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The present study reports the influence of seven different rootstocks (namely, Karna khatta, Rangpur lime, Lemon, Gandharaj, Kumquat, Rough lemon, and Acid lime), on the growth, yield, quality, fruit physicochemical and leaf mineral concentrations of Nagpur mandarin (budded onto), assessed over two successive years (at 4th and 5th year of tree age). The results revealed that the maximum canopy volume (81.26 m 3 ) of Nagpur mandarin was recorded when the concerned scion was budded on Karna khatta. The maximum number of fruits per plant (238.33) and yield (37.52 kg tree −1 ) were recorded when Rough lemon was used as rootstock. Fruits with lowest acidity were produced when Nagpur mandarin was budded on Karna khatta rootstock. However, the fruits exhibiting maximum values for other quality parameters like total soluble sugar, total sugar, and ascorbic acid were obtained in Kumquat rootstock. The highest leaf N and K contents of Nagpur mandarin were recorded in Karna khatta rootstock, whereas, both the Kumquat and Acid Lime rootstock revealed superiority in leaf P acquisition over the others. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering analysis revealed that Lemon, Gandharaj and Rough lemon rootstocks, displaying a close association with each other, exhibited an overall comparable horticultural performance and yield. From other cluster analysis, the Kumquat rootstock was recognized for its uniqueness and superior biochemical quality attributes, and was found to be separated from other rootstock clusters. Hence, the results of this study hold the potential to meet the consumers’ demand, by selecting the suitable region- and agro-climate-specific rootstalk, that was unavailable so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) is an indigenous delicious, nourishing fruit grown widely throughout the India but faces heavy fruit drop due to several biotic and abiotic stress factors resulted in declining trend of ber production over the year. Keeping these facts in foreground, replicated field experiment was conducted during 2013-14 and 2014-15 at HRS, Mondouri, BCKV, West Bengal with eleven treatments consist two different levels of NAA, GA3, 2,4-D, ZnSO4 and H3BO3 along with a control (water spray). Results of investigation revealed that application of 2,4-D @ 10 mg/l recorded highest fruit set (48.80%). Maximum fruit retention (42.83%) and total no. of fruits/tree (514) were obtained with the application of NAA @ 20 mg/l. Application of GA3 @ 20 mg/l recorded significantly (p≤0.05) higher yield (30.67 kg/tree), fruit weight (60.5 g), fruit length (5.8 cm), fruit breadth (5.1 cm), pulp to seed ratio (13.9) and specific gravity (1.104) as well as economic returns over control during both the year of experiment. Among the treatments H3BO3 at 0.4% recorded the highest TSS (11.7°Brix), total sugar (8.33%), reducing sugar (5.21%) and TSS: Acid (107.36) ratio with lowest fruit acidity (0.10 %) whereas highest vitamin-C content of fruit was recorded with GA3 at 20 mg/l (64.68 mg / 100 g) followed by NAA at 20 mg/l. Results suggest that twice spraying of GA3 @ 20 mg/l and H3BO3 at 0.4% is vital for optimizing yield components, yield and quality of ber (cv. BAU Kul-1) in trans-Gangetic plains of West Bengal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]