Factors affecting productivity of Kensington Pride mango in the Australian top end

Mango industry in the Australian Top End is expanding and has been the most successful plant industry in the history of the territory. From an estimated number of 46,000 trees in year 1984, the number has reached the 500,000 mark by 1998 and is expanding at the same rate. Darwin and Katherine are the two mango-growing regions of the Northern Territory. The cultivar Kensington Pride is not ideally suited to the tropical climate of the Australian Top End. On the production front, it suffers from poor and staggered flowering which adversely affects yield and time of fruit maturity. Profitability of the industry relies heavily on early fruit maturity as compared to Queensland- the major mango-producing centre of Australia. Fruit quality also heavily relies on early fruit maturity. Early onset of wet weather, especially in Darwin region has had a serious impact on fruit quality and market prices of later maturing fruit. The major emphasis is therefore on manipulation of flowering to obtain early and synchronous flowering and early fruit maturity. Paclobutrazol alone and in combination with appropriate pruning is recommended as a flower-manipulatory strategy and is being increasingly used to promote flowering. Production-related. issues are similar for the Darwin and Katherine regions. There are however significant differences in fruit quality from the two regions. Fruit from Katherine region is generally smaller but more superior than fruit from Darwin region. This can be attributed to differences in growing conditions, tree vigour, variations in pest complex and calcium status in the two regions. In one study, soil, leaf and fruit content of calcium was found to be significantly higher in Katherine than in the Darwin region where high rainfall and humidity, low soil pH and excessive vegetive growth are major factors well known to counteract calcium availability. The paper oultines various factors affecting production, external and internal fruit quality and their possible modus operendi. Ongoing research and future approaches to counteract the negative factors and to improve productivity and profitability of mango industry are discussed.