Assessment of Hast Bahar (Flowering Season) for Yield and Quality of Pomegranate at Farmer’s Field

Abstract

An on-farm trail (OFT) on assessment of flowering season of pomegranate was tested. The experiment was conducted with three treatments comprising mrig bahar flowering as a control and hast bahar flowering with and without application of micronutrients and kaolin clay during June to February for three consecutive years from 2019–2022 in the different farmer fields at the Tharad taluka of Banskantha district, Gujarat, India. The treatment T₁ Mrig bahar (June-July) flowering recorded the maximum total number of flowers (293.67) hermaphrodite flowers (108.9) and fruit setting (71.85%). Further, T₁ exhibited the highest average number of fruits plant^-1 (79.0) and maximum fruit yield (11.78 kg plant^-1) followed by T₃ and T₂ treatments (10.14 kg plant^-1 and 9.02 kg plant^-1) respectively. In terms of total fruit yield, Treatment T₁ exhibited the highest fruit yield of (9813 kg ha^-1). Whereas, maximum individual fruit weight 179.44 g plant^-1 and Total Soluble Solids (15.75°Brix) were found in Treatment T₃. Moreover, treatment T₃ Hast Bahar (Sept–Oct) flowering with foliar spray of micromix 0.2% and kaolin Clay 4.0%) has the lowest average fruit cracking (6.30%) and the lowest incidence of sunburn (8.80%) across the three years. However, treatment T₁ recorded highest average fruit cracking (18.90%). Further, during the Mrig bahar season, incidence of leaf spots and fruit rot was observed higher compared to the Hast bahar flowering. In case of economics, treatment T₃ obtained the highest average income of 411813 ha^-1 as compared to treatment T₂ and T₃ ` 353074 ha^-1 and 333425 ha^-1, respectively.