Kullu orchardists hope for apple boom

Our Correspondent

Kullu, March 28

Orchardists of the valley are hopeful of a good apple crop this time. After bumper flowering of plum, the orchardists are expecting bumper flowering of apple as well. The orchardists are busy in their fields these days, adding manure and cowdung to the soil in apple orchards. They are also spraying medicines to strengthen the spurs of the apple, to ensure the setting of the apple is better.

In Kullu district, 80 per cent of the population is involved in horticulture. Every year, apples and other fruits worth crores of rupees are traded here. The district generally produces 80 lakh to one crore boxes each year, generating a business of about Rs 1,000 crore. Apple farming also provides employment to hundreds of people in Kullu. Apple is being produced on around 30,000 hectares in the district and the figure is continuously increasing.

Orchardist Pushkar Raj of Jari said new saplings were being planted these days and the apple plants would flower in April and before this, medicines were being sprayed. After good flowering of plum, horticulturists now have their eyes on apple.

Sunil Rana, general secretary of Sadar Kullu Fruit and Vegetable Producers Association, said the orchardists were hopeful of a good crop this time. He added that the orchardists should spray the medicines prescribed by the Horticulture Department in their orchards.

Another leading horticulturist, Rajesh Sharma, said the required moisture for the apple crop was available after the spells of snow in the past two months. He expected to harvest bumper crop if the present weather conditions prevailed. The snow is considered as white manure and is a boon for the apple trees. Snow is beneficial for the ‘chilling hours’ required for the apple trees, which keeps various ailments at bay and is beneficial to the crop during blooming and fruition.

White manure

Snow is considered as white manure and is a boon for the apple trees. It is beneficial for the “chilling hours” required for the apple trees, which keeps various ailments at bay and is beneficial to the crop during blooming and fruition

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