Apple

Botanical Name :- Malus domestica

Family :- Rosaceae

Origin :- Asia minor to Western Himalayas

Flower color :- White to pink

• Apple is most widely grown temperate fruit in the world.
• Apple is typical temperate fruit.
• Himachal Pradesh is known as "Apple bowel of India".
• Optimum temperature for pollen germination and fruit setting is 21.1 - 26.7 °C.
• Cider-fermented wine prepared from apple.
• Average summer temperature should be around 21 - 24 °C during active growth period.
• Most critical period of water requirement :- April - August
• Thomas Andrew Knight produced the first apple cultivar.
• Pruning in apple is essential to maintain balance between vegetation growth and spur development.

Seedling :-

• Crab apple :- Malus baccata (Most commonly used root-stock in India)
• Liberty verity of apple is resistance to all fungal disease.
• Almost all varieties have a chilling requirement of 1000 hour's at or below 7.2 °C temperature.
• In India 11 - 33 % pollinizing trees are recommended for regular cropping.

Early fruit drop :-

           Due to lack of pollination and competition.

June drop :-

           Due to moisture stress and environmental conditions.

Pre-harvest drop :-

           Due to development of Abscission layer formation of ethylene.

Clonal Varieties:-

1. M-9 :- Dwarf variety suitable for high density planting
2. Merton-793 :- Vigorous woolly aphid resistance
3. MM-104 :- Most winter hardy clonal root-stock
4. M-27 :- Ultra-dwarf

Varieties :-

1. Early :- Tydeman early, Irish peach, Benoni, Fenny
2. Mid :- Red delicious, Richared, Top red
3. Late :- Yellow newton, Winter banana, Granny smith

Hybrid Variety :-

No.	Hybrid Varieties	Parents Varieties
1.	Lal Ambri	Red Delicious × Ambri
2.	Amb Red	Red Delicious × Ambri
3.	Ambri Starking	Starking Delicious × Ambri
4.	Amrich	Rich-A-Red × Ambri
5.	Sunheri	Ambri × Golden Delicious

• Delicious group of varieties are self-incompatible and cross pollinated.
• Red delicious is most popular variety of India.
• Seeds stratification at 4 - 7 °C for 60 - 90 days.