Manohari / Pusa Manohari

Manohari / Pusa Manohari is a distinctive hybrid mango developed at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, New Delhi, released in 2021. Pusa Manohari was bred by crossing Amrapali × Lal Sundari, combining regular bearing with an attractive, uniform fruit shape — a trait Amrapali crosses are well known for.

The hybrid was developed by a team of ICAR-IARI scientists: Dr Jai Prakash, Dr Manish Srivastava, Dr Kanhaiya Singh, Dr (Mrs) Nimisha Sharma and Dr Shruti Sethi.

Pusa Manohari is elongated-oblong and notably uniform in shape, averaging 300 grams (sometimes it grows more than 350 grams). The peel is attractive red upon ripening (as per the observation at Amrakunja Nursery & Farms), enclosing yellow-orange, completely fibreless pulp. 

Pusa Manohari tastes sweet with a pleasant aroma and a good sugar-acid balance — TSS 20.38%, acidity 0.27% — backed by strong nutritional credentials: ascorbic acid 39.78 mg/100 g and an exceptionally high beta-carotene content of 9,738 µg/100 g pulp. Pulp recovery is excellent - around 70%, making the cultivar equally suited to fresh table use and processing (pulp, juice).

It bears regularly and productively, yielding about 58 kg per tree (a 10-year old tree), translating to an estimated 16.1 t/ha. It bears in the last week of June in West Bengal, India.

Pusa Manohari seeds are medium in size and monoembryonic.

Pusa Manohari trees are semi-vigorous, allowing closer planting than many traditional varieties — around 278 trees per hectare at a 6 m × 6 m spacing. Pusa Manohari also shows valuable field tolerance to mango malformation disease, a major constraint in north Indian mango cultivation.

Being a semi-vigorous cultivar, Pusa Manohari can be planted in large farms, high-density orchards, even in pots at terrace gardens, roof-top gardens and kitchen gardens.

ColourAttractive redAverage Weight300 gramsSweetnessTSS 21 BrixShelf LifeGood: 8-10 daysSeed TypeMonoembryonicBearingRegular and very heavy bearer