JOIN USUntimely flowering foretells bad times for mango crop
In some places marble-sized mangoes have also been seen. This may spell a bad year for mango crop.
Srinivaspur, is considered as the “mango bowl” of Karnataka. Mangoes are the major source of income for farmers here. Mangoes are marketed throughout India and few varieties are exported.
Normally flowers are observed in mango trees in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts only by the end of December or first week of January. The flowering season of mangoes usually ends by January and the fruits are ready for harvest by April-end or beginning of May.
However, this year it has began flowering in the first week of November itself.
A little flowering during the month of Karthik (partly in November) is quite normal. Nobody notices this minor flowering of mangoes which mostly used by people in making pickles.
However, the situation is different now as it is not the season for yield from the month of Karthik. Ideally, mango trees should not be blossoming now. It is unusual for blossoming of trees of Badami variety of mangoes. The flowering of trees one month before its normal time would mean that it would not survive for long because the farmers would not have taken measures to protect the blossoms.
N Srirama Reddy, a mango farmers from Srinivaspur says that if it rains the blossoms would wither away.
The changing climate pattern has affected the mango crop. So far there was no rain in the taluk, but during the past 15 days it has been raining heavily. This is one of the reason for the early blossoming of the trees.
Senior Assistant Director of Horticulture B M Mallikarjun says that the blossoms can be protected by spraying pesticides.
In recent time there is no rigid season and consistency of mango crops, which is faced by one problem or another.