Integrated nutrient management in mango

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Introduction
Hence, cultural operations should be carried out
in such a way so that they may help to maintain
fertility status of soil.
Maintenance of good sanitary condition is a must
for keeping mango orchard in healthy and disease
free.
That can be done by mulching, growing of green
manuring and leguminous crops, timely weed
management and intercropping etc.
Thus the knowledge of intercultural operations
needed for maintaining sanitary conditions and
effective management of mango orchard is required.

• In this RLO we will discuss about different
  cultural practices such as inter crop and cover
  crop, weed management and practices for managing
  soil health.

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Different cultural practices
Cultural Practices under INM in Mango

• Intercropping
• Intercultural operations
• Weed control
• Cover crop/Green manure crop
• Mulching

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Inter cropping
Inter crops such as vegetables, legumes, short
duration and dwarf fruit crops depending on the
agro-climatic factors of the region can be grown.
The water and nutrient requirements of the inter
crops must be met separately.
Leguminous crops like green gram, black gram,
gram etc., cereals like wheat, oilseeds like
mustard, sesame and groundnut can be grown as
intercrops in non bearing orchards.

• Vegetable crops such cabbage, cauliflower,
  tomato, potato, brinjal, cucumber, pumpkin,
  bitter gourd, tinda, ladys finger etc. and
  spices like chilies can be grown as intercrops.

Intercropping with vegetables in mango orchard
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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Inter cropping
The partial shade loving crops like pineapple,
ginger, turmeric etc. can be cultivated in fully
grown orchards.

• In addition to field crops, some short
  duration, less exhaustive and dwarf type inter-
  fillers like papaya, guava, peach, plum etc. can
  be grown till these do not interfere with the
  main mango crop.

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Intercultural Operations
The frequency and the time of inter-culture
operations vary with age of the orchards and
existence of inter-crops.
It is advisable to break the crust around tree
trunk with hoeing each time after irrigations.

• The area between the basins should be ploughed at
  least three times in a year i.e. during the
  pre-monsoon, post-monsoon period and in the last
  week of November if intercrops are taken.

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Weed control
Root zone area of the trees must be kept weed
free all the time. Manual cultivation is not
recommended as it will disturb active roots.
Weed killers with a heavy mulch may be quite
effective in controlling weeds.
Apply paraquat (3.0 kg a.i./ha) for effective
management of weeds.

• Diuran at the rate of 9.0 kg/ha can also be
  used as pre emergence treatment.

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Weed control

• Care should be taken to avoid direct contact
  of chemicals with plant tissues.

Application of atrazine at 2.0 kg a.i./ha as pre
emergence treatment to soil and one spray of
paraquat as post emergence at 3.0 kg a.i./ha six
months after soil treatment is effective for
controlling both monocot and dicot weeds in mango
orchards.
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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango

• Cover crops/green manuring crops
• Besides intercrops, cover crops or green
  manuring crops like sunnhemp in light soils or
  dhaincha in heavy soils may also be grown to
  protect the orchard soil from erosion and also
  enriching the soil fertility.

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Mulching
Growing mango crop on mulch results in partial
canopy cover, consequently, the energy balance of
both the mulch and the bare soil between rows
affect the exchange of energy between the plant
and its environment.

• Mulching is a process of covering the soil around
  the plant to create more favourable conditions
  for growth and production. It could be done
  either with natural organic material or synthetic
  material like polythene.
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Polythene mulching
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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango
Mulching
Rice straw, rice husk, dried weed lopping, saw
dust etc. can be used for mulching purposes in
mango orchards.
Some materials like fresh coir dust may be
harmful as the leachates from these materials may
interfere with tree growth.

• Care should be taken to inspect trees regularly
  for any termite activity after mulching.

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Cultural Practices under INM in Mango

• Advantage of Mulching
• Improves soil conditions
• Conserve soil
• Conserve moisture
• Optimize soil temperature
• Soil solarization
• Weed control
• Protect plants against diseases/disorders

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Let us sum up
Intercropping, weed management, mulching etc are
important intercultural operations to reduce
nutrients loss and maintain moisture for good
crop.
As we know that weeds compete for nutrients
and moisture with main crop, thus timely
management of weeds can reduce the nutrients
loss.
Similarly growing leguminous crops in space
between two rows of mango improve the nitrogen
content of soil by fixing of nitrogen in their
root nodules and can give some additional income
to the orchard owners.