No abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is a major semi-perennial fruit crop in Sri Lanka. A study was conducted at the Ftegional Agricultural Research and Development Centre, Angunakolapelessa to investigate the effect of age on growth and yield of banana cv Mysore ("Embul", AAB group). Thirty-seven "Embul" banana accessions collected from various ecological regions of Sri Lanka were studied in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates. The observations were recorded in three consecutive years. Number of leaves per clump, LA1 (leaf area index) and penetration of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to the crop were recorded a t 4,9,20 and 32 months after planting. Pseudostem height and girth of the crop were investigated a t different ages. Number of combs and fruits per comb, fruit maturity period, bunch weight, total fruit weight, average fruit weight and peduncle weight were also measured. Comb weight, fruit circumference, fruit length and diameter were recorded in the second and last combs. Leaf number and W increased, while penetration of PAR decreased with the age. Except weight of second comb, fruit length in second comb and fruit diameter in last comb, all other characteristics varied significantly with age of the crop. Fruit maturity period increased with the age of the crop to second year and then decreased, while total fruit weight decreased up to second year and then increased. Number of fruits per comb and bunch weight significantly increased after the second year. Stem height and girth, number of fruits per bunch, weight of the peduncle and length of the male axis consistently increased with the age of the crop investigated up to the third year.

A b s t r a c t : Sweet orange [Cllrus sinensls (L.) Osbeclz I can he grown in the lowcountry dry zone as a grafted plant on woodapple rootstock. However, a wide variation in growth and fruit characteristics was observed in these plants. This experiment was therefore conducted to study the variability of sweet orange grafted onto woodapple [Feronia lin.onia (L.) Swinglel rootstoclc with special emphasis on fruit quality characteristics. The rootstoclz seedlings were sortecl out into three groups based on length of spines. The growth rate and the intensity of pigmentation were higher in t h e longer spine rootstoclc group. Magnitude of growth difference a t the bud-union, canopy size, fruit weight and cumulative fruit yieldlyear of the graftecl plants were higher when long spine rootstoclc was used. However, the same group of root,stoclrs procluced fruits with very poor skin quality, juice with low citric acid and low brix content. l1n-pvoved citric acid, brix contents and fruit skin quality were observed in the orange plants grafted onto rootstocl~ seedlings with short spines.