V.K. Wali

In vitro multiplication of banana (Musa sp.) cv. Grand Naine

A micropropagation method is described for banana ( Musa Spp .) Cv. Grand Naine. Suckers were surface sterilized with HgCl 2 (0.1%) for 6 min which gave minimum contamination with maximum culture establishment. Of various treatment combinations, Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium + BAP 4.00 mg/l with IAA 2.00 mg/l resulted in maximum establishment of cultures in lesser time. MS medium + BAP 4.00 mg/l + IAA 2.00 mg/l gave maximum multiple shoots. Maximum rooting was obtained on MS medium (half strength) supplemented with IBA 1.00 mg/l and activated charcoal 200 mg/l. Keywords: Grand naine, micro propagation, murashige and skoog medium, Musa spp. and suckers. African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(27) 2696-2703

Effect of Mulching and Controlled Irrigation on On-Farm Crop Water Utilization and Quality of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Dehradun

The litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is the most important sub-tropical evergreen fruit tree and belongs to the family Sapindaceae. It is highly prized fruit both in its fresh and preserved forms. India is the second largest producer of litchi in the world after china. In India Litchi is grown under an area of 85.00 thousand hectare with a total production of 594.00 thousand metric tonnes (NHB, 2014). It is grown in the states of Bihar, Tripura, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. Litchi makes significant contribution to the lives and economic health of millions of people in the South East Asia (Mitra and Pathak, 2010). The litchi fruit is a good source of food, nutrition and has good medicinal value. The fruit of the litchi comes to the market in May or early June when very few other fruits are available, thus they fetch remunerative price in the market and thus rules the domestic market as “Queen of fruits” during the season. The litchi fruit is also a rich source of vitamin C (Wall, 2006) and phenolic compounds that have antioxidant activities (Hu et al., 2010). Sucrose; fructose and glucose are found to be the major sugars in International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 02 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Diversity for Tree Growing Habit in the Natural Population of Pecan Nut (Carya illinoensis K.) in Jammu Province, India

The Pecan nut [Carya illinoensis (Wangenheim) C. Koch] is one of the better known hickories. It is also called sweet Pecan and belongs to the family “Juglandaceae”. Pecan is native to North America and also exists in Texas and North of Mexico (Andersen and Crocker, 2012). In India, pecans were introduced from USA by Punjab government in 1937. Eight cultivars were planted at Govt. Fruit Farm, Palmpur, Himachal Pradesh, which became major source of planting material in Himalayan region. At present pecan nut is one of the most important temperate nuts grown in India. In India, it is mainly grown in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. The total area under pecan nut production is increasing due its high economic returns and adaptation to intermediate zone of Jammu (Ravindran et al., 2006). In India, it is grown over an area of 1 International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 01 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Studies on Variability of Seedling Origin Jamun (Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels) Germplasm Growing in Subtropical Region of Jammu, India

Almost all parts of the Jamun tree are used for various purposes. Ripened fruits are very juicy, almost odourless, with a pleasant, slightly bitter, astringent taste and consumed fresh or processed into various products. The fruit pulp is used to make squash, sharbat, syrup, jams, jellies, juice, vinegar, wine and puddings. Jamun wood being very strong and resistance to water and termite attack, is used to install motors in the wells. Being a fastgrowing tree, it provides excellent firewood and charcoal to the rural population in India (Chaudhary and Mukhopadhyay, 2012). Jamun has many medicinal values and in the Indian System of Medicine, Jamun fruit has been described as astringent, stomachic, carminative, antiscorbutic and diuretic (Singh, 2001). It has wonderful antihyperglycaemic properties and has also proven to have good anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, antigenotoxic antiinflammatory and anti-HIV properties (Sagrawat et al., 2006).

Effect of foliar application of nutrients and growth regulators on fruit cracking and quality of Eureka lemon under rainfed conditions

An experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 13 treatments, consisting of foliar spraysof K2SO4 (6.0, 8.0 and 10%), CaCl2 (0.5, 0.75 and 1%), 2, 4-D (20, 30 and 40 ppm), NAA (20, 30 and 40 ppm) and control (10 ppm GA3) and each treatment replicated thrice. Among the various treatments, spray of 40 ppmNAA was found to be most effective for minimizing fruit cracking (13.06%) as compared to other treatments andthis treatment also recorded maximum fruit length (5.45 cm), fruit breadth (5.22 cm), fruit weight (71.38 g), pulpweight (37.47 g), rind weight (17.55 g), rind thickness (2.64 mm) specific gravity (1.02), Juice content (50.97%), TSS (7.9oBrix), acidity (5.77%) and ascorbic acid (50.76 mg/100 ml). Among the nutrients, minimum fruit cracking(17.96%) was noticed with the application of 10% K2SO4 and this treatment also recorded the maximum fruit length (5.42 cm), fruit breadth (5.09 cm), fruit weight (67.10 g), pulp weight (36.20 g), rind weight (16.30 g), rindthickness (2.54 mm), Juice content (48.94%), TSS (7.6°B), acidity (5.67%) and ascorbic acid (50.68 mg/100 ml).

Integrated Nutrient Management in Fruit Production

India has been bestowed with wide range of climate and physio-geographical conditions and as such is most suitable for growing various kinds of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, nuts, spices and plantation crops (coco nut, cashew nut and cocoa). Its horticulture production has increased by 30 per cent in the last five years. This has placed India among the foremost countries in horticulture production, just behind China. During 2012-13, its contribution in the world production of fruits was 12.6 %. Total production of fruits during 2012-13 was 81.2 million tonnes (Anonymous, 2014). Though production of fruits has increased manifold over the last decade but there exists a gap between the demand and supply of fruits. The present fruit production in India meets only the 46% of the total demand. Thus there is strong need to increase the production and productivity through crop diversification and use of best horticultural techniques among which Integrated Nutrient Management is the one. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 7 (2017) pp. 32-40 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Evaluation of genetic diversity of pecan nut [Carya illinoensis (Wang) K. Koch.] in Jammu region

Pecan is one of the most important deciduous horticultural nut crops and valued for its high calorificvalue. It is superior to walnut in quality (flavour, 65–70% fats, 8–10% proteins, high in phosphorous, potassiumand vitamins A, C, E and B complex) and thrives best in the area experiencing somewhat warmer climate. Thepresent study was carried out during 2015–17 in pecan nut growing areas of Jammu division to assess theextent of genetic divergence and select the superior genotypes of seedling origin pecan nut. Nut weight, kernelweight, nut length, nut width (lateral), nut width (ventral) and shell thickness varied from 3.56–8.63 g, 2.06–6.95g, 20.03–52.40 mm, 15.50–28.40 mm, 15.54–33.40 mm and 0.30–1.89 mm, respectively. Five out of 60 genotypeswere selected on the basis of higher and desired nut and kernel characteristics, which can be further used fortrait-specific breeding programmes.

Effect of inorganic and organic fertilizers along with Azotobacter on growth, yield and quality of Kinnow mandarin

A study was conducted during 2013 and 2014 on the effect of integrated use of inorganic and organic fertilizers (vermicompost) along with bio-inoculants on plant growth, yield and quality of Kinnow mandarin. Vegetative growth parameters like plant height and canopy volume showed maximum increase with cent per cent nitrogen through urea augmented with Azotobacter. Replacing 25 per cent of nitrogen in the form of vermicompost resulted in maximum number of fruits, fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length and width and fruit yield. TSS, Total sugars (reducing and non-reducing) and ascorbic acid contents of the fruits improved with the integrated application of vermicompost along with inorganic fertilizers and biofertilizers.

Effect of mulching and irrigation interval on fruit quality and yield of litchi cv. Dehradun

A study was conducted at the Research Farm, Division of Fruit Science, FOA Udheywalla, SKUAST, Jammu on 20-year-old trees of litchi cv. Dehradun. Trees were subjected to mulching with different types ofmaterials (black polythene and paddy straw) and supplied with controlled irrigations @ 200 l/tree at 3, 6 and 9day intervals. Results revealed that the trees supplied with irrigation at 6 day interval and mulched with blackpolythene (T8) showed least fruit cracking (10.15%) and maximum fruit yield (59.33 kg/tree). Fruit weight (18.27g), fruit length (3.28 cm), fruit diameter (2.92 cm), pulp weight (10.45 g) and fruit firmness (2.51 kg/cm2) werealso found to be maximum in trees mulched with black polythene and irrigated at 6 day interval with highestbenefit: cost ratio (2.77: 1).

Post-harvest chemical manipulation in strawberry regeneration under Jammu sub-tropics

The present investigation on postharvest chemical manipulation in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) regeneration under Jammu sub-tropics was carried out to standardize the dose and time of application of chemicals for optimising the runner production. Application of plant growth regulators enhanced the runner production in strawberry cultivar Chandler under Jammu sub-tropics. The maximum number of runners/mother plant (13.53), number of trains/mother plant (4.10), number of runners/train (3.30), plant spread per mother plant (34.02 cm), plant spread per runner plant (10.83 cm), number of leaves per mother plant (22) and number of leaves per runner plants (7.29) of strawberry cv. Chandler was recorded with the application of 300 ppm GA3 + 150 ppm BA. The maximum plant height per mother plant (23.29 cm), plant height per runner (10.88 cm), petiole length per mother plant (19.1 cm), petiole length per runner plant (10.70 cm) and root length per runner plant (5.90 cm) were recorded under application of GA3 100 ppm. Whereas, control treatment recorded the maximum crown diameter (6.92 mm), crown weight (0.66 g) and leaf area (16.57). The findings indicated that the application of GA3 (300 ppm) + BA (150 ppm) enhanced the regeneration capacity of strawberry runners under Jammu sub-tropics.