Integrating Woody Perennial Species for Sustainable Agriculture in a Rainfed Upland 2. Comparison of Four Year-old Mango Cultivars

Abstract

The comparison of performances 15 mango cultivars which wereintegratedinto traditional soybean cultivation for developing sustainable agriculture in the rainfed upland at the Chom Tong LandReform Project area has been studied since 1989. Results of the first four years according to the fruit yield and other components indicated that each mango cultivar had its own positive characteristics and advantages. Salaya with 81 fruits/tree. was the highest fruit production cultivar in the fourth year. Pet-Ban-Lad and Kaew-Luem-Rang were ready to be harvested as early as the third week of April, while the others were in May or even later. Chok-A-Nan yielded three batches of fruits per year, distinctively indicating itself as an off-season cultivar. The processing cultivars are always in demand by the local fruit processing plants. Kaew-Hua-Chook was one of those cultivars. It was an average cultivar with the only disadvantage of high percentage of fruit bursting. All rainfed upland mangoes yielded a high proportion of unmarketable fruit sizes. In addition, the mango cultivars harvested ripe including Nam-Dok-Mai often performed unqualified fruit skin in the market. The cultivars which obtained relatively wide canopies with tall trunks such as Pim-Sen-Man, Tong-Dum, Og-Rong, Nong-Sang, Chao-Khun-Thip and Nang-Klang-Wan created some difficulties of pesticide application and fruit harvesting. Summer storm was the major cause of mango mortality from second to fourth year. It also damaged a number of ready-to-harvest fruits. Yields of soybean integrating withmango gradually declined from the first towards the fourth year, with the yield of fourth year being only 97 kg/rai, about 65% of that of monocropped soybean. The status of fruit tree growing in the surrounding upland rainfed areas and suggestions for further study were also discussed.