BSS, Rajshahi :
Proper and sustainable management has become an urgent need to save mango flower and fruit from premature dropping as the gardeners and businessmen suffer a lot due to the problem, scientists and researchers at a project inception workshop said.
They viewed premature flower and fruit drop is a nightmare for any gardener and they can check the problem to some extent through following some prescribed guidelines properly.
Flower and fruit drop in such plants can be attributed to many causes both physical and pathological, they mentioned. Sudden changes in temperature or humidity, poor nutrition management, hormonal imbalance, improper soil moisture are the physiological causes and the fungal infections lead to pathological fruit drop.
Incidence of insect pest attack is another cause. The observations came at a daylong workshop styled “Sustainable management of flower and fruit dropping of mango” held at Fruit Research Station in Rajshahi yesterday.
More than 100 agricultural scientists and researchers, farmers and university students joined the workshop. Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) jointly organized the workshop in association with Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF). BARI Director General Dr Rafiqul Islam Mondal addressed the inaugural session as chief guest while KGF Executive Director Dr Nurul Alam spoke as guest of honour with Dr Rawshan Ali, Director of BARI’s Horticulture Research Center, in the chair.
KGF Senior Programme Officer Dr Rahim Uddin Ahmed, BARI Chief Scientific Officer Dr Madan Gopal Saha and Principal Scientific Officer Dr Alim Uddin also spoke. In the technical session, Project Coordinator Dr Syed Nurul Alam and BAU Prof Mahbuba Jahan presented two separate keynote papers elaborating the causes and preventive measures of mango flower and fruit dropping.
Dr Nurul Alam says mango trees do best in warm climates such as those found in subtropical and tropical locations. However, an established mango tree generally can survive temperatures at about 25 degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours. Young mango trees cannot tolerate. The best way to prevent fruit dropping caused by temperature is to plant mangoes in the area where suitable weather prevails. If the mango tree is not getting the right amount of water, it can begin dropping fruit prematurely and the tree could be in danger.
“If anyone recently plants tree, water it every day for the first week”.
