Journal

Journal of Applied Horticulture, 13(2): 108-114, 2011

Appl

Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological

studies in mango (Mangifera indica L.)
Shailendra Rajan*, Divya Tiwari, V.K. Singh, Pooja Saxena, Shilpi Singh, Y.T.N. Reddy1,
K.K. Upreti1, M.M. Burondkar2, A. Bhagwan3 and Richards Kennedy4
Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Rehmankhera, Lucknow. 1Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore. 2Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Maharashtra. 3Fruit Research Station, SangareddyMedak, Andhra Pradesh. 4Floriculture Research Station, Thovalai, Tamil Nadu, India. *E-mail: srajanlko@gmail.com

Abstract
Phenological studies are important for understanding the influence of weather dynamics on vegetative growth, flowering and fruiting
on mango. BBCH (Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemische Industrie) scale was used for data recording and to
assess utility of the scale in mango phenological studies. Phenological stages of the mango were recorded at weekly intervals on 60
shoots of cultivar Totapuri at five diverse locations for testing usefulness of scale under different diverse ecologies and data from
one location, i.e., Lucknow (26o 54 N and 80o 48 E ) was used for analysis. Existing BBCH scale was modified on the basis of data
recorded for mango in which seven out of 10 principal stages were used, starting with bud development (stage 0) and ending with
maturity of fruit (stage 8). Three digit scale was used for inclusion of the mesostages between the principal and secondary growth stages.
Highly recurring flowering phenophases were 511 (18 %), 513 (20 %) recorded in standard week 9 and 517 (45 %) in standard week
11 (March). Other important phenophases, 619 (38 %) and 709 (10 %) occured during standard weeks 13 and 22 to 23, respectively. A
high degree of variation in shoots representing principal growth stages viz., vegetative bud, leaf and shoot development was observed
due to simultaneous transition of the stages during standard week 33 to 42 and 4 to 24. Limitations of existing BBCH scale and
comprehended modifications have been proposed and discussed. The study revealed that the extended BBCHscale for mango can
be widely used because of its utility in describing all phenophases pertaining to bud, shoot, leaf, panicle and fruit development and
indicated the incisive growth pattern of the shoots and seasonal variation. This is the first report on quantitative analysis of mango
phenological data using BBCH scale.
Key words: BBCH scale, Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemische Industrie, mango, phenology, phenophase,
flowering, growth

Introduction
Phenological studies aim on the periodicity in the life-cycle
events of plants and are influenced by seasonal variations owing
to weather factors mainly temperature and precipitation. In
fact, changes in the time of phenophases of fruit trees are of
great economical importance because they have direct impact
on factors influencing final fruit yield (Kushwaha and Singh,
2008). Phenological studies in mango are also important for
planned management of orchards and alerting mango growers
against environmental vagaries. It is also useful for understanding
the phenological impacts during the flowering phase and the
subjacent effects on other phenological events. Researchers
have emphasized significant role of these studies in highlighting
common trends in mango phenology along with regional and
varietal differences in response to recent climatic changes
(Schnell and Knight, 1998) and understanding the differential
trends in main and off-season varieties.
Till eighties, there was no homogeneous coding method to
describe developmental stages of the major cultivated plants
and phenological stages were usually characterized using a
combinations of letter and numbers. Fleckinger (1948) evolved
a scale for fruit trees which does not fulfil the requirements of
a growth scale and mainly describe inflorescence and not the

bud, leaf and shoot development. Another scale proposed by

Aubert and Lossois (1972) focused only on shoot and panicle
development. These scales do not define the complete flowering
and fruit development cycles by using numerical codes. Zadoks
et al. (1974) published the first decimal code to standardize the
description of homologous developmental stages of different
crops using standard codes. A further development in phenology
recording methodology is BBCH-scale (BBCH = Biologische
Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt und Chemische Industrie)
proposed by Bleiholder et al. (1989) and the extended BBCHscale proposed by Hack et al. (1992). The advantage of the
BBCH scale is its simplicity and ease of use for annual, biennial
and perennial plants and it also describes both the vegetative and
reproductive stages of plant growth. Since then, BBCH-scale has
been widely accepted for use in cereals, colza, bean and sunflower
(Lancashire et al., 1991), beet (Meier et al., 1993) and potato
(Hack et al., 1993). Thereafter, some researchers made BBCH
based scales for pome and stone fruit trees (Meier et al., 1994),
grapevine (Lorenz et al., 1994), various vegetables (Feller et al.,
1995a; 1995b) and fruit crops, viz., pomegranate (Melgarejo et
al., 1997), citrus (Augusti et al., 1997), loquat (Martinez-Calvo
et al., 1999), olive (Sanz-Corts et al., 2002) and persimmon
(Garca Carbonell et al., 2002). A notable effort was made to
study the utility of BBCH scale for mango phenology (Hernndez
et al., 2010).

Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological studies in mango

Mango, a fruit tree species grown in both subtropics and tropics,
demonstrates substantial seasonality in flowering, fruiting,
leaf-flushing events (Parrado-Rosselli et al., 2006) and follows
a phenological cycles of 12 months in subtropical regions.
However, two or more peaks in phenophases are possible in
the tropics because the sun passes overhead twice each year,
influencing insolation rates and weather patterns (Anderson et
al., 2005). Phenology has emerged as an important integrative
measure to assess the impact of climate change on horticultural
crops like mango, which is substantially sensitive to weather
dynamics. Keeping above facts in view, the phenological studies
were conducted to assess BBCH-scale for mango and also
demonstrate the information which can be generated from data
collected with application of the scale.

Materials and methods

Location and plant material: Phenological data was collected at
five diverse eco-geographical locations viz., Lucknow (subtropics,
hot subhumid (dry) eco-region), Bangalore (Central Karnataka
Plateau, hot moist semi-arid), Kanyakumari (Hot subhumid to
semi-arid eco-region), Medak (Hot semi-arid ecoregion) and
Dapoli (West coast Ghat region). Multilocational information
was collected for accessing the suitablility of scale for describing
phenological pattern under diverse mango growing conditions.
Data collected at Lucknow, located at 26o 54 N and 80o 48 E was
used for analysis and interpretation. Totapuri, being a variety with
wider adaptability, was used for data collection on 25 years old
trees (3 trees) at weekly intervals on 60 shoots tree-1 (15 shoots
tagged in each direction).
Scale: Developmental stages and morphological characteristics
were recorded as per BBCH scale. Representative shoot parts were
coded as per primary and secondary phenological growth stages
and photographed for recorded information. Due to inclusion of
the mesostages between the principal and secondary growth stages,
three digit scale was used to study the mango phenology.
The existing BBCH scale (Hernndez et al., 2010) was used for
the entire developmental cycle of mango and was subdivided into
seven clearly recognisable and distinguishable principal growth
stages out of 10 of general BBCH scale. Each principal growth
stage was classified in to secondary stages which described points
in time or shorter developmental intervals in the major growth
stage. This scale started with bud development (stage 0) and
terminated at maturity of fruit (stage 8). The secondary stages
were numbered 0 to 9 that described related percentile stages of
growth. Several mesostages (1 to n) were used to describe the
different vegetative and floral flushes during season for coding
bud, leaf and shoot development. A list of phenological stages of
mango, made in ascending order by sorting codes into numerical
order, is presented in Table 1. A photo guide (Fig. 1) with codes
was developed and used for uniform data recording at different
locations.
Among seven principal growth stages, three principal growth
stages were assigned to vegetative growth, which described the
bud development (stage 0), leaf development on shoots (stage
1) and shoot elongation (stage 3), the later being shared with
inflorescence emergence and flower development (stage 5).
Flowering (stage 6), fruit growth (stage 7), fruit maturity (stage

109

8) completed the scale. First digit of the code depicts the principal
growth stage ranging from 0 to 9.
The second digit of the scale was used for recognizing the
mesostages occurred between the principal and secondary growth
stages, ranged from 0 to n. The code was given on the basis of
number of vegetative flushes and flowering occurred during the
year. Generally, two mesostages (1, 2) were used for coding.
However, it can be more than two according to the number of
flushes found in the region or multiple bearing varieties. The
use of codes for mesostages made the differentiation possible
between the principal and secondary vegetative and flowering
growth stages. The third digit of the codes were the numerical
values from 0 to 9, which was related to per cent growth of buds,
leaves, shoots, flower buds, panicle and fruit development.

Results and discussion

A large set of phenological data collected on Totapuri trees
was difficult to handle manually for assessing the suitability of
BBCH scale and thus it was subjected to a computer program
specially developed for extracting information from the collected
data matrix. The phenological behaviour of each selected shoot
recorded on Totapuri was summarized on the basis of per cent
shoot under particular stage at a specific time based on total
number of selected shoots. BBCH scale based data was depicted
in the form of line graph for identifying phenological stages
with highest score during different standard weeks/months (Fig.
2a, 2b). The graph indicates changes occurring among different
phenophases for the identified shoots during particular period
and can identify the occurrence of the most frequent stage. The
occurrence of the phenophases can be interpreted with reference
to prevailing temperature and rainfall (Fig. 2c). Analysed data
presented in the Fig. 2 depicts significant transition pattern of
phenophases in mango.
Phenological data collated from first week of August 2010 (33)
to last week of June 2011 (24) at Lucknow was used for analysis
and graphical depiction. During August (33-36 standard week)
highest percentage of shoots was of stage 010 and percentage
was static from standard week 46 to 51 (November to December)
indicating growth cessation period. From standard week 4 (Jan.
last week), the frequency of 010 declined and started increasing
from week 13, with a conspicuous peak during May indicating
cyclic nature of mango growth. The decline in the percentage of
shoots with stage 010 indicated the transformation of the stage
to other phenophases. The high degree of variation in percentage
of shoots at principal growth stages viz., vegetative bud, leaf and
shoot development were observed due to simultaneous transition
of these stages during standard week 33 to 42 (Aug. to last week
of Oct) and 4 to 24 (Jan. end to June end). The longer and shorter
duration between 010 and 319 during different parts of the year
indicated that slow and rapid growth period can be detected by
using the scale.
The stages indicating inflorescence growth were observed from
standard week 3 (Jan.) and continued till standard week 12
(March end). Stage 511 (initiation of inflorescence) and 517
(light green to crimson petal tips visible in some flowers) were
recorded from standard week 3 to 11 and 10 to 12, respectively.
This indicate the less time required for panicle growth by late
emerging panicles. Stage 619 (fruit set) was observed between

110

Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological studies in mango

Fig. 1. Depiction of important phenophases for mango with corresponding codes. All phenophase photographs are not
of cv. Totapuri and were found useful in identifying phenophases of Mangifera indica varieties.

Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological studies in mango

111

Table 1. Extended BBCH scale used for mango (Hernndez Delgado et al., 2010)
Principal Code
Description
Growth
Stage
0 Bud development
First
010 Dormancy: leaf buds are closed and covered with
vegetative
green or brownish scales (Aubert and Lossois:
flush
vegetative stage A)
011 Beginning of leaf bud swelling: bud scales begin to
separate
013 End of leaf bud swelling: scales completely
separated, light green buds emerged (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage B)
017 Beginning of bud break: light green to dark coppery
tan leaf tips just visible (Aubert and Lossois:
vegetative stage C)
019 Bud break: light green to dark coppery tan leaf tips
visible 5 to 10 mm above bud scales (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage D)
Second
020 Dormancy: leaf buds are closed and covered with
vegetative
green or brownish scales (Aubert and Lossois:
flush
vegetative stage A)
021 Beginning of leaf bud swelling: bud scales begin to
separate
023 End of leaf bud swelling: scales completely
separated, light green buds emerged (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage B)
027 Beginning of bud break: light green to dark coppery
tan leaf tips just visible (Aubert and Lossois:
vegetative stage C)
029 Bud break: light green to dark coppery tan leaf tips
visible 5 to 10 mm above bud scales (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage D)
1 Leaf development
First
110 Leaf tips more than 10 mm above bud scales
vegetative 111 First leaf unfolded
flush
115 More leaves unfolded: petioles visible
119 All leaves completely unfolded and expanded
Second
120 Leaf tips more than 10 mm above bud scales
vegetative 121 First leaf unfolded
flush
125 More leaves unfolded: petioles visible
129 All leaves completely unfolded and expanded
3 Shoot development
First
311 Beginning of shoot growth: axes of developing
vegetative
shoots visible, about 10% of final length
flush
312 Shoots about 20% of final length
315 Shoots about 50% of final length (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage A)
317 Shoots about 70% of final length
319 Shoots about 90% of final length
Second
321 Second vegetative flush beginning of shoot growth:
vegetative
axes of developing shoots visible, about 10% of final
flush
length
322 Shoots about 20% of final length
325 Shoots about 50% of final length (Aubert and
Lossois: vegetative stage E)
327 Shoots about 70% of final length
329 Shoots about 90% of final length
5 Inflorescence emergence
Principal 510 Buds closed and covered with green or brownish
flowering
scales
511 Beginning of bud swelling: scales begin to separate
(Aubert and Lossois: flowering stage A)
513 Bud burst: first floral primordial just visible, panicle
development begins (Aubert and Lossois: flowering
stage B)
514 Panicle axis begins to elongate, leaves are visible in
mixed panicles

Secondary
flowering

515 Flowers are visibly separated, secondary axes

begin to elongate (Aubert and Lossois: flowering
stage D)
517 Secondary axes elongated, flower buds are swollen
and first light green to crimson petal tips visible
in some flowers. In mixed panicles, leaves have
reached final length
519 End of panicle development: fully developed
secondary axes, many flowers with green to
crimson petal tips visible and some opened, leaves
fully developed in case of mixed panicles
520 Axillary flower buds of the apical dome are closed
and covered with green or brownish scales
521 Beginning of bud swelling: scales begin to separate
(Aubert and Lossois: flowering stage A)
523 Bud burst: first floral primordia just visible, panicle
development begins (Aubert and Lossois: flowering
stage B)
525 Flowers are visibly separated, secondary axes
begin to elongate (Aubert and Lossois: flowering
stage D)
527 Secondary axes elongated, flower buds are swollen
and first light green to crimson petal tips visible
in some flowers. In mixed panicles, leaves have
reached to its final length
529 End of panicle development: fully developed
secondary axes, many flowers with green to
crimson petal tips visible and some opened. Leaves
fully developed in case of mixed panicles

6 Flowering
Principal
610 First flower open
flowering
611 Beginning of flowering: 10% of panicle flowers
open
613 Early flowering: 30% of panicle flowers open
615 Full flowering: more than 50% of panicle flowers
open (Aubert and Lossois: flowering stage E)
617 Flower fading: majority of petals fallen or dry
619 End of flowering: all petals fallen or dry, fruit set
630 Barren panicle
631 Panicle completely dried or dropped
Secondary
620 First flowers open
flowering
621 Beginning of flowering: 10% of panicle flowers
open
623 Early flowering: 30% of panicle flowers open
625 Full flowering: more than 50% of panicle flowers
open (Aubert and Lossois: flowering stage E)
627 Flower fading: majority of petals fallen or dry
629 End of flowering: all petals fallen or dry, fruit set
630 Barren panicle
631 Panicle completely dried or dropped
7 Fruit development
Main
701 Fruits at 10% of final size, styles still visible.
season fruit
Beginning of physiological fruit drop (Aubert and
development
Lossois: fruit set stage A)
703 Fruits at 30% of final size, end of physiological fruit
drop. (Aubert and Lossois: fruit set stage B)
705 Fruits at 50% of final size
709 Fruits at standard cultivar size, shoulders fully
developed
8 Maturity of fruit
Main season 800 Physiological maturity: fruit fully developed, pulp
fruit maturity
creamy green in colour.
801 Beginning of skin colour change (colour break
stage)
809 Fruit colour fully developed. Fruit ripe for
consumption, with correct firmness and typical
taste

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Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological studies in mango

standard week 12 and 16. The stages for fruit development (701
to 709) were recorded during standard weeks 16 to 24. The stage
911 in standard weeks 12 to 16 indicated the existence of barren
panicles due to drying or dropping of flowers from the panicles,
while in later standard weeks, such as, from week 17 and onwards,
stage 911 represented the barren panicle after fruit drop. These
are few examples of interpretation of BBCH scale data. A perusal
of analysed data also revealed that the existing BBCH scale is
suitable for studying the mango phenology with few exceptional
aspects. Thus, modifications in the existing scale (Hernndez et
al., 2011) are presented (Table 2) to meet out the missing aspects
of the basic principles of BBCH scale (Hack et al., 1992).
As a matter of fact, researchers developed their own scale (Aubert
and Lossois, 1972), used older non-uniform scales or adopted
BBCH scale (Hernandez et al., 2011) to study mango phenology.
Nevertheless, this has led to the interpretation of scales in different
ways, leading to inconsistency in comparing research results. The
proposed scale attempts to unify the description for mango and
make it possible to address difficulties in interpretation of other
researches related with specific phenophase sampling. General
interpretation of collected data using the scale can also form the
basis for the development of future scales specific to tropical and
subtrpical fruit tree crops including mango.
Limitations of existing BBCH scale: Based on the data collected
from diverse mango growing locations and literature on the
application of BBCH scale for mango (Hernandez Delgado et
al., 2011), following questions were encountered which require
attention of researchers for improvement in scale or development
of methodology for providing precise description of the major
phenophases in mango. At initial panicle or shoot development
stage, the per cent growth of vegetative shoots (311 to 315),
flowering (611 to 615) or fruit development stage (701 to 705) can
not be assigned/predicted precisely, thus the assumptions made at
the time of data recording on the basis of existing BBCH scale for
mango may make it erroneous. The actual observation depends on
the degree of precision employed by the user. Sometimes, more
than one vegetative bud emerge as a result of further growth in
previous year bearing shoots, identified as stage 916. Some of the
stages (drying of shoots) seen in the field conditions necessitate
the selection and tagging of new shoot for data collection and
data collected on dried shoot may become irrelevant. Some of
the stages (010 and 510) appear morphologically same but their
further developments are totally different. The codes 630 and
631 indicating the barren and completely dried/dropped panicle,
respectively, is not well defined and accurate according to the
general BBCH scale.
Modifications in existing scale: Although the existing extended
BBCHscale for mango can be used widely without any
modification because it describes developmental stages of bud,
shoot, leaf and fruit development, even inflorescence and panicle
development. Yet some of the modifications are suggested to make
it more useful for phenological studies. Additional characteristics
of the proposed scale for mango are given in Table 2.
In the context of phenology related studies, mango has specific
vulnerability, such as perennial nature, complex flowering,
warming impacts on floral bud phenology (Schnell and Knight,
1998). Numerous data on phenology, collected (in past) in
contrasting climatic conditions (location, period) highlighting

Table 2. Additions to the existing BBCH scale for mango

Stage
Code Description
7 Fruit development stage
Main season fruit 711
Styles still visible, beginning of
development
physiological fruit drop
713
End of physiological fruit drop
715
Fruit at 50 % of final size
719
Fruit at standard cultivar size, shoulders
fully developed
Second season fruit 721
Styles still visible, beginning of
development
physiological fruit drop
723
End of physiological fruit drop
725
Fruit at 50 % of final size
729
Fruit at standard cultivar size, shoulders
fully developed
8 Maturity of fruit
Main season fruit 810
Physiological maturity: fruit fully
development
developed, flesh creamy green in colour
811
Beginning of skin colour change
819
Fruit colour fully developed. Fruit ripe
for consumption, with correct firmness
and typical taste
Second season fruit 820
Physiological maturity: fruit fully
development
developed, flesh creamy green in colour
821
Beginning of skin colour change
829
Fruit colour fully developed. Fruit ripe
for consumption, with correct firmness
and typical taste
9 Senescence
Principal vegetative 911
Barren panicle. Fruit dropped
flush/ flowering
916
Dried shoots or dried/dropped-off panicle
Second vegetative 921
Barren panicle. Fruit dropped
flush/ flowering
926
Dried shoots or dried/dropped-off panicle

significant deviations in dates of different phenological stages

may not be comparable without adopting uniform phenological
data recording scale/methodology. The current modified BBCH
scale is easy to use for studying different growth stages of mango
and includes all the subtle details of the mango growth and
development in one scale. It is uniform, simple to use and can be
used for computer aided analysis. Furthermore, modified BBCHscale also distinctly separates various vegetative flushes as well
as the terminal and axillary flowering which are important for
planning mango orchard management practices.
Keeping existing BBCH scale in view, the proposed modified
BBCH scale is further a step forward in achieving uniformity of
growth stage descriptions and can be adopted widely for mango.
Based on the requirements for detailed phenological studies
on mango, refinement of the modified scale may further pave
way for the development of more robust scale. Intensive data
collection from diverse ecologies and its analysis will lead to
further refinement. However, in absence of such advancements,
the present endeavour will help in harmonious phenological data
recording at various location and data analysis.

Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. H. Ravishankar, Director, CISH, Lucknow and
Dr. C.P.A. Iyer, Chairman, Consortium Advisory Committee for
encouragement during study. The authors gratefully acknowledge
the financial support from NAIP, ICAR, New Delhi and thank
Dr. S. Kochhar, National Coordinator and Dr. Bengali Baboo,
National Director, NAIP for their encouragement; Dr. P.M.
Hernndez Delgado and Dr. V. Galn Saco Instituto Canario

Application of extended BBCH scale for phenological studies in mango

113

de Investigaciones Agrarias, Ctra, de El Boquern,

Valle Guerra, Tenerife, Spain for sharing published
information on mango phenology.

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Received: October, 2011; Revised: November, 2011; Accepted: December, 2011