Effect of Water Sprinkling over Tree Canopy on Fruit Cracking, Quality and Yield of Litchi Fruits

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is an important subtropical evergreen fruit crop of Sapindaceae family. Fruit cracking is a serious problem in litchi happen during fruit growth and its development. Fruit cracking affect significant loss of economic yield. Fruit cracking in litchi coincides with a period characterized by high day temperature (35-40°C) and low relative humidity (60%). Effect of water sprinkling over tree canopy on fruit cracking, quality and yield of litchi crop was evaluated under four treatments, namely T1 (4 micro-sprinklers per tree), T2 (3 micro-sprinklers per tree), T3 (2 micro-sprinklers per tree), and T4 (without micro sprinkler) as control. Micro-sprinklers were tested for their hydraulic performance. Result revealed that, minimum fruit cracking, i.e. .20.03, 18.49, 13.76 and 4.55% was observed at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 hours of water sprinkling under treatment T1. Highest yield (i.e. 65.27 q/ha) and better quality of fruits were also found in treatment T1. Contrary to this, maximum fruit cracking (30.16%), lowest yield (33.52 q/ha) and satisfactory quality of fruits were found in treatment T4 (control). Linear relationship between discharge and pressure; and exponential relationship between pressure and wetted diameter were found for performance of micro sprinklers.