Evaluation of collected germplasm of Mango at Bilaspur Region of Chhattisgarh Plain Agro-climatic Zone

Mango is the leading fruit of Chhattisgarh. It has been in cultivation here since immemorial, which is evidenced by its mention in the literature and seen in the painting and sculpture.  The fruit thus, appears to have a strong link with the social culture of rural as well as urban life. The fruit research station (now BTC CARS) was started at Bilaspur in 1965 with the objectives to identify the suitable varieties of Mango and other fruit crops for the region and also to work out definite recommendations regarding other cultural operations of fruit crops for the region. At this research station 57 varieties of mango were planted, out of which only a few has commercial importance.  Different regions of the country have their own commercial variety, as a particular variety performs well under different sets of climatic factors.  Most of the commercial varieties of different regions of the country along with several other lesser known varieties have been evaluated for their performance in Chhattisgarh plains.  Most of the commercial varieties have given good performance under this condition.

Varieties of commercial importance like Himsagar,  Bombay Green, Dofala, Dilpasand and Barbelia comes under early maturity group and mature upto 25^th of May.  There are few others varieties that mature early in Chhattisgarh Plains but are not as important commercially as those mentioned above. Varieties like Langra, Langra Bengal, Dashehari, Alphonso, Sunderja, Kesar and Malika come under the medium maturity group, which mature by the second week of June.  Among the late maturity group, Chausa, Amrapali, Neetam, Fazali, Creeping and Khirama matures after second week of June.

Bearing behavior of planted mango varieties reflected that during on year, prominent varieties yielded profusely.  Himsagar, Langra Banarasi, Langra Bengal, Langra Bombay Bhutto, Dofala, Barbelia, Nami and Neelum yielded above 100 kg/tree/year and of these only Nami is of very poor quality.  Varieties like Bombay Green, Dashehari, Sunderja, Alphonso (Hapus) are also good yielders which have good mean annual yield.  It is also evidenced by the maximum yield obtained from a tree in a year, which is above 250 kg for the above mentioned varieties. However, the maximum yield in a single year is given by a 25 year old Langra, Banarasi (656 kg) followed by Rani Pasand (440 kg) and Dofala (358 kg). Varieties like Chausa, Benishan, Raspari, Sultan Pasand, Fazli and Prabha Shankar are found to be average yielders giving a yield between 25 to 50 kg/tree/year.  But, maximum yield in a single year per tree is above 100 kg. Among the poor yielders (yield less than 25 kg/tree/year) some prominent varieties are Gajaria, Kesar, Gaurjit Banarasi and Narayana Bhog.