PERFORMANCE OF PINEAPPLE IN TERMS OF YIELD AND QUALITY GROWN UNDER MULTI STORIED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University. Mymensingh during the period from May 2002 to August 2003 with the objecti ve to study the fruit quality and yield of pineapple (var. Giant Kew) grown under different fruit tree based multistoried agroforestry production systems. Pineapple was grown under the shade of four fruit trees and one shrub viz. sissoo, mango, coconut, guava and lemon in different combinations. The treatments were T, = sissoo + guava + pineapple, T, = sissoo + lemon + pineapple, T, = mango + guava + pineapple, T. = coconut + guava + pineapple T, = coconut + lemon + pineapple and T" = control having pineapple only. Due to variation of shade created by trees different treatments showed significant differences in yield contributing features and quality of pineapple fruit. The yield of fruits showed considerable variations such as T, treatment showed highest fruit yield (27.08 tha') followed by T, (26.67 tha'), T, (26.35 tha') T. (25.52 tha') and T, (25.21 tha') and the lowest was in T" (23.44 tha'). The fruit set (82.33%), individual fruit weight (0.65 kg), fruit length (12.25 em), pulp of fruit (0.46 kg), pulp-peel ratio (2.35) and yield of fruit (27.08 t/ha) had been found to be the highest in the treatment T" where light intensity was 22.99% under partial shade condition. The p'' and titratable acidity of juice were the highest (5.16) in sunny treatment of T(, while the lowest value was obtained in the most shady treatment of T". Total sugar contents of pineapple (27.17%) including reducing sugar (6.69%) and non-reducing sugar (5.48%) was the highest in moderately shady treatment (T4), where the light intensity was 16.3%. Similarly, total soluble solid content of pineapple was the highest (21.23%) in moderately shady treatment (T4) and the lowest (18.86%) in the slightly shady treatment of T,. Therefore, for desirable quality and high yield, pineapple can be grown successfully in suitable agroforestry model.