Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is a versatile vegetable. Among the solanaceous vegetables, brinjal is one of the most popular and economically important vegetables among small farmers and it is a source of income for resource-poor farmers. Shoot and fruit borer (BSFB) (Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee) is a serious insect pest in all brinjal growing states of India. Different insecticides were evaluated for management of shoot and fruit borer. An investigation was carried out using Soham variety of brinjal during 2018-19 at JNKVV, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. Three different new molecules of Insecticides with different formulations were used viz. Spinosad 45 SC with (0.3 ml./l.) concentration, Flubendiamide 480SC with (0.25 ml/l) concentration and Emamectin benzoate 1.9 EC with concentration of (1.0 ml/l) sprayed at three different intervals. All infested fruits were picked from plots one day before insecticide application. Infected shoots were marked by tying a ribbon to all drooping shoots one day before spray. Fruit and shoot infestations were recorded seven days after insecticide application from plants. All treatments reduced shoot and fruit infestation significantly as compared to the control. However, the loss of brinjal was significantly reduced when the plots were treated with Spinosad (0.3 ml/l) proved to be the most effective insecticide followed by Emamectin benzoate (1.0 ml/l) Flubendiamide (0.25 ml/l) and Neem oil (5ml/l) treated plots had the least shoot infestation.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the famous table fruits mainly cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical eco-system. It is a newly introduced as alternate commercial fruit crop against Nagpur mandarin in Chhindwara district of Satpura plateau region of M.P. during 2012. One of the major problems under this condition is that cv. Bhagwa exhibits heavy flowering and fruit drop by increasing the fruit set and fruit retention. Plant growth regulators are reported to play a significant role in pomegranate (Chaudhari and Desai, 1993). Hence, an attempt has been made to find suitable growth regulators and their doses for improving fruit set and yield in pomegranate cv. Bhagwa under Satpura plateau region. The experiment was conducted on pomegranate orchard at JNKVV, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chhindwara (M.P.) India during Ambia crop (Jan-Feb) 2018 on 6-year old Bhagwa planted at a spacing of 12 x 8 ft. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications, and two plants per replication. There were seven treatments with three growth regulators, viz., NAA at 10, 15 ppm; GA3 at 10, 15 ppm and 2,4-D at 10, 15 ppm and control were sprayed three times starting at 50% flowering stage and, subsequently, at 20 days' interval. The parameters like average weight of fruit, number of fruits/tree and yield per plant and yield MT/ha. were significantly influenced by the application of plant growth regulators at various intervals. Results revealed that application of NAA at 15 ppm gave significantly high fruit set which resulted in highest fruit yield of 10.5 kg/plant at the age of 6 years, as against 5.21 kg in the control. Fruit weight and quality improved significantly due to growth regulator sprays.

A field investigation was carried out at the experimental orchard of Nagpur mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) at CCRI, Nagpur in block no. 44 during 2015. Breaking the seasonality of Nagpur mandarin for commercial production would not only substitute the import of fresh fruits, but also provide the incentive prices to the Nagpur mandarin growers. Withholding water, root exposure and root pruning are the common practices adopted to regulate flowering. In the recent years, chlormequat chloride and paclobutrazol, growth retardants have been used with considerable success to induce early flowering for off-season production in several fruit crops. Citrus trees are exposed to water deficit stress by withholding water for about 30-45 days before expected flowering. Many times this stress is untimely broken due to climate change related untimely rains resulting in to sparse or no flowering due loss of flowering stimulus due to untimely rains. Therefore, to assess the effectiveness of two plant growth regulators chlormequat chloride and paclobutrazol these studies were conducted. Flood irrigation was given during the stress period in second week of May and following treatments were applied to reimpose the stress broken by intermittent irrigation. Six years old trees of Nagpur mandarin were used as experimental plants. The trees were uniform in age and size and trained to single stem. The trees were grown under drip irrigation following common cultural practices during the study period. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with seven treatments replicated four times. Four trees were used for each replication. The treatments were imposed four months before flowering (June). The treatments tried were chlormequat chloride 2000, 3000 and 4000 ppm as foliar spray, paclobutrazol 6 g, 9 g and 12 g as soil application along with control. Observations on soil moisture content (%) at weekly interval, leaf water potential (ΨL) at weekly interval, orchard microclimate: temperature, humidity and rainfall, were recorded. Paclobutrazol 12g showed the peak water stress in terms of leaf water potential (ΨL) which ranged from (-3.00 MPa to -3.17 MPa) till mid June and there was no flowering in June-July due to the high temperature (41.28°C), low rainfall (6 mm) and low humidity (40.71 %) during this period. The conditioning of microclimate in the orchard with sprinklers and irrigation can help in exploiting the flowering potential attained through growth retardant treatments.

This study was conducted to find out the effect of blended fruit pulp and sugar treatments on quality attributes of mixed fruit leather at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 days of storage. Among 18 treatment combinations, six pulp ratio of guava and papaya and three levels of sugar were used for preparation of mixed fruit leather. Mixing of guava and papaya pulp in ratio of (80:20) with S2 (30 gm sugar/100 gm pulp) was recorded best in sensory evaluation. In case of qualitative characters (per cent TSS and per cent acidity), a slight increase in all the treatment was recorded. Treatments with higher ratio of guava pulp in mixed fruit leather resulted into higher TSS and acidity per cent. The result also showed the product was acknowledged by evaluators as well as other consumers due to its originality, superior quality, low cost technology and wide acceptability.