Assessment of Morphological Diversity and physico -chemical characterization of Elaegnus latifolia under different agro-ecological system in East Sikkim

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate diversity of mallero (Elaegnus latifolia) across differentagro-ecological systems in East Sikkim and to observe variations in physico-chemical parameters of themallero fruits with variation in agro-ecological system. The study was conducted in mixed farming basedagro-ecological system, farm based agro-ecological system, forest habitat based agro-ecological system,cardamom based agro-ecological system and sikkim mandarin based agro-ecological systems. Theexperiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design with five treatments and three replications.Studies regarding growth parameters like highest plant population (4.66) and number of fruits per tree(308.00) was found in mixed farming agro-ecological system (T1). However, the number of fruits per branch(27.00) and plant spread (4.06 m) was found maximum in farm based agro-ecological system (T2). Similarly,plant leaf area (41.93 cm2) was found maximum in forest based agro-ecological system (T3). Qualityparameters like length of fruit (4.46 cm) and juice (3.50 ml) was found maximum in mixed farm based Agroecological system (T1). The highest total acidity (8.59) and organoleptic test value (2.76) were found in farmbased agro-ecological system (T2). Similarly, maximum fruit weight (22.16 g) and maximum shelf life inroom temperature (21.66) was recorded in cardamom based agro-ecological system (T4). However, thehighest TSS (13.33) was recorded in mandarin agro-ecological system (T5) and maximum shelf life of fruitin refrigerator (41.93 days) was found in forest based agro-ecological system (T3).