Characterization of bael (aegle marmelos) varieties under rainfed hot semi-Arid environment of western India

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of different varieties of bael (Aegle marmelos Correa.), established through in-situ patch budding during the year 2003, at Experimental Farm of Central Horticultural Experiment Station (CIAH), Vejalpur, Panchmahals (Godhra), Gujarat under rainfed hot semi-Arid ecosystem of western India during the years 2010-12. The results of study revealed that the different varieties of bael exhibited considerable variation for vegetative, floral, yield and physico-chemical attributes of bael fruits. The vegetative growth in terms of plant height, stem girth, plant spread (E-W) and plant spread (N-S) varied between 3.38-5.85m, 28.95-88.39 cm and 3.74-7.68 m and 3.40-7.52 m, respectively, while the terminal leaf length, breadth, lateral leaf length and breadth ranged between 10.72-15.02 cm, 5.85-9.38 cm, 7.45-11.38cm and 4.13-6.57cm, respectively. Different varieties of bael exhibited wide variations with respect to morphometrics of vegetative characters under rainfed conditions of western India. Varieties also showed wide differences for floral traits with regards to bud size, flower size and other floral organs. The morphological features of fruit of different varieties, viz. fruit yield (40.50- 69.29 kg), fruit weight (0.43-4.25 kg), length (10.61-19.59 cm), width (9.40-22.00 cm) and fruit girth (29.10-70.00 cm) also showed variations. Physical composition of bael fruit exhibited wide variation in their shell weight (115.25- 560.05g), shell thickness (0.16-0.31cm), number of seed/fruit (90.34-212.25), total fresh seed weight (17.34-43.41 g), number of seed sacs (10.23-19.17), fibre weight (15.91-106.50g) and pulp weight/fruit (0.27-3.67 kg). The qualitative characters of fruit in terms of TSS mucilage, TSS pulp, total sugar, reducing sugar, non reducing sugar, vitamin C, total phenols, acidity and TSS to acid ratio ranged between 37.00-49.50° brix, 30.57-37.45° brix, 16.15-19.98%, 3.30-4.95%, 12.85-15.13%, 17.13-21.03 mg/100g, 2.34-2.75%, 0.30-0.49% and 68.88-124.83, respectively. All the varieties of bael showed significant diffferences for qualitative and quantitative morphological characters under rainfed hot semi arid environment.