Temperature plays an important role in the life of a fruit plant. The ultimate size which a plant would attain, and also the annual growth, to a large extent depend upon the favourable temperature during growing season. The prevailing temperature during winter also affects the fruit plants in many ways. Low temperature causes dormancy in most fruit plants providing them with needed rest so that they can flower and fruit abundantly in the coming spring or summer season. For example, peach, plum andalmond trees need a few hundred hours of cold temperature to break their rest period under Punjab conditions. This helps in proper flowering and fruiting of these trees. The Punjab is situated in the sub-tropical zone where the temperature during winterfalls close to 0 deg C on many occasions. Sometimes the temperature falls even below 0 deg C which is injurious to fruit plants; such as mango and papaya. It may injure some citrus species, guava and Litchi also. The extent of frost damage to the plantsdepends upon many factors such as degree of low temperature, the rate of fall of the temperature and duration of such cold spell, etc.; which are beyond the control of fruit growers. However, the orchardists can prevent cold injury to the plants by adopting protection measures detailed below.
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