Mango grafts are prepared in Mango nursery from mother plants and maintained for one year or till the graft goes in to the field. Mango grafts are maintained and managed so that they reach healthy, vigorous, attractive and salable size and stage at the end of one year. Training is the removal and management of plant parts like branches to develop its robust tree structure while Pruning is the removal of plant parts with specific objectives like altering metabolism, controlling growth, preventing diseases etc. Introduction
Training develops robust plant structure, optimizes light utilization promotes efficient, sustainable and economic management including easy management of intercultural operations. Young plants are staked to for straight growth and strong frame work. Training of tip of main stem at a predefined height also improves the framework. Root-stock sprouted water suckers and dead wood are removed to control undesired growth. During the training operations, Cuts are pasted with Bordeaux paste to avoid disease causing fungal growth. Training
Pruning is removal of diseased, dry and crisscross twigs and branches. It makes spraying and other maintenance easier to obtain healthy plant growth. The best time to take up pruning operations is at the onset of monsoon. i.e. August. Pruning is practiced to maintain the canopy size so that other nursery plants are not affected. It stimulates initiation of new branches thus making the plant balanced and attractive. Mango grafts sometimes produce inflorescence which should be removed to attain proper plant growth. Pruning:
Roots grow with age of plant and therefore plants need repotting into new bags/pots of larger size. Root pruning is done before plant being repotted into bigger bags/ pots. Plants have hair like roots and matured roots. Hair roots absorb water and minerals while matured roots support the plants. Excessive removal of hair roots causes starvation for nutrients while removal of main roots can cause loss of support. Removal up to 30 % mass of hair roots is recommended in root pruning. Root Pruning and or stem pruning should be done in a favorable climate. Root Pruning: