Early Growth Dynamics of Selected Accessions of Garcinia indica (Choisy) in Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka

Abstract

A set of 60 accessions of Garcinia indica (Choisy), comprised of two to five years old, established as part of ex-situ field gene bank at the College of Horticulture, Bengaluru were evaluated for growth and development related characters over two consecutive years, 2019-20 and 2020-21.   A set of 11 growth traits significantly varied in their relative per cent increase over successive years.  Among all the growth parameters, tree volume recorded a maximum per cent increase of 186.56 per cent.   The extent of variation as measured by range for different traits varied- plant height: 176.24cm to 350.44cm; number of branches: 22 to 42.24; length of branch 6.00 cm to 168.00cm; number of leaves: 59.00 to 80.00; stem girth: 11.28 cm to 35.17cm; canopy spread (East-West): 116.15cm to 267.33cm; canopy spread (North-South): 135.00 cm to 276.00 cm; and tree volume: 1.68m3 to 13.91m3. Plant height was  150cm in 2019 and 220cm in 2020 in GI_SIR7;  210cm -290cm in GI_DAN2, 320cm-380cm in GI_YAN4 and 330-410 in GI_KAN3, respectively in two, three, four and five-year-old age groups. The traits such as number of branches, length of the branch, number of leaves, stem girth, canopy spread East-West and tree volume increased gradually over two years of study.  The results have significance in per se establishment of the species in non-traditional areas such as this agro-climatic zone.