All
About
PEACH
Importance:
Peach
(prunus persica) is the most important
among the stone fruit and is temperate in nature. It is considered
the native of China and probably developed in persia. It is
traditional crop of Northern area of Pakistan and occupies the area
of 4543 hectares with the production of 48284 tonnes. Quettea, Kalat,
Peshawar, Swat valley and certain parts of Kohistan hills are the
main growing area of peach. It is delicious in taste and
attractive in flavour and aroma. It contains 10-14. percent
sugar, 2 percent protein and rich in ascorbic acid. Vitamins A and B
besides iron, phosphorus and calcium.
Varieties:
Cling
and free stone are two important cultivated type of peaches produced
worldwide. In Pakistan
peach are mainly grown in NWFP, Baluchistan
and some low chill and early maturing cultivars in Pothwar
area of Punjab. In Peshawer Swat region Early grand, Florda King 6-A
and 8-A are most popular cultivars. Whereas in Baluchistan Golden
early, Shah pasand and Shireen are grown.
Production
Techniques:
Soil
And Climate:
Peaches
can grow on a wide
range of soil, depending upon the rootstock used. With light sandy
loam soil, they can be
budded on peach seedlings. If the soil is heavy and moist, plum
rootstock is most suitable. In general, rich well drained, loamy
soils with deep subsoil are most suitable. The peach tree is not
tolerant of wet conditions. Peaches has widely variable chilling
requirements from 200
hours below 5oC for low chilling varieties to more than
1000 hours. Peach orchard are located at from 600-1500 meter
elevation. For good flavour and better quality peaches, mild summer
temperature of 27-30 oC are required.
Propagation
And Rootstock:
Peshawar
local peach seedlings are the ideal rootstock for peach propagation.
In Pakistan at NARC the peach rootstock GF677 have given the
encouraging results for yield and quality of fruit. T-budding is
successfully practiced on one year old rootstock during summer and
cleft grafting is done during late winter. Vegetatively produced
plants of commercial varieties are planted during early spring
before sprouting. The square system is used with
planting distance of 7-8 m depending upon soil type,
rootstock and variety.
Cultural
Practices:
The
orchard is kept covered or clean cultivated depending upon the site
and other location conditions. In the Murree hills at lower
height where peaches can be cultivated, orchard are kept
clean during dry period (April-June), while weeds and grasses are
allowed to grow during
the rainy season (August-July) to conserve the soil.
In Peshawer, where the finest peaches are grown, non-bearing
orchards are inter-cropped with vegetables and while bearing orchard
are kept clean. Peach orchard must be regularly irrigated to obtain
optimum yield, adequate water is particularly necessary during pit
hardening and fruit maturing stages. A deficiency in irrigation
during the growing season will result in reduced fruit size.
Excursive irrigation on the other hand may cause collar rot (phythora
spp) disease.
Fertilization:
Peaches
respond well to N and K under most conditions and have higher
requirements of these two elements even
than apple. An average sized bearing peach tree is supplied
with 60-80 kg F.Y. M annually depending upon the type of soil, yield
and vigour of the tree. The manure
is applied during the late autumn
when the trees are dormant. For chemical fertilizer in Peshawer
region the general recommendation is 2-4 kg
ammonium sulphate per tree. This fertilizer should be applied
into equal doses. First in early spring them after fruit setting in
April.
Pruning:
Peach
trees are generally trained according to open Centre or modified
centre leader system. Which gives them strong frame. Annual pruning
of bearing tree is essential for peaches as it is related to their
typical bearing habit. Peaches bear laterally on previous year
growth. Pruning is also necessary to get new shoots on this wood for
the following years crop.
Production
Constraints:
-
Peach tree
encounter certain production constants which can be easily over
come with proper management.
-
Peach trees are
quite sensitive to wet soil due to collar rot. Arrangement for
proper drainage of excessive water should be made before
plantation.
-
The tree should
be sprayed annually with Dimecron or K aratey or symecidon
against peach leaf curle that is mainly due to green aphid.
-
To protect the
fruit from fruitfly diptrex or Basodine should be used before
maturation of fruits.
-
In addition to
these pesticides, picking should not be deayed after fruit
maturity to avoid the fruit softening and
bruising.
Source: Pakistan
Agriculture Research Council |