Peach Growing in Punjab

摘要

PEACH is a native of South China. The wild trees of peach with small edible fruits are found growing in large numbers in the Himalayan region of India. The introduction of the cultivated varieties took place somewhere in the latter half of the 19th century alongwith those of apple and other pome and stone fruits, Of the temperate fruits, peach is probably the most adopted fruit crop to the warmest climate. In India it is being grown in HP, J & K, UP, North Eastern States and also some parts in SouthIndia. la Punjab peach occupies an area of about 2800 hectares. It is mainly concentrated in the districts of Arnntsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana. Earlier varieties like Sharbati, Sharbati Red, Chakli, Khurinaui, Matchless, Ranjtt BaghEarly and Sufeda were grown but now the varietal situation has changed altogether owing to introduction of varieties like Fiordasun and Shan-i-Punjab. The bulk of area in Punjab is now covered by these two varieties. More recently a new variety uf peachknowa as TA-170 (Partap) has been released by the Punjab Agricultural University for commercial cultivation in the State. This variety is earliest ripening, yield efficient and have excellent shipping quality and can be sent to distant markets without any spoilage. The fruits of TA-170 (Partap), and medium to large in size, skin with Attractive red blush with setni free stone. This variety ripens in the 3rd week of April i.e. one week earlier than Plordasun which ripens in the fourth week of April. Moreover, the fruits of this variety become available when other fruits are scarce in the market. Another important merit of this variety is that its fruits remain free from the attack of fruitily which is major insect attacking this crop.