* Q: My mango tree has lot of flowering. Is it right time? What can I do to prolong it? Can I stop it as my tree is hardly three years old?

Kamini, Chandigarh

Putting forth flowering in advance due to the fluctuating weather conditions is normal in mango. You can do nothing to prolong it. Since your tree is hardly three years old, it is better to get rid of this flowering to get better vegetative growth.

* Q: My tomato plants have plenty of flowers since about a month now but there is not much fruit. What could be the reason? Can I increase fruiting by any practice?

Meena Sharma, Chandigarh

It is because of the cold weather that there is no setting of fruit. You can try covering your plants with poly-bag with holes on all sides. This can be supported by digging small kana sticks around the plant. This will raise the temperature in the bag by a few degrees in the morning hours.

* Q: We could not give water to our plants for about 10 days when we were away. Two of our palm plants in pots have dried. Could we revive them?

Saurabh Kumar, Panchkula

Sorry, Saurabh you can do nothing to revive this plant. Any such setback to palms is not recoverable.

* Q: We get kaddu, karela, tar etc in our garden only when these are available aplenty in the market. Can we get them earlier by some practice?

Sukhdeep, Mohali

You can plant the seeds in polybags in the last week of January and put them near the south wall where they get full sun, especially in the morning hours. You can transplant these seedlings when these are of six inches length you will get early fruiting.