242 J. Crop and Weed, 16(1) Crop regulation in pomegranate J. S. SHIVRAN, 1 M. L. JAT AND 2 R. K. JAT Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture,GBPUA&T,Pantnagar, Uttarakhand 1 Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture,CCS HAU, Hisar, Haryana 2 Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture, SDAU,Jagudan, Mehsana, Gujarat Received : 31.12.2019 ; Revised : 13.04.2020 ; Accepted : 15.04.2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/09746315.2020.v16.i1.1300 ABSTRACT Pomegranate bears different flowering flushes throughout the year if left without any treatment. It primarily shows three distinct flowering seasons i.e. February-March (AmbeBahar), June-July (MrigBahar) and October-November (Hasta Bahar) with the corresponding harvest period during rainy (June – July), winter (November- December) and spring season (February- March), respectively. Secondly, Three types flowers namely male, hermaphrodite and intermediate are borne on new and old branches in pomegranate for once, two or three times in a year that are influenced bygermplasm, climate and management practicesetc. It gives poor quality and low yield at different times and is not commercially profitable. Good quality and higher yield can be achieved by long-term use of limited cultivation resources at the desired time by crop regulation in pomegranate.In order to escape this, crop regulation in pomegranate is done keeping in mind the availability of irrigation, pest and disease infestation and market prices. Keywords: Crop regulation, flowering, quality and yield. Pomegranate (Punicagranatum L.) is one of the ancient known edible fruit crop and it is capable to grow in different agro-climatic conditions ranging from the tropical to subtropical (Levin, 2006 and Jalikop, 2007). Though, it is native of Iran but it is cultivated extensively in Mediterranean and central Asian countries. It is highly suitable for growing under arid and semiarid regions due to its versatile adaptability, hardy nature, low cost maintenance and high returns. India is the largest producer of pomegranate in the world with production of around 2.79 MT from the area of 0.25 million hectare (Anonymous, 2018-19). The pomegranate belongs to the Punicaceae family and is richsources of nutrients and phytochemical compounds. Pomegranates are mainly consumed as fresh and processed products like juice, beverages, jam, jelly etc. Due to its multipurpose medicinal uses, it is also known as “Dadima” in Ayurveda (Paranjpe, 2001) and as “Super fruit” in the global functional food industry (Martins et al., 2006). Numerous studies reported that phytochemical have been identified from many parts of the pomegranate tree and from peel, juice and seeds parts of pomegranate fruit (Elfalleh et al., 2011).Pomegranate fruits peel is an inedible part obtained during processing of pomegranate juice. Pomegranate peel is a rich source of tannins, flavonoids and other phenolic compounds (Li et al., 2006). Pomegranate flowers continuously throughout the year under tropical climate. In subtropical central and western India, there are three distinct seasons for flowering but yield and quality is not so well in all crop harvest. It is very vital to identify the flowering and fruiting behaviors of crops and which baharwill give good crop with considering all the factors related with a particular bahar. Objectives of crop regulation The main objective of crop regulation is to force the tree for rest and produce prolific blossom and fruits during any one of the two or three flushes. Besides, some objectives are as under: 1. To obtain suitable crop at a desired season 2. To regulate a uniform and good quality of fruits 3. To maximize the production as well as profit to the grower. 4. To reduce cost of cultivation because uninterrupted continuous blossom would produce light crops over the whole year and require a high cost for the monitoring and marketing. Pomegranate has three main flowering and fruiting seasons or bahars, ambebahar (spring season flowering), mrigbahar (June-July flowering) and hastabahar (October- November flowering). The plants under such conditions may continue bearing flowers and bear small crop irregularly at different period of the year, which may not be desirable commercially. For commercial production only one crop is desirablein a year. Selection of bahar depends upon location and some prevailing production constraints like availability of the irrigation water, fruit quality, market prices and occurrence and infestations of the diseases and pests. Water availability is vastconcern in arid and semi-arid regions during summer season for pomegranate grower. They always avoid taking ambebahar crop and regulate this crop into Short communication Email : jitendrashivran@gmail.com Journal of Crop and Weed, 16(1): 242-244 (2020) ISSN- O : 2349 9400 ; P : 0974 6315 http://cwssbckv.org www.cropandweed.com