Peaches, plums, pears for your garden

Amarjeet Batth

A few temperate fruit-bearing trees successfully grow in the sub-tropical region of North India. These bloom in late winter. At the onset of autumn, these shed their leaves. In spring, the white flowers of plum and pear sparkle during moonlight while the pink peach flowers glitter in the backdrop of the blue sky.

How to get started

Prepare pits 3’x3’ and 20’ apart. Keep these exposed for a few days. Add well-rotten farmyard manure in equal parts into top soil, mix and fill the pit. Treat it with chloropyriphos 20 EC and water it to settle the soil prior to plantation. Consider a medium-sized disease and insect-pest free plant with smooth bud union. Remove tying material from the grafted part before planting. Bore hole, the size of the ball, in the pit and lower the plant in the centre with 8-10 inches of the bud union above the ground and press it firmly, followed by light irrigation.

Plum

• It requires a sunny location, well drained, sandy loamy to medium soil. It can tolerate low (even frost) and high summer temperatures. The best time to plant is mid-January. It sprouts around mid-February.
• A plum variety ‘Satluj Purple’, being sterile needs the company of ‘Kala Amritsari’ variety, else it will yield only flowers and bear no fruit. Maintain the ratio of four ‘Satluj Purple’ to one ‘Kala Amritsari’.
• Training and pruning of the plant in the first three years is important to shape the plant and for optimum fruit-bearing.
• In December, give a dose of FYM, super phosphate and muriate of potash. Nitrogenous fertilisers dose once before and after the bloom is beneficial.
• Zinc deficiency causes leave whorls and even ‘Die Back’ resulting in reduced fruit size.
• Irrigate deep once a week in summers and fortnightly in winters. Once fruit sets in, regular irrigation is mandatory till it matures.
• In January, dried, diseased, crowded, intermingling leggy branches need to be removed to improve aeration and sunlight. Removal of suckers is a continuous process.
• The crimson colour fruit rich in vitamin ‘A’ is ripe by early May.

Peach

• A sunny location, well-drained and loamy soil yields good peach crop, which is a good source of carbohydrates and proteins and is much admired as table fruit.
• It is propagated by budding or grafting on the root stock. Mid-January is the best time for plantation.
• Training and pruning is essential, hence the newly planted one year plants are head-back at about a metre height. Subsequently branches appear through the year.
• In the following year in January, the first pruning is done. Remove all branches except healthy spirally placed branches with the lowest branch 1’.6” from the ground.
• In the second year, remove new branches on selected branches while keeping a few on the central branch. Finally the main shoot is cut to restrict its vertical growth.
• Peach fruit is borne on one-year-old branches. Almost 50 per cent branches are pruned for maintaining a good tree form and fruit yield.
• Thick branches must be given an application of ‘Bordeaux’ paste after pruning.
• The manure and irrigation technique of the plant is similar to that of plum.
• Thinning of fruit is necessary. The time frame depends on the chosen variety.

PEAR

• It requires a sunny spot, sandy to clay loam and well-drained rich soil.
• Hard and semi-soft pears successfully grow in this region but the soft ones are confined to higher altitudes.
• The planting is done from mid-January to mid-February. The hard pear fruit matures by end July and has long-keeping quality.
• Training commences from the day of plantation to build a good support system by headed-back (pruned off the terminal part) at about one metre with no growth below1’6”. Till five years of age, training and pruning is carried on.
• In older trees, pruning is done to remove dead wood, thinning out, eliminate non-bearing spurs and heading back laterals for producing more fruit-bearing spurs (short stems).
• Weekly deep irrigation in summers and light fortnightly in winters recommended.
• Over bear-fruit must be thinned.
• Be watchful of diseases, pest/insect attacks. If needed, contact an expert.