Best Quality Apple Plant

Apple (Malus pumila) is commercially the most important temperate fruit and is fourth among the most widely produced fruits in the world after banana, orange, and grape. China is the largest apple-producing country in the world.

Apple trees are generally produced by grafting (attaching a piece of an existing tree to a rootstock to form a new tree) or from seeds. One advantage of grafted trees they will bear fruit much more quickly than those grown from seed- with grafted trees.

Dry temperate areas are suitable for apple cultivation. The fruits produced in these areas are of high quality with high sugar content and long shelf life.

Best varieties according to elevation

Sr.No.	Elevation (meters)	Rootstocks	Varieties
1	Upto 1200	M7, MM 106 MM 111	Anna, Dorsett Golden, Michael Schlomit
2	1200 – 1800	M7, MM 106 MM 111 and Seedling rootstock	Scarlet Spur, Super Chief, Early Red One, Gala Gala
3	1800 – 2200	M7, MM 106 MM 111, Merton 793 and Seedling rootstock	Red Chief, Oregon Spur11, Vance Delicious, Gala Gala
4	2200 – 2400	M7, Merton 793 MM 111 and Seedling root – Rootstock	Royal Delicious, Top Red, Red Delicious, Golden

Commercially potential varieties recommended for cultivation

1. Apple:

Standard Varieties (Royal Delicious and Red Delicious) :

• Dominating standard Delicious variety
• Yield 100-120 kg /tree

2. Color Mutants :

Vance Delicious, Top Red, and Bright – N Early :

• Suitable for mid-elevation where color development is problem in standard varieties
• Yield 80-100kg/tree and color development 10-15 days earlier than other standard varieties

3. Spur Types :

Red Chief, Oregon Spur, Well Spur, and Silver Spur :

• 30-40 percent dwarf than standard varieties, regular, precocious, high yielding with better fruit color and quality.

4. New Promising pollinizer :

Golden Spur, Scarlet Gala, Red Fuji, and Crab apple :

• Prolonged flowering period, better synchronization with almost all commercial varieties, and having a high commercial value of fruits.

Preliminary observations on the performance revealed that apple varieties viz. Camspur in Delicious group Gala Mischala in Gala Group and Auvil Early Fuji and Sun Fuji in Fuji group have good yielding potential, earliness, and better quality in their respective groups under Mid-hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh.