Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 23
‘Ber’ (Indian jujube) is a well-known versatile fruit plant having rich nutritional value. It can be grown in saline conditions, waste and degraded lands in arid and semi-arid climate. The fruit can also be well grown in poor and marginal soils and require very less input and management efforts for its cultivation.
The ‘ber’ tree has a high ability for tolerating water-logged conditions also. However, due to thorny nature of plants, difficulty in fruit picking, annual pruning requirement and late harvesting varieties render the ‘ber’ orchards less remunerative and least preferred for new establishments. With proper management practices and intercropping of suitable agronomic crops, more profit can be fetched from ‘ber’ orchards, said Dr JS Brar, senior horticulturist, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).
Pruning of ‘ber’ trees
Regular annual pruning is essential to induce a good and healthy growth which will provide a maximum fruit bearing area on the tree as well as to improve fruit size and quality.
The best time for pruning of tree is middle of May. Pruning by heading back at 8 buds length of previous year’s growth gives higher yield and better quality fruits. Some thinning out of the branches of ‘ber’ trees is also necessary to avoid too much crowding so as to allow adequate sunlight and facilitate proper aeration, added Dr Brar.
After pruning in the month of May, ample space between pruned trees remains vacant till the end of August. During this period, intercropping of suitable agronomic crop can be done to fetch additional income.
Recently, the PAU has released a short duration groundnut variety TG 37A which become ready to harvest after 100-110 days of sowing.
Steps to improve fruit yield, quality
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