Influence of pruning on flowering, yield and fruit quality of longan

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the influence of pruning on floral emergence, fruiting, yield and fruit quality in longan. Fifteen years old “Daw” longan trees were pruned in June 2013 at Agricultural Technology Research Institute, Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Lampang province. The longan pruning for removing some branches consisted of 4 treatments, i.e. 25, 50 and 75 % compared with no pruning. The result revealed that there was no effect of treatment on floral emergence or leaf flushing after potassium chlorate application. However, the 25-75 % pruning gave greater new shoot length, leaf width and leaf greenness than that of no pruning. The pruning treatments increased fruit size while the highest pruning (75 %) decreased yield and the no pruning produced the lowest yield.