Crop guide

Mango

1. Land Preparation Pits 3 x 3 x 3 ft, dug a month before planting and refilled with topsoil mixed with 20–25 kg farmyard manure and a kg of single superphosphate. Spacing 30 x 30 ft for standard varieties.

Both Sowing Feb–Mar Harvest Jul–Aug 80–120 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Pits 3 x 3 x 3 ft, dug a month before planting and refilled with topsoil mixed with 20–25 kg farmyard manure and a kg of single superphosphate. Spacing 30 x 30 ft for standard varieties. Mango lives forty years — spacing decided now cannot be changed later.

Sowing Time & Method

Plant grafted plants in February–March or August–September. Keep the graft union above soil level — burying it is the commonest planting mistake and causes gummosis years later. Main varieties: Sindhri, Chaunsa, Anwar Ratol, Langra, Dusehri.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Buy certified grafted plants from a registered nursery. A cheap plant of uncertain variety costs a decade before you find out.

Fertilizer

Per bearing tree per year: 40–50 kg farmyard manure, 2 kg urea, 1.5 kg DAP and 1.5 kg SOP, split — half after harvest in July and half before flowering in January. Zinc and boron sprays before flowering improve fruit set noticeably.

Irrigation

Every 10–15 days in summer. STOP irrigation from November until flowering — a dry spell is what triggers flower bud formation, and watering through winter gives a tree full of leaves and no fruit. Resume after fruit set.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) Mats right against the trunk, holding moisture at the collar where gummosis starts, and eats the basin's fertiliser. Scrape the basin clean, especially the collar right at the trunk
Purple Nutsedge (Deela) Fills the basin with tubers and takes the water and food from the tree's feeder roots, stunting young trees. Pick the tubers out of the basin when it is hoed
Congress Grass (Gajar Booti) In the monsoon it grows head-high through the basins and alleys and takes the young trees' water and feed. Slash the inter-row before it sets seed
Horse Purslane (Itsit) After the rains it covers the basin and drinks the irrigation before it soaks down to the tree's roots. Hoe it out of the basin after each rain while it is still flat, and keep the collar at the trunk bare
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Climbs young and newly grafted plants, bends them over and shades the new flush. Pull the runners off and cut them out at the root with a khurpa

Keep a clean weed-free basin around the trunk. Grass right against the trunk holds moisture there and invites gummosis.

Insect Pests

Mango hopper is the main pest — it swarms the flowering panicle, and its honeydew brings sooty mould that blackens the tree. Mealybug climbs the trunk in winter; a grease band or polythene skirt around the trunk in December stops it. Fruit fly is the reason for most rejected fruit — trap early and collect fallen fruit daily.

Diseases

Mango malformation turns the panicle into a dense, twisted, sterile mass — cut it out well below the affected part and burn it. Anthracnose blackens flowers and fruit in wet weather. Gummosis at the trunk base follows waterlogging.

Harvesting

Pick at the mature-green stage when the shoulders rise above the stalk. Harvest with a snap of 1 cm stalk left on and let the latex drain away from the fruit — latex burn is a major cause of rejected fruit at the market.