Cultivation of low Chilling Apple Varieties

Ajit Singh Naosekpam *

Low Chilling Apple variety (Anna) fruiting at trail location Lalambung Makhong, Naosekpam Leikai, Imphal Manipur

The apple tree (Malus pumila) originated in Central Asia around Turkey. It is a deciduous tree of the rose family and it is cultivated worldwide as a popular fruit tree. Apples have been cultivated in Asia and Europe for thousands of years, the tree was introduced in North America by European colonists.

Apples are a rich source of various phytochemicals including flavonoids (e.g., catechins, flavanols, and quercetin) and other phenolic compounds (e.g., epicatechin and procyanidins) found in the skin, core, and pulp of the apple. Certain phytochemicals in apples may also be preventive against the risk of some types of cancer.

Presently, there are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, with a wide range of fruit characteristics and climatic suitability. Apple cultivars are generally propagated by grafting onto favorable rootstocks, which determine the size of the tree. Apples grown from seedlings take around 10 years to fruit however, grafted apples fruit within 3-4 years.

Generally, for most apple varieties the chilling hours required are 500 to 1000 hr. below 7° C. There are relatively few varieties adapted to mild winter climates (chill hours below 500 hrs) like those in non-mountainous areas of Southern California.

Low chilling varieties are those apple varieties can be successfully cultivated in warm areas with around 200 hrs of chilling temperature (below 7 degrees Celsius). Some of the Low Chilling Apple varieties are Anna, Tropical Beauty, Early Fuji, Tamma, Neomi, Parlin's Beauty, Dorsett Golden etc.

A multi location trial was conducted to test the suitability of the following low chilling varieties:

Low Chilling Apple variety (Anna) fruiting at trail location Lalambung Makhong, Naosekpam Leikai, Imphal Manipur

Among all these location, the trial in Imphal, Manipur showed the best result in terms of fruit size, color and firmness. I personally feel that low chilling apple plantation has got good potential in Manipur.

Since Manipur is a hilly state, the low chilling varieties can be planted in all the districts on a trial basis and it can contribute a great deal in improving the socio-economic condition of Manipur. It can be mentioned that revenues from apple cultivation alone contributed to around Rs 3500 crores to the exchequer of Himachal Pradesh during the year 2016.