Effect of Different Spacing on Growth, Yield and Quality of Phalsa (Grewia asiatica L.)

Abstract

A field study was conducted at Horticulture Instructional Farm (HIF), Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Gujarat, India, between 2021 and 2024 to investigate the effect of different spacing on growth, yield and quality of phalsa (Grewia asiaticaL.) with and objective to determine the ideal plant spacing for phalsa fruit production. High density plantation of fruit crops has shown promise in improving productivity by accumulating more number of plants per unit area. Therefore to find out the most appropriate plant spacing for maximum production of phalsa fruit, The study used a randomized block design with five treatments viz., T1 (3 m x 3 m) (Control), T2 (3 m x 2 m), T3 (3 m x 1 m), T4 (2 m x 2 m) and T5 (2 m x 1 m) and four replications. The results revealed that phalsa planted at 2 m x 1 m spacing resulted in higher plant height (at pruning) (3.87 m), canopy (N-S at pruning) (3.79 m), yield per plot (36.36 kg) and per hectare (10076.55 kg). However, Canopy (E-W at pruning), days taken to initiation of flowering after pruning and TSS of phalsa fruit were not affected significantly. These findings provide valuable insights into optimization of planting spacing for improving productivity of phalsa cultivation.