Temprate Fruits (1+1)

CULTURAL PRACTICES

Manure and Fertilizers:-

• The walnut is grown as scattered trees and not in the form of well laid out regular plantation as such they are not fertilized.
• Virtually no information is available on the fertilizer requirements, however, the walnut trees should be fertilized with ½ kg of 15:15:15 NPK fertilizer mixture/year/tree up to 16 years age.
• The fertilizers dose is stabilized after 16years and full bearing tree should be fertilized with 8 Kg of NPK mixture along with 100 Kg FYM.
• The full dose of manure and fertilizer is applied during December – January

Orchard Soil management:-

• Sod plus clean basin management is the best orchard floor management in walnut.
• The basin area can also be mulched with dry grass to conserve moisture and to control weeds.

Irrigation:-

• Walnut trees require adequate moisture especially 5-6 weeks immediately following bloom. A water deficit prior to shell hardening result in small nuts and in mid summer results in stick tight hull.
• The critical periods for water requirement is from full bloom to shell cracking. Therefore, walnut tree should be irrigated at weekly intervals during the summer months for higher fruit production..

Pollination:-

• Winds plays an significant role in pollination and fruit set.
• Pollen of Juglans regia variety is capable of fertilizing the eggs of same variety and any other variety as well.
• In walnut dichogamy is the main problem, which is further aggravated by short period of both pollen viability and stigma receptivity.
• However, pollen germinate on stigma in 1-3 days after pollination. Pollen viability last for 100hours at 14-15oC and 55 hours at 22-25 oC, however above 25oC and humidity below 33% during pollination results in pollen sterility.
• Adverse weather conditions like snowfall, hail, frost and rain during flowering results in crop failure due to inadequate pollination.
• Improvement in pollination and fruit set can be made by (1) hanging of catkins of male flowers (2) planting of 3-4 varieties in the orchard.

Maturity and Harvesting:-

• Harvesting at proper maturity and subsequent handling of the produce are of prime importance. Any delay in picking after maturity of kernels, deteriorates the quality and increases the incidence of mould and pests.
• The maturity indices are commonly used for determining the harvesting dates of walnut are cracking of hulls from nut and change in colour of packing tissues between the kernels.

• When about 80% of the hulls have cracked from the nuts, it is a time of walnut picking.
• Secondly the proper maturity is also assessed by observing the packing tissue between and around the kernel halves which turn brown on maturity.
• Depending upon the climate, the harvesting is usually done after two weeks of browning.
• The kernel become dark if the further harvesting is delayed.
• The spray of ethephon 200-500 on kernel maturity advancing harvesting by 10 days, makes harvest of entire crop at a time and promotes hull splitting.
• Walnut is normally harvested from August to October.
• Maturity is earlier in lower altitudes but late at higher altitude.
• Walnut drop naturally over about one month period after splitting of hull in a natural way, while others are forced to drop down by splinting with long poles.
• The nuts should be gathered , hulled and dried immediately.
• The fallen nut are collected in huge heaps in the orchards and covered with wet leaves and grasses for hull fermentation taking about 10-15 days.
• Dehulling, washing and cleaning of nuts are done manually in India and mechanically in other advanced countries.
• Application of nuts in ethephon at 1500 ppm when hull are still on loosen the hull in 3-4 days.

Post- Harvest Management:-

• After cleaning, the nuts are dried with the help of drier at 32-30oC temperature till the moisture content in nut is about 8%.
• The nuts can be dried in the sun for many days by spreading them on a canvass sheet or hand floor.
• After drying the nuts are started the gunny bags in small ventilated rooms.