Does Pre-Harvest Bagging Reduce Fruit Size in Mango? Contrasting Responses of Mallika and Banganapalli in a Commercial Orchard in Tamil Nadu

Pre-harvest fruit bagging is widely adopted in mango to protect fruit from fruit flies, anthracnose, sooty mould, sap burn and wind abrasion without relying on chemical sprays. Whether bagging changes fruit size, and whether the response depends on the cultivar, is a practical question for growers. We recorded field observations during one fruiting season in a 2-acre commercial orchard at V. Ramapuram, Gudiyatham, Tamil Nadu, on two cultivars, Mallika and Banganapalli. Fruits were thinned to one per cluster and bagged at 35–45 days after fruit set with double-layer waxed Kraft paper bags with an opaque black inner lining, and were left bagged until harvest. In both cultivars, bagged fruits had cleaner, more uniform, pest-free peel than unbagged fruits. In Mallika, however, bagged fruits were visibly smaller and more rounded than unbagged fruits on the same tree, whereas Banganapalli fruits showed no apparent change in size or shape. We discuss three possible explanations (a humid bag microclimate, loss of fruit-skin photosynthesis, and cultivar differences in sink strength). These are hypotheses that this study did not test. Because bagging responses can be cultivar-specific, growers should trial bagging on a small number of trees before adopting it across a variety, especially where fruit size drives price. Keywords: mango; pre-harvest fruit bagging; Mallika; Banganapalli; fruit size; cultivar response; Tamil Nadu