MANGO TREE IN INDIA

MANGO TREE IN INDIA

Mango Tree is one of the best known and most popular trees of India. The scientific name of Mango tree is Mangifera Indica. Mango tree bears some very large and tasty fruits. There are several names of this popular tree in the different languages of the country. Both in Bengali language and Hindi language, it is popularly known as Aam. In  Telegu language  , Mango is known as Mamid or Mamada; and the Tamil people know it as Mangas or Ma. A native to India, mango tree is popularly found in almost all the tropical countries. Though Mango tree does not have scented flowers, still the tree can be identified by its leaves, bark and the shape. The tree can retain its leaves all round the year. Generally, this tree spreads to a great extent to surplus its height. Interestingly, the wind cannot break the tough and bouncy stalks of the leaves of Mango tree easily.

Mango is one of the important and popular fruit in Kerala. The choicest fruit of all mangos is described as the King of Fruits. It is hardy and remarkably tolerant to all soil and climatic conditions and grows well from sea level up to 1500m. It withstands fairly both dry conditions and heavy rainfall. One of the most important and widely cultivated fruits of the tropical world, considered indigenous to eastern Asia, Myanmar (Burma), and Assam state of India. The tree is evergreen, often reaching 15–18 meters (50–60 feet) in height and attaining great age. Leaves are lanceolate, up to 30 cm (12 inches) long; the flowers, small, pinkish, and fragrant, are born in large terminal panicles (loose clusters). They are polygamous—i.e., some have both stamens and pistils, others stamens only.The fruit varies greatly in size and character; the smallest mangoes are no larger than plums, while others may weigh 1.8 to 2.3 kg (4 to 5 pounds). Its form is oval, round, heart-shaped, kidney-shaped, or long and slender. Some varieties are vividly colored with shades of red and yellow, while others are dull green. The single large seed is flattened, and the flesh that surrounds it is yellow to orange in colour, juicy, and of distinctive spicy flavour. Mangoes are a rich source of vitamins A, C, and D.

The mango does not require any particular soil, but the finer varieties yield good crops only where there is a well-marked dry season to stimulate fruit production. In rainy areas a fungus disease known as anthracnose destroys flowers and young fruits and is difficult to control. Propagation is by grafting or budding. Inarching, or approach grafting (in which a scion and stock of independently rooted plants are grafted, and the scion later severed from its original stock), is widely practiced in tropical Asia but is tedious and relatively expensive. In Florida, more efficient methods—veneer grafting and chip budding—have been developed and are used commercially.

Mango tree can grow upto almost 120-130 ft in height, with a radius of 33 ft at the top. The root of the mango tree goes down to around 20 ft, in deep soil. The roots are usually plentiful and wide-spreading. The evergreen leaves of the mango tree contain a specific aroma and are almost 15-35 cm in length and 6-16 cm in width. In the initial stages, the leaves are orange coloured, but turn dark red and eventually dark green as the leaves mature. Flowering takes place generally in between January to March. The flowers have 4 or 5 petals and are 5-10 mm in length. The mango flowers are yellow-greenish in colour. The petals have orange stripes on them. Amongst the thousands of flowers that appear in the tree, only a few have the ability to produce fruits. The stems of the tree are fat, green in colour and wavy. They can bear numerous retreating side stems. Each of these stems has a lot of little and stalked flowers. The Mango fruit takes 2 to 3 months to get matured and they vary from one tree to another. The normal fruiting period of the Mango tree is from the month of May to July, but one can obtain fruit from them almost every month of the year. The tree has some varieties that produce fruits twice and even three times in every 12 months. The Mangoes can be of different weights. Starting from 170 gm to 1.4 kg, the fruit has a tough and thin skin that can be of green or yellow or red in colour. They contain luscious flesh that is creamy white, yellow or deep salmon in colour. Sometimes the flesh is like fibres and sometimes it is very smooth. The total estimated area under mango cultivation is 75,911 hectares with an annual production of 323,517 tones. Commercial orchards of mango are being established in the Palakkad district, where the climatic conditions are more suitable for mango trees. A detailed survey was attempted to collect all the details of mango cultivation in the Palakkad district, which represents the commercial mango production in Kerala state. The mango population consists of both seedling and grafted trees but the commercial orchards are of grafted trees only. The cultivated varieties include Alpohonsa, Kalpady, Neelam, Mundappa, Bamplora , Pairi,Baneshan, Mulgova are some of varieties suitable for cultivation in Kerala.The tender mango of local type trees are good to prepare kannimanga.(a tasty pickle). Ripe mango is good to prepare mango pickle and uppumanga. Mango fruit is also used to make fruit juice and mango thera. Mango is also used to prepare chutney (a tasty dish).

                                         Prof. John Kurakar