Apple. (Pyrus malus L.). Apple occupies nearly 12,141 hectares, mostly in temperate regions of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir and to a small extent in the Nilgiris.

VARIETIES.   Apple varieties fall into two categories : diploids and triploids. Diploids have plenty of good pollen and are self-fruitful. Triploids are self-unfruitful and become productive only when pollinated by using suitable pollenizer varieties. Even self-fruitful varieties have to be interplanted to get commercial crops through cross-pollination. Varieties selected for interplanting should sufficiently overlap in their blossoming periods. Important varieties are listed below :
Himachal Pradesh. 'Red Delicious', 'Golden Delicious', 'Worester Pearmain', 'Newton Wonder' (all diploids), 'Cox's Orange Pippen' (triploid), 'King of Pippens' (No. 13), 'Starking (Royal) Delicious' and 'Richard'.
Kashmir Valley. 'Red Delicious' (diploid), 'Baldwin' (triploid), 'Ambri Kashmiri', 'White Dotted Red' and 'Blood Red'.
Simla Hills. 'Beauty of Bath' (triploid), 'Red Delicious', 'Jonathon', 'Rome Beauty' (all diploids), 'Early Shanburry', 'Red Astrachan', 'Red Sudeley', 'Stayman Winesap', 'Winter Banana' and 'Yellow Newton'.
Kumaon Hills. 'James Grieve', 'Jonathon', 'Rome Beauty' (all diploids), 'Blenheim Orange Pippen', 'Delicious', 'Early Shanburry', 'Golden Pippen', 'King of Pippens', 'Rhymer' and 'Winter Banana'.
Kulu Valley. 'Ben Davis', 'Red Delicious', 'Golden Delicious' (all diploids), 'Cox's Orange Tippen', 'Blenheim Orange', 'Baldwin' (all triploids), 'Red Astrachan', 'King of Pippens', 'Yellow Newton' and 'Granny Smith'.
Nilgiri. 'Rome Beauty' (diploid) and 'Irish Peach'.

PROPAGATION AND PLANTING.   Propagated mainly by shield-budding, bench-grafting and tongue-grafting on seedlings raised from seed. Use M. IX dwarfing stock and 7.5 to 9 metres if on seedling stock. Standardized clonal rootstocks of the Malling-Merton series are recommended where woolly aphis is serious.

Apricot. (Prunus armeniaca L.)

VARIETIES.   The cultivated varieties of apricot are mainly exotic and they grow successfully at varying elevations. The following varieties are recommended : 'Shipley Early', 'Kaisha', 'New Castle', 'St. Ambroise', and 'Royal'. All these varieties are self-fruitful.

PROPAGATION AND PLANTING.   Apricot is propagated by shield-budding on wild apricot stock, i.e. zardalu. Peach stock may also be used. Plant one-year-old grafts in autumn 6 to 7.5 metres apart.

PRUNING.   Apricot grafts usually have numerous lateral branches unlike the straight whips of apple, pear and cherry. If the laterals developed in the nursery are not properly spaced, cut off the main stem while planting, about 50 to 75 cm above the ground level to promote the growth of new laterals. During the first summer, remove all unwanted laterals, leaving three to five well-placed branches to form the framework. Head-back the scaffold branches breast-high next winter to get secondary scaffold branches. Leave the upper branches longer than the lower ones, as the latter grow faster and crowd out the upper branches. By the end of the second growing season, the tree produces a large number of laterals on the scaffold branches and trunk, which should all be removed, except a few short growths (7 cm to 12 cm long) on the trunk and the main branches. Retain only five to seven secondary scaffolds. In subsequent years, thin only the branches which are either crossing or crowding one another. This practice admits light into the centre and encourages the growth of spurs.

The pruning of old trees should aim at producing new spurs to replace those broken during picking. The kind and the amount of pruning depend upon the bearing habit of the variety. Light to moderate thinning of branches and the shortening of new wood back to the laterals is the usual practice. If new growth is less than 40 to 80 cm each year, resort to severe pruning.

MANURING.   Follow instructions given for manuring peach.

THINNING OF FRUITS.   Thin the fruits 4 to 8 cm apart, leaving not more than two to three fruits on each spur.

HARVESTING.   The fruit should be picked when it is still hard, but has attained the proper colour. For drying, the fruit is harvested by hand-picking when it is fully ripe.

Cherry. Cherries (Prunus avium L.) are of two types : sweet used for desert, and sour used for cooking, grown mainly in the Simla Hills, the Kulu Valley and Kashmir at elevations above 1,500 metres.

VARIETIES. Selected varieties of proven merit are : 'Early Rivers', 'Governor Wood', 'Bigarreau de Schreken', 'Elton','Bedford Prolific', 'White Bigarreau', 'Monstrueuse de Mezel', 'Bigarreau Napoleaon', 'Emperor Frencis' and 'Late Black Bigarreau'. It is desirable to choose varieties that will ripen in succession in order to obtain the crops over a longer period.

A large number of varieties are self-unfruitful and do not set fruits with their own pollen. As they are also cross-incompatible, only the compatible varieties, whose period of flowering overlaps to effect cross-pollination, should be interplanted to get commercial crops.

PROPAGATION AND PLANTING.   The plants are propagated by whip or tongue grafting on seedlings of wild cherry stock, called paja. Grafts are ready for transplanting in two years. Sometimes, the rootstock plants are planted in permanent positions in the orchard and grafted in situ.

As cherry-trees are generally affected by frost, the site selected for planting should be such that the sun reaches the trees gradually. The distance between the trees varies from 9 to 12 metres, depending upon the variety. The trees should be properly staked after planting.

MANURING.   Cherry orchards are best put under grass which is grazed by sheep. In addition to sheep manure, phosphate manures are applied to obtain a good growth of clovers. A dressing of fertilizers to supply 75 to 100 kg of N, 55 to 90 kg of P₂O₅ and 110 to 165 kg of K₂O per hectare may be recommended.

Peach. The area under peach (Prunus persica (L.) Stokes) is very small and is mainly located in the Himalayas at various elevations.

VARIETIES.   Some of the promising varieties are 'Early Beatrice', 'Alexander', 'Early Rivers', 'Duke of York', 'Peregrime', 'Noblesse', 'Late Devonian', 'Elberta', 'J.H. Hale', and 'Triumph'. Except 'J.H. Hale', all other varieties are self-fruitful and set good crops without cross-pollination.

PROPAGATION AND PLANTING.   Propagation is done by budding on seedling peach. One-year-old grafts are planted 6 to 8 metres apart in early spring. Immediately after planting, the trees are white-washed to protect the bark from the sun.

PRUNING.   At the time of planting, the stem is cut to about 0.6 metre from the ground and three to four branches are allowed to develop, distributed round the main stem. All other shoots that grow during the first summer are removed. During the first dormant season, two well-spaced secondary branches on each main branch are selected and the main branch is cut close t the secondary branches. During the second summer, water-sprouts, if any are removed. At the time of second pruning in winter, secondary branches are not cut, except to regulate the shape of the tree. In pruning, cut always to the outside buds to encourage a spreading shape.

In the case of bearing trees, annual pruning is necessary to maintain the centre open. Two- to three-year-old branches may be cut back to the outward-pointing side branches to encourage a spreading growth. Shorten and thin outside branches to stimulate the growth of new fruiting wood every year. A satisfactory annual growth should be 45 to 50 cm long.

Fruit-buds are borne laterally upon one-year-old wood and on short spur-like twigs. Ordinarily, they develop two fruit-buds and a leaf-bud at one node. The fruit-buds are usually located from the middle of the shoot upwards. In cutting away branches, the position of the fruit-buds should be taken into consideration.

CULTURE.   A peach orchard should be regularly cultivated. Ploughing, which should not be deeper than 10 cm, is generally done in winter. A suitable cover or green-manure crop may be sown in the rainy season after the fruits are picked and ploughed-under during winter. A dose of fertilizers to supply 55 to 65 kg of N, 55 to 65 kg of P and 110 to 135 kg of K per hectare may be applied to the bearing trees in spring. Immediately after the natural fruit-drop in May and June, the fruits should be thinned out so as to have them 10 to 15 cm apart.

HARVESTING AND MARKETING.   Peaches are picked when they are still hard, as they can ripen well during storage or in transit.