Morphological characters and Flowering:

•Apple plant is deciduous without spiny branches.

• Buds are ovoid with imbricate scales, leaves are serrate or lobed, folded in
bud and stipulate.
•Floral buds are mixed buds borne terminally on spurs and terminally or
laterally on long shoot, depending upon the cultivar, age and vigour of tree.
•The initiation of flower primordia starts about 3-6 weeks after full bloom (June).
•The inflorescence is determinate having five flowers. Flowers white or pink or
carmine in cymes.
• Flower of most cultivars are epigynous and hermaphrodite.
• Flower consists of five petals, five sepals,15-20 stamens and a pistil which is
divided into five carpals each containing two ovules.
• Ovary is inferior.

Fig. 1 Different stages of flowering

Pollination and Pollinizers:
•Most of apple varieties are self unfruitful and require some compatible cutivars
for cross pollination and good fruit set.
•Inadequate fruit set often results from a failure during the pollination period,
which is associated with pollen production, transfer and germination, pollen
tube development or fertility of the ovule.
• Sterility and incompatibility are two main causes of unfruitfulness in apple
•Low temperature, rainfall and cloudy

•The cross pollination and fruit set in apple can be improved by planting atleast
25 to 33 per cent of pollinizers,
• placement of 5 to 6 honey bees colonies per hectare,
•top working of 2-4 shoots of commercial varieties with
pollinizers.
• placement of bouquets.

•Fig. 2.Non synchronization of flowering of main and pollinizer

cultivars due to insufficient winter chilling
 O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
O X O O X O O X O O
Fig. 5. 33 per cent pollinizer ( Every third row is a pollinizer variety)
O = Commercial variety
X =Pollinizer varieties

Hand pollination Fig.7.Bouquet placement

Fig. 8.Top working Fig. 9.Placement of bee hive

Manure and fertilizers
•The manure and fertilizer requirement depend upon the soil
fertility, age of tree, cultural practices and crop load.

•To judge the actual nutrient requirement, the leaf and soil
analysis should be done to know the status of nutrients in the tree
and soil.
•In the orchard of optimal fertility, nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium is applied in the ratio of 70:35:70 g per year age of
apple tree and doses of these NPK fertilizers are stabilized at the
age of 10 years .
• For ten or more than ten year- apple tree, 100 kg FYM, 700 g N,
350 g P2O5 and 700 g K2O should be given annually.
Table 1: Recommended fertilizers schedule for apple in Himachal
Pradesh
Age of the FYM N CAN P2 O5 SSP O
MOP
tree(year) (kg) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g)

1 10 70 280 35 220 70 115

2 20 140 560 70 440 140 230
3 30 210 840 195 660 210 350
4 40 280 1120 140 880 280 470
5 50 350 1400 175 1100 350 585
6 60 420 1680 210 1320 420 700
7 70 500 1960 245 1540 500 820
8 80 560 2240 280 1760 560 935
9 90 630 2520 315 1980 630 1050
10 and above 100 700 2800 350 2000 700 1170
Off year 100 500 2000 250 1560 400 670
Time and method of application
•FYM along with full dose of P2O5 and K2O is applied during December-
January.
• Nitrogen is applied in two split doses. Half dose of N is applied one month
before flowering (March) and remaining half dose one month after fruit set.
•Fertilizers should be broadcasted in tree basins 30 cm away from the trunk.

•However, in very steep slopes and heavy rainfall areas band application of
fertilizers is recommended to avoid leaching and run off losses of fertilizers.

•For higher fertilizer use efficiency, soluble fertilizers can also be applied
through drip irrigation.
Foliar application of nutrients
•The micro-nutrients particularly boron, zinc, iron and manganese are essential
for normal growth of plant and their deficiency is frequently observed in apple.
• It can be corrected by two foliar sprays of ZnSO4 (0.5%) and boric acid
(0.01%) before flowering and in May-June.
Orchard floor and weed management
•Clean basin management system.
• The basin of trees are kept clean and free from weeds either by hand
weeding, use of mulches and weedicides.
• In the initial years of plantation, the intercrops like peas, beans, cabbage,
cauliflower and ginger.
•Green manuring crops like bean, peas and gram
• In bearing orchard, mulching of basin area of trees with 10 cm thick layers
of hay or black alkathene.
• Sod grasses like white clover, red clover, orchard grass and rye grass are
grown in the vacant area between the trees.
•. Spray of simazine at the rate of 4 kg/ha in March, followed by two sprays of
glyphosate @ 800 ml/ha at monthly intervals in July and August.

Fig. 10. Mulching of tree basin with black alkathene and hay
Irrigation
•The cultivation of apple in India is mainly in hilly areas, where
land is sloppy and water for irrigation is also inadequate, rainfall is
also very less.
•The most critical periods of water requirement is April to July,
when flowering, fruit set , fruit growth and development occurs.

•The rain water should be harvested and collected in water

storage tanks and used for irrigation particularly during critical
periods of water requirement.
•Drip irrigation method saves more than 50 per cent irrigation
water and can be adopted in water scarce areas.
• About 6-8 irrigations at 7-10 days interval should be given during
April to July in Apple.
• Besides irrigation, tree basins should be mulched with hay or
Fruit Thinning
•Heavy bearing in apple during on year, results in small
sized and poor quality fruits. Therefore, judicious
thinning at proper stage of fruit development (pea stage)
is must to regulate cropping and improving fruit size and
quality.

•The thinning can be achieved either manually or with

the use of growth regulators.

•Removal of fruit lets by hand thinning is very laborious

and uneconomical.
•Chemical thinning with foliar spray of 20 ppm
Nepthalene acetic acid (NAA)at petal fall.
Fruit Drop
•Apple bloom profusely, but a small percentage of flower will mature into fruit.
• Most of the flowers fall soon after full boom with small amount dropping later.
• In most of the commercial varieties 40 to 60 per cent fruit drop occurs.
• (1) Early Drop is a natural and occurs due to lack of pollination after petal fall
to three weeks later. This drop can be controlled by assuring effective
pollination and placement of bee hives and planting of more pollinizer varieties
in the orchard.
• (2) June Drop is a major drop which is caused by moisture stress. This drop
can be controlled with the application of irrigation water and mulching of tree
basins.
• (3) Pre-Harvest Drop occurs before harvesting of fruits and caused economic
loss to farmers, which is due to reduction in levels of auxins and increase in
ethylene in the fruit. Application of 10 ppm NAA 20-25 days before harvest
checks this drop.
Use of growth regulators:
1.Plant propagation: GA3 at 100-200 ppm can overcome the physiological dormancy
and stimulate germination in seeds. Application of IBA at 2000 ppm and NAA @200
ppm helps in rooting in cuttings of clonal rootstocks.

2.Effect on growth: Foliar spray of PP333 @ 500 to 1000 ppm reduces the
vegetative growth of apple trees. Application of 250 ppm GA3 stimulate the vegetative
growth but also enhances alternate bearing phenomenon.

3.Effect on fruit set and yield. Application of triacontanol (20 ppm), miraculan (0.6
ml/L), Paras 0.6 ml/L or Biozyme at 2ml/ L sprayed at bud swell and petal fall stages
helps in improving fruit set and yield in Delicious apple.

4.Fruit drop:. The pre-harvest is controlled with the application of 10 ppm NAA, (1 ml
of Planofix in 4.5 L of water) one week before the expected fruit drop.

5.Fruit thinning: The application of 10-20 ppm NAA, 7-15 days after petal fall is most
effective for fruit thinning .

6.Improvement of fruit shape: Application of promalin 30-60 ppm (GA3+7 + cytokinin)

at pea stage helps to improves the shape of the apple fruits.

7.Improvement of fruit colour and maturity: Application of ethrel (2- chloro ethyl
phosphonic acid) @ 1200 ppm a..i. or 4.5 ml ethrel/ litre of water + 25 ppm NAA
Maturity indices and Harvesting
• Apple is a climacteric fruit in which the maturity of fruit does not coincide with ripening.
•The fruits do not attain ripe edible quality on the tree at harvest
•The maturity indices like days from full bloom to harvest, change of ground colour of
fruit from green to yellow to pale, TSS of fruit pulp, ease of separation of fruit from spur,
change of seed colour to light brown and fruit firmness are used singly or in
combination.
•The entire fruit does not attain full colour and mature on the tree at one time, therefore,
fruits should be picked in 2-3 pickings.
• Harvesting of fruit is done in such a way that bruising and stem puncture are avoided
and pedicel must retain with fruit.
•Picked fruits are placed softly in the picking bag or basket and transported to packing
houses for grading and packing.
Table 2. Maturity indices for important varieties of apple

Fruit Variety DFFB Firmness TSS (%)

(Days) (kg/cm2)

Apple Tydeman’s Early 90 ± 4 7.8 ± 0.15 12.0-13.0

Worcester
Starking Delicious 120 ± 5 8.2 ± .4 13.0-15.0

Red Chief 110±5 8.5± .4 14.0-15.0

Red Delicious 134±5 8.5± .4 13.0-14.0

Golden Delicious 148±5 8.4± .4 12.0-14.5

Granny Smith 180± 5 8.4± .4 13.0-14.0

Grading:-
The fruits are graded according to fruit size and fruit appearance like colour and
shape. On the basis of size, the apple fruits are graded manually or by mechanical
grades as:
•On the bases of fruit colour shape, quality and appearance fruits are graded as
AAA, AA, and A.
•The quality of fruits during transportation, storage and marketing are influenced by
the packing. Usually, apples are packed in telescopic corrugated fibre board (CFB)
cartons.
•The usual dimensions of telescopic CFB carton with trays are 50.4 x 30.3 x 28.2 cm
(outer jacket) 50 x 30 x 28.2 cm (inner case).
• The each layer of fruit in carton is separated by a fruit trays which are different for
different size grades.
Table 3. Size grades of apple

Grade Fruit diameter (mm)

Super Large 85 ± 2.5
Extra Large 80 ± 2.5
Large 75 ± 2.5
Medium 70 ± 2.5
Small 65 ± 2.5
Extra Small 60 ± 2.5
Pittoo 55 ± 2.5