha S.R
 
Subject Canopy management, AET
 
Description Not Available
According to the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), Ecotourism is the "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." Agro Eco tourism is a concept that provides opportunities to the visitors to experience the agricultural life through nature travels and farming activities. Among the different components of an AET unit, trees have prime importance since they form the frame work of the unit. Forest trees, plantation crops and fruit trees need proper management practices to maintain their size, shape and the structure. High density planting is mainly based on the concept of canopy management to increase the production and improve the quality of the produces. Canopy management practices can be done in newly established orchards and already existing orchards to maintain aesthetics and fruitfulness of the trees.
Canopy is the aerial portion of the tree including shoots, leaves, flowers and fruits. Canopy management is the manipulation of tree canopy size and shape to optimize the production and quality of fruits. Old and senile orchards with tall tree having dense, criss-cross branched canopy will cause poor sunlight infiltration. It will lead to unfruitfulness, irregular bearing, low quality fruits and pest and disease incidence.The ultimate result will be an ugly and unproductive orchard.
Techniques to design canopy
Canopy designing should be done from the initial years of planting itself. Since the tree grows continuously, the structure and the shape of the canopy is maintained by regular management practices.



Training
Training is the physical techniques that control the shape, size and direction of tree growth in early stages of tree establishment. There are mainly three types of training for tree crops.
1. Central Leader System
Central leader system allows the main branch to grow uninterrupted. The secondaries grow on the central axis on all directions. In this system, the tree trunks become very strong due to the spread of many branches.
e. g. Mango
2. Open-centre System
In open centre system, the main branch is headed back immediately after planting. Later, 4-5 well placed side branches are allowed. The top growing axis is cut again and the selected branches are made to produce secondaries and tertiaries. This system is mainly for temperate fruit crops.
e. g. Apple, pear, peach, Plum
3. Modified Leader System
In modified leader system, central axis is allowed to grow unhindered upto 4- 5 years and then the central stem is headed back and laterals are permitted. Trees do not grow as tall as in central leader system, thus remain manageable for a long time. There is no breakage of limbs due to the load of the fruits.
e. g. Guava and mango

Training of vine crops
Head system
This method is especially suitable for less vigorous varieties producing fruitful shoots from basal buds. Single shoot is allowed to grow from newly planted vines, removing side shoots if produced and by help of stake. Heading back the main single stem at a height of 1.2 metres permits side shoots. In general, four laterals at about 75 cm above ground level, in all directions are retained after removing all other shoots produced. Later two secondaries from each lateral are allowed.
Espalier or cordon system
Vines are trained with one or two shoots perpendicular to main stem using horizontally fixed wires.
Kniffin system
Vine is allowed to grow single stemmed up to one meter and then two arms are allowed on either side using horizontal trellises. Second pair of arms is allowed at 50 cm above the lower layer, thus a total of four arms are maintained per vine. Bearing shoots are seen hanging freely without any need for tying.
Overhead trellis system / Telephone system
Vine is grown straight to a height of 160 cm and then horizontally to an over-head canopy on 3-5 wires fixed to cross arms at 45-60 cm apart which are usually 1.4 m long mounted on vertical posts.
Single stake system
In this system, the vine is fastened to an upright support of a tree such as Erythrina indica. When the single trunk reaches a height of 1.5 M, it is tipped and encouraged to produce 4-5 secondary branches which themselves are going to be the fruiting branches or canes when they attain full maturity.

Bower / Arbour / Pandal / Pergola system
Vines are planted at wider spacing of 3.6M x 4.5M or 4.5M x 5.4 M. The main stem or trunk is allowed to grow from the rooted cutting. The vines are trained single stemmed up to a height of 2 to 2.5 m and then laterals are spread over a criss cross network of wires supported by strong concrete, stone or wooden poles.


Cordon system Head system Kniffin system

Pruning
Judicial removal of the plant parts to regulate the shape and growth of a tree and to enhance the production and quality of fruits
Objectives of pruning
The objectives of pruning are to remove the apical dominance for encouraging branching, to remove unproductive over crowded branches, to remove diseased and dead wood branches,to encourage vegetative growth, to control the overall size of the fruit tree and to regulate fruiting for regular cropping.
Advantages of Pruning
Pruning helps to control size of plants and -obtain specific forms, regulate exposure to sunlight -open up the tree canopy, increase the size of fruits -restore shoot : root ratio, facilitate orchard operation, increase the age of trees, rejuvenate old and senile orchards , control diseases and pests and regulate growth and fruiting -induce regular bearing.
In some of the tree species pruning as a regular feature in bearing trees is done to strike a balance between vegetative growth and production so that farmers get sustained production uniformly with optimum quality of produce.
Season of pruning
Pruning should be done in such a time that physiology of plant is disturbed to the minimum and it should not interfere with the principal function of the plant. Fruit trees are pruned for fruiting when dormant i.e. late winter in case of temperate fruits and soon after harvest in evergreen trees. Sometimes the trees are subjected to stress to induce dormancy before pruning as in bahar treatment. Regularly done in crops like apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, walnut, apricot, grape and subtropical crops like pomegranate, lemon, ber, guava.
Heading Back

Thinning Out

Rejuvenating Old Trees
Old trees can be cut back to a more manageable size, but depending on the severity of the pruning one may lose two to three crops. Rejuvenation improves production, fruit size and quality once trees recover. Proper aftercare should be done after the rejuvenation.
Top working
It is a technique or method of rejuvenation .Upgrade seedling plantations of inferior varieties with superior commercial cultivars or hybrids suitable for domestic or export market or the desired variety of the grower. Grafting with procured scions of desired variety on shoots emerged on pruned branches by adopting softwood grafting during monsoon season .
e. g. Mango, Sapota, Aonla, Cashew, Guava, Tamarind, Jackfruit
After care
Always use sharp tools to make slanting cuts in the branches. A cut of 20 to 40 mm into the underside of the branch to be cut before cutting all the way through from the top. After cutting the branches, proper after care should be provided to the trees to avoid infection. Application of cow dung slurry with fungicides (COC) to avoid dehydration and rotting is the easiest method. Application of Bordeaux paste is another very effective method where agricultural lime is available. Proper irrigation and fertilizer application should be followed after the pruning operations to enhance the health and re growth of the trees.
Conclusion
Canopy management is an important operation in maintaining the tree shape and size. Training operations are given in the initial years of tree establishment to attain the proper shape of the trees. Pruning operations are done annually by judicially removing the dried, dead or diseased plant portions. This will help to maintain the structure of the tree and improve the yield and quality of fruits. The most suitable time for the fruit tree pruning is immediately after harvest and another time is the season when the temperature is very low. In AET units, rejuvenation of the old trees and establishment of new fruit trees and plantation trees can be done using the canopy management practices.
Not Available
 
Date 2018-11-12T05:17:02Z
2018-11-12T05:17:02Z
2016-10-31
 
Type Book chapter
 
Identifier Maneesha S.R. 2016.Canopy management in fruit crops under AET. In training manual of Short course on Agro eco tourism: An emerging enterprise for agricultural diversification. 31st October to 9th November, 2016.p:55-59.
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/10277
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher ICAR-CCARI