Temprate Fruits (1+1)

PROPAGATION, POLLINATION AND NUTRITION

ROOT STOCK AND PROPAGATION

• Apricots are commercially propagated by grafting or budding on rootstocks. The multiplication through cuttings is rarely done as it gives very low rooting success.
• Wild apricot (Chulli) and wild peach seedlings are commercially are used as a rootstock. However, wild apricot seedlings are generally prefered as rootstocks because the graft union is good and the trees are more vigorous than on plum and wild peach seedlings.
• Peach is a satisfactory rootstock for light soils and dry conditions, but sometimes the graft union is enlarged or rough.
• In heavy soils under excessive soil moisture conditions apricot on Myrobalan plum makes better growth.
• Different clonal rootstocks have been recommended in different regions .i.e. Myrobalan 29C and Marianna 2624 for California; GF 31, GF 8-1 for France and Marianna 7/7 for South Africa.
• For raising the seedling rootstocks, the seeds are collected form fully ripe wild apricot fruits.
• Seeds are stratified for 45-50 days at 4Oc to break dormancy.
• Pre-stratified seeds are sown in nursery beds , which attain a graftable size after one year.
• The seedlings which attain pencil thickness in one year is grafted with tongue method in the month of February., while the seedlings of less thickness are T- budded in the month May-June.
• Chip budding performed in the month of September also give good success.

PLANTING AND PLANTING DENSITY

• The apricot plants are planted during the dormant season i.e. end of December to February, but early planting gives better establishment of plants.
• Undesirable trees and shrubs should be removed from the land during its initial preparations by digging and ploughing.
• On the flat land, a regular planting layout system such as square and triangular is followed, while on the hill slopes, contour system is generally practiced
• The spacing of plants varies with the soil, climate and vigour of variety and rootstocks.
• The plants are generally planted at a spacing of 6mx6m
• The pits of 1x1x1m dimension are dug about a month before planting and are filled with a mixture of soil and 50-60 kg well decomposed FYM. About 1 kg SSP and 10 L. of Chlrophyriphos (4ml/ 1 litre of water) is also added to each pit.
• In comparison to other temperate fruits, high density planting in apricot have begun rather late as there are very less dwarfing rootstocks.
• A density of 7200 trees/ha has been reported in Cv. Canino.

TRAINING AND PRUNING:

• The apricot is trained to open vase and modified centre leader system of training though the open vase system of training is more popular in hilly regions.
• One year plant is headed back at about 60-70cm above the ground and 3-5 well spaced shoots are allowed to grow in all the directions, while undesirable shoots are pinched off during summer.
• In first dormant season 3-5 primary scaffold branches arising at proper angle of 45O,well spaced(10-15cm apart) and spirally arranged around the tree trunk are selected..
• The lowest branch should be 40-45 cm. above ground level. All the primary scaffold branches are headed back to half of their growth to get the secondary branches on them.
• During the second dormant pruning, 4-5 well spaced secondary branches are selected on each primary branches and other are removed.
• At the end of the third year the pruning is confined to the thinning of branches which are crossing or crowding each other.
• Apricot bears on spurs and laterally on one year old shoots. The spurs have a short life of 3-4 years and many of them also get broken during the fruit plucking.
• The production of young growth is therefore essential for the initiation of new spur’s which generally takes place at the base of the growing laterals.
• In young bearing trees pruning should be light and of corrective type but in older trees heavy pruning should be done to maintain balance between growth and fruiting.
• In new castle apricot, 25-30 percent thinning of one year old shoots and 1/3rd heading back is recommended to improve size and fruit quality.
• After pruning, Mashobra or Chaubattia paste in applied on the cut end of the shoots.
  

FLOWERING

• In apricot, usually three buds develop in the axil of a leaf at each node on a shoot and spur. The central one being a vegetative bud, the two side buds are floral.
• Time of flowering and its duration varies with the variety and the prevailing weather conditions.
• Under mid hills condition the flowering in apricot comes in the month of March and higher hills at the end of March and April.

Pollination and fruit set

• Most of the commercial as a apricot are self fruitful and set fruits without pollinizer.
• However, varieties like Charmagz and Perfection have been reported self incompatible.
• There is generally a good fruit set in the apricot Cvs growing in appropriate climatic conditions.
• There is 40-60% fruit set in the cultivars commercially grown in mid hills, but fruit drop is to the extent of 79% in these cultivars, which occurs mostly in second week after fruit set.
• A spray of 10ppm NAA at the beginning of pit hardening reduced the pre- harvest drop.

MANURING AND FERTILIZERS:

• Apricot trees remove large amount of nutrients from the soil and require organic organic manures as well as chemical fertilizers for normal growth and fruit production.
• The manurial requirements depend upon age of tree, type of soil, climate conditions and cultural practices, which vary from region to region.
• FYM is applied during December-January along with full dose of P and K by broadcasting method.
• Nitrogen is applied in 2 doses via first half dose of N is spring2-3 weeks before flowering and remaining half N a month later ,if irrigation facilities are available.
• Under rain-fed conditions the second half dose of N should be applied at the onset of monsoon rains or through one or two foliar sprays of urea 0.05% after fruit set
• Fertilizers should be broadcast on the soil surface under the spread of the trees and mixed with the soil.
• It should not be applied in too wet or too dry soil. In high rainfall areas with steep slopes, the band application of nitrogenous fertilizers should be preferred over broadcasting.