Apple (Seb) Farming in India: Planting to Harvest

Overview

Apple (Malus domestica) is a deciduous temperate fruit tree of the family Rosaceae, and it is the single most commercially valuable temperate fruit grown in India — the country produces roughly 2.3–2.5 million tonnes annually, making it one of the world's larger apple producers even though its entire crop comes from a narrow, high-altitude Himalayan belt rather than the vast lowland orchards that dominate production in China, the USA or Europe. Jammu & Kashmir's Kashmir valley districts — Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Kulgam and Bandipora — account for roughly 75% of national output and anchor a cold-chain and trade network that ships Kashmir apples nationwide. Himachal Pradesh's Shimla, Kullu and Kinnaur districts produce most of the remainder, with Uttarakhand's higher hill tracts (Pithoragarh, Chamoli) and Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang belt contributing modest volumes.

The Indian apple crop is overwhelmingly dominated by Red Delicious — the original Red Delicious, its Royal Delicious sport (a higher-colour mutation that has become essentially the standard commercial variety in Kashmir today), and other sports such as Super Chief, Starking and Red Chief. Golden Delicious is grown as a pollinizer and for cooking, and Ambri (the only truly indigenous Kashmir variety, with a distinctive flat shape and aromatic flesh) has a loyal local following but lower commercial acreage. A handful of SKUAST-Kashmir releases — Firdous (1996), Shireen and Akbar — carry genuine scab resistance and represent the most important long-term breeding direction for Indian apple, though adoption remains slow. HRMN-99, a low-chill genotype that fruits in the plains, is a genuine innovation but a niche crop rather than a mainstream one.

Apple scab (Venturia inaequalis) is the defining disease of Indian apple production: a fungus that overwinters in fallen leaf litter and releases airborne ascospores in spring, causing olive-black velvety spots on leaves and scabby, cracked lesions on fruit that make it unsellable. The spray programme from green-tip (when the first green tissue appears in the bud) through petal-fall and into the cover-spray period typically runs 8–12 fungicide applications per season, and it is the backbone of commercial apple production wherever scab-susceptible varieties are planted — which, in India, is almost everywhere. Powdery mildew, fire blight and premature leaf fall (Marssonina) are additional disease concerns, while aphids, red spider mite, woolly apple aphid and codling moth are the main pest pressures through the season.

Crop timeline, sowing to harvest

A quick visual map of the season — jump to any section below for the detail behind each stage.

Year 0
Planting
Certified grafted saplings on a chosen rootstock (M9, MM106 or MM111) are planted in the dormant season (December–February) in prepared, well-drained pits at the right altitude for genuine winter chilling.
Year 1–3
Establishment
The young tree is trained to an open-centre or modified-central-leader shape; no commercial fruit is expected while the framework builds and the graft union strengthens.
Year 3–6
First bearing
A grafted tree on M9 dwarf rootstock may bear a light first crop in year 3–4; on the more vigorous MM111 it takes 5–6 years. A seedling tree takes 8–12 years.
Year 8–10 onward
Full commercial bearing
The orchard reaches peak production and continues for 30–40 years with proper care, regular pruning and annual scab-spray management.
Mar–Apr (annual)
Flowering
Pink buds open into white-to-pink blossoms; honeybee cross-pollination between compatible varieties is essential for a good fruit set.
May–Aug (annual)
Fruit development
Fruitlets thin naturally (June drop) and swell through summer; this is the cover-spray window for scab and the period when codling moth, aphids and mites need watching.
Aug–Oct (annual)
Harvest
Fruit is hand-picked in stages (2–3 pickings) as it colours and sweetens; harvest timing varies from August (Gala, early varieties) through September–October (Red Delicious, Ambri).

Suitable states

States where this crop is grown at scale, highlighted below. Your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra is still the final word for your specific block.

Jammu and Kashmir
Himachal Pradesh
Punjab
Uttarakhand
Haryana
Delhi
Uttar Pradesh
Rajasthan
Bihar
Jharkhand
West Bengal
Sikkim
Assam
Arunachal Pradesh
Meghalaya
Nagaland
Manipur
Mizoram
Tripura
Gujarat
Madhya Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Maharashtra
Odisha
Goa
Telangana
Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Puducherry
Ladakh
Chandigarh
Lakshadweep

Grown here

Climate requirements

In India, altitude is the main determinant of whether apple can be grown commercially: the 1,500–2,700 m belt across Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh delivers the chilling the tree needs, while the plains simply cannot, regardless of soil or summer warmth. HRMN-99 is the one genuine exception — a low-chill genotype that fruits at much lower altitudes.

Ideal temperature
A genuinely temperate tree needing a real winter chill — roughly 800–1,200 hours below 7°C, varying by variety — to break dormancy and set a commercial crop; India's apple belt sits at roughly 1,500–2,700 m altitude to deliver this chilling, which is why the crop is confined to Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and a few other high-altitude tracts
Rainfall
Moderate, well-distributed rainfall through the growing season suits the tree, but wet weather at bud-break and flowering is the critical risk window for apple scab — every wet spring day during this period is a potential infection event
Humidity
Lower humidity at flowering helps reduce scab and powdery mildew pressure; dense, humid canopies that dry slowly after rain create ideal conditions for both diseases
Sunlight
Full sun for good fruit colour, sugar accumulation and overall tree health — apple is not shade-tolerant

Soil requirements

On dwarfing rootstocks (M9), the shallow root system makes drainage even more critical than on vigorous rootstocks — a site that drains well enough for a seedling apple on its own roots may still be too wet for a high-density M9 planting.

Suitable soil
Deep, well-drained loamy soil is ideal; apple tolerates a range from sandy loam to clay loam as long as drainage is good, but does not tolerate waterlogged or heavy clay ground
pH range
5.5–6.5 (slightly acidic); many Himalayan orchard soils fall naturally in this range
Drainage
Good drainage is essential — waterlogging predisposes the root system to crown and root rots, especially on dwarfing rootstocks like M9 that have a relatively shallow root system
Organic matter
Responds well to farmyard manure and compost worked into the planting pit and applied annually as a mulch around the tree; organic matter helps maintain the slightly acidic pH the tree prefers

Land preparation

Same four steps whichever region you are in — only the timing shifts with the sowing window.

1
Choose a site with genuine winter chilling at the right altitude
Confirm the site delivers roughly 800–1,200 hours below 7°C (at 1,500–2,700 m in Kashmir/Himachal Pradesh) and has good natural drainage and air circulation — cold-air pockets that pool frost at flowering are a real risk to avoid.
2
Choose a rootstock and planting system before ordering saplings
M9 dwarf rootstock suits high-density planting (1,000–1,500 trees/acre at 3.5 × 1.5 m) with trellis support, gives very early bearing but needs irrigation and staking. MM106 is semi-dwarfing and more forgiving. MM111 is vigorous, deep-rooted and drought-tolerant but takes longer to bear. The rootstock choice drives the entire orchard design.
3
Plan for cross-pollination from the start
Apple requires cross-pollination between compatible varieties — a block of Red Delicious alone, without a pollinizer variety and honeybee hives at flowering, will set very poorly. Plant every third or fourth row with a compatible pollinizer (Golden Delicious is the most commonly used), and arrange for honeybee colonies at bloom.

Seed information

How the main varieties compare, so you can pick by duration, yield, disease pressure or what you are growing for.

Variety	Duration	Yield	Disease resistance	Best state	Suitable for
Red Delicious The original American variety that still anchors Indian apple production — dark-red, five-bumped fruit with mild, sweet flesh. Its sports (Royal Delicious, Super Chief, Starking, Red Chief) offer higher colour but the same basic genetics.	4–6 years to first bearing (grafted)	High (the commercial standard)	No scab resistance — completely dependent on the full spray programme	Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh	General commercial planting across the established apple belt
Royal Delicious A higher-colour sport of Red Delicious that has become essentially the standard commercial variety in Kashmir today — better colour development than the parent, with the same shape, size and eating quality.	4–6 years to first bearing (grafted)	High (the dominant commercial variety)	No scab resistance	Jammu and Kashmir	The dominant variety in Kashmir's commercial orchards
Golden Delicious A yellow-skinned variety valued both as a pollinizer for Red Delicious blocks and as a dual-purpose (eating + cooking) variety in its own right. Its bloom timing overlaps well with Red Delicious.	4–5 years to first bearing (grafted)	Good	Somewhat less scab-susceptible than Red Delicious, but still needs the spray programme	Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh	Pollinizer rows and dual-purpose planting
Ambri The only truly indigenous Kashmir variety — flat-shaped, aromatic, with a distinctive flavour Kashmiris prize. Lower commercial acreage than Delicious sports, but culturally important and increasingly valued as a heritage variety.	6–8 years to first bearing (grafted, typically vigorous)	Moderate	Not specifically documented as resistant	Jammu and Kashmir	Heritage orchards, local premium market, niche export
Firdous A SKUAST-Kashmir release (1996) carrying genuine scab resistance (Vf gene) — the most important scab-resistant Indian apple variety, drastically reducing spray dependence. Medium-large, red-blushed fruit with good eating quality.	4–5 years to first bearing (grafted)	Good	Scab-resistant (Vf gene) — the key advantage	Jammu and Kashmir	New plantings where scab is severe and reducing spray dependence is a priority
HRMN-99 A low-chill genotype discovered by Hariman Sharma in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh at only ~1,000 m altitude. Fruits in plains and subtropical conditions where no conventional variety can — a genuine innovation, though fruit quality and size are below the premium high-altitude crop.	3–4 years to first bearing (grafted)	Moderate — smaller fruit than high-altitude varieties	Not specifically documented	Himachal Pradesh (lower hills), experimental in plains states	Low-altitude and plains-area orchards where conventional apple is impossible
Gala An internationally popular, early-maturing variety with a sweet, mild flavour and bi-coloured (orange-red on yellow) skin. Being tested and increasingly planted in both Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh as a premium early-season alternative to Delicious.	3–5 years to first bearing (grafted, often on dwarfing rootstock)	Good — early harvest commands a premium	Not specifically scab-resistant	Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh	Early-season premium market; modern high-density orchards

Seed rate: Not a seed crop — certified grafted saplings on a chosen rootstock, planted at 200–500 trees/acre in a traditional system (8 × 4 m to 6 × 3 m) or 1,000–1,500 trees/acre in a high-density M9-trellis system (3.5 × 1.5 m)
Certified seed: Source certified, virus-tested grafted saplings on a named rootstock from a government or accredited nursery — the rootstock determines tree size, bearing age and management requirements, so it is as important as the scion variety. Verify the graft union is clean, the rootstock matches what was ordered, and the nursery can document its virus-indexing.
Spacing: 8 × 4 m (traditional, ~125 trees/acre) through 6 × 3 m (~220 trees/acre) to 3.5 × 1.5 m high-density on M9 with trellis (~1,000+ trees/acre)
Seed treatment: Not a seed crop — inspect the graft union, confirm rootstock identity and virus-free status before planting.

Sowing guide

Burying the graft union is one of the most common planting mistakes — it allows the scion to root into the soil, bypassing the rootstock's dwarfing control and producing a tree that behaves like a vigorous seedling rather than a managed, early-bearing grafted tree.

Best time: Plant certified grafted saplings in the dormant season (December–February) while the tree is fully dormant, so roots begin establishing before spring growth
Row spacing: 8 m traditional; 6 m semi-intensive; 3.5 m high-density (M9 trellis)
Plant spacing: 4 m traditional; 3 m semi-intensive; 1.5 m high-density (M9 trellis)
Sowing depth: Set the graft union above the soil line (roughly 10–15 cm above ground) — burying the graft union defeats the rootstock's size-controlling effect
Method: Plant into prepared pits (60 × 60 × 60 cm minimum) filled with topsoil mixed with well-rotted FYM; stake dwarf trees, install trellis for high-density M9 plantings, and give a basin irrigation immediately after planting

Fertilizer schedule

A split dose beats one large dose applied at sowing — nitrogen especially is lost to the air and to leaching if it all goes in on day one.

1
Young trees (Year 1–3)
Split through the growing season
A moderate, balanced NPK dose to support frame-building without pushing excessive vegetative growth at the expense of early fruiting wood.
2
Bearing trees
Split: 50% N in February (before growth), 25% in April, 25% in June; full P and K in February
A bearing apple tree on a high-density system needs roughly 500–700 g N, 250–350 g P₂O₅ and 500–700 g K₂O per tree per year (adjust on soil/leaf-test basis). Potassium is especially important for fruit colour and quality.
3
Micronutrients
As indicated by soil/leaf analysis
Zinc and boron foliar sprays are commonly needed in Himalayan orchards; calcium sprays during fruit development help reduce bitter pit in storage.

Irrigation schedule

1. Establishment (Year 1–3)
Regular, light irrigation
Keep the root zone consistently moist but never waterlogged, especially on dwarfing rootstocks with shallow root systems.
2. Flowering and fruit set
Mar–May
Adequate soil moisture supports bloom and fruitlet retention after June drop; avoid wetting foliage to reduce scab infection risk.
3. Fruit development
Jun–Aug
Regular irrigation through the filling period is critical for fruit size and quality; water stress at this stage produces undersized fruit with poor storage life.
4. Pre-harvest
2–3 weeks before picking
Taper irrigation to improve fruit colour, firmness and storage quality; excessive water close to harvest dilutes sugars and increases bruising susceptibility.

Critical stages

Establishment (Year 1–3)
Flowering and fruit set (Mar–May)
Fruit development (Jun–Aug)

Water-saving tips

Drip irrigation is strongly preferred for high-density plantings on M9 — it delivers water to the shallow root zone efficiently without wetting foliage or increasing scab risk.
Mulch the tree row with straw or grass clippings to conserve soil moisture, suppress weeds and moderate soil temperature.
Avoid overhead sprinkler irrigation during flowering and scab-susceptible periods — wet foliage is the infection event for apple scab.

Weed management

Common weeds

General temperate-orchard grasses and broadleaf weeds in the tree row and alleyway

Organic control

Maintain a mown grass alleyway between rows and a clean, mulched strip under the tree canopy — this is the standard orchard-floor management in Himalayan apple orchards.
Hand-weeding or shallow hoeing in the tree basin avoids root damage, especially on shallow-rooted M9 rootstock.

Chemical control

Glyphosate applied as a directed strip spray along the tree row is common in bearing orchards — keep well away from the trunk, especially on young trees and dwarfing rootstocks.
Confirm any herbicide is cleared for use in apple orchards with your local KVK or state horticulture department.

Nutrient deficiency identification

What a shortage of each nutrient actually looks like on the plant, so you can tell a deficiency apart from a disease before you spray the wrong thing.

Diseases to watch for

Symptoms, likely cause and what actually treats it — not just a spray name.

Pests to watch for

What to look for before the damage is visible, and organic options before you reach for a chemical.

Aphids
Identification
Green, rosy or woolly (white-coated) aphids clustering on young shoots, leaf undersides and around wounds — woolly apple aphid (Eriosoma lanigerum) forms distinctive white waxy colonies on branches and roots.
Damage
Curled, distorted leaves, honeydew and sooty mould; woolly aphid causes galls on roots and branches that weaken the tree over time.
Organic control
Conserve natural predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps); neem-based sprays for light infestations.
Chemical control
Imidacloprid or thiamethoxam soil drench for woolly aphid; confirm current recommendations with your KVK.
Red spider mite
Identification
Tiny red or brown mites on leaf undersides, visible with a hand lens; fine webbing in severe infestations.
Damage
Bronze, stippled leaves that lose photosynthetic efficiency; severe mite pressure reduces fruit size and quality.
Organic control
Sulphur sprays and conserving predatory mites (Phytoseiidae); avoid broad-spectrum insecticides that kill the predators.
Chemical control
Specific acaricides (fenazaquin, propargite) when mite numbers exceed the economic threshold; rotate chemistries to delay resistance.
Codling moth
Identification
A small grey-brown moth whose caterpillar bores directly into the developing fruit; frass-filled entry/exit holes and tunnelling through the core are the telltale signs.
Damage
Larvae tunnel to the core, destroying the fruit commercially — one of the most damaging apple pests worldwide.
Organic control
Pheromone traps for monitoring and mating disruption; remove fallen, infested fruit promptly.
Chemical control
Insecticide timed to egg-hatch based on pheromone-trap data rather than a fixed calendar date; confirm current products with your KVK.

Common mistakes to avoid

The mistakes that cost growers the most, ranked by how often they show up in the field — not in the order you might expect.

1
Planting a single variety block without a pollinizer, expecting good fruit set.
Why it hurts
Apple requires cross-pollination between genetically compatible varieties — a block of Red Delicious alone, without Golden Delicious or another compatible pollinizer, plus honeybees to carry the pollen, will set very poorly regardless of how well the trees flower.
2
Burying the graft union below the soil line at planting.
Why it hurts
If the graft union is buried, the scion roots directly into the soil, bypassing the rootstock's size-controlling effect. The tree then grows like a vigorous seedling — large, late to bear and impossible to manage in a high-density system.
3
Skipping the green-tip and pink-bud scab sprays in a wet spring.
Why it hurts
The primary ascospore infection window from green-tip through petal-fall is the most critical part of the scab-spray programme — missing these early sprays in a wet year lets primary infections establish on leaves and fruitlets, and the secondary epidemic that follows is far harder to control with cover sprays alone.
4
Growing only Red Delicious sports without considering scab-resistant alternatives.
Why it hurts
Red Delicious and all its sports have zero scab resistance and depend entirely on the full spray programme. A single wet spring with missed sprays can destroy the crop. Scab-resistant varieties like Firdous dramatically reduce this risk and the spray cost.
5
Using overhead sprinkler irrigation during the scab-susceptible period.
Why it hurts
Wet foliage is the infection event for apple scab — overhead irrigation that wets leaves during the scab-susceptible period (green-tip through summer) is effectively creating additional infection events beyond what rainfall already causes.
6
Neglecting to clean up fallen leaves after harvest.
Why it hurts
Every infected leaf left on the orchard floor overwinters the scab fungus and is a spore source for the following spring. Raking, flail-mowing or urea-treating leaf litter after harvest reduces the next season's primary inoculum by 80–90%.

Harvesting

Harvest is by hand in 2–3 pickings as fruit reaches maturity — early varieties (Gala) from August, the main Red Delicious crop through September–October, and late varieties (Ambri) into October–November. Maturity is judged by skin colour, firmness (pressure test), starch-iodine test, seed colour (turning dark brown) and days after full bloom.

Signs it is ready

Full colour development for the variety (red covering 60–80% of the fruit surface for Delicious types)
Seeds have turned dark brown
Fruit separates from the spur with a gentle upward twist without breaking the spur
Starch-iodine test shows the starch has cleared from the core outward

Tools

Picking bags worn on the shoulder to free both hands and cushion fruit
Orchard ladders or platforms for upper-canopy picking
CA (controlled atmosphere) or cold-storage facility access for post-harvest holding

Expected yield

Roughly 8–12 tonnes/acre at full bearing in a well-managed traditional system (250–300 trees/acre); high-density M9 systems can reach 15–20+ tonnes/acre with full management, though these are still uncommon in India.

Post-harvest & storage

Storage
Grade fruit by size and colour, remove any scab-spotted or damaged fruit, and move to cold storage (0–1°C, 90–95% RH) as quickly as possible after harvest — every hour of delay in the field reduces storage life. Controlled-atmosphere (CA) storage extends life to 6–8 months for Red Delicious.
Packaging
Premium apple is packed in corrugated cartons with cell trays (moulded inserts holding each fruit individually) for protection during transport; bulk packing in wooden crates is still common for the wholesale trade.
Transportation
Refrigerated trucks from Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh to the Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai APMC mandis are the backbone of the supply chain — the cold chain is critical, and breaks in it cause rapid quality loss.
Shelf life
Several weeks at room temperature (20–25°C) for sound fruit; 3–4 months in standard cold storage (0–1°C); 6–8 months in CA storage for Delicious types.

Market prices

Today's mandi price near you, pulled live from the government's own Agmarknet data.

Live daily mandi prices from the government Agmarknet dataset.

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Weather

Current conditions and a 5-day outlook for your selected location, with one line of stage-aware advice.

Pick your state for current conditions and a 5-day outlook.

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Live data from Open-Meteo

Profit calculator

Your own cost sheet, expected yield and selling price — not ours.

Where the money goes

Share of the total cost per acre, using the calculator’s own default cost sheet below — adjust the numbers there to match your field and this picture will no longer apply to you exactly, but the ranking rarely changes.

Labour40% (₹35,000)
Land rent17% (₹15,000)
Pesticide & weedicide14% (₹12,000)
Fertiliser9% (₹8,000)
Seed6% (₹5,000)
Irrigation6% (₹5,000)
Interest5% (₹4,000)
Machinery3% (₹3,000)

Official downloads

Government and ICAR documents only — everything below is hosted on an official server.

Frequently asked questions

Can apple be grown in the plains of India?

Conventional apple varieties need roughly 800–1,200 hours of winter chill below 7°C and cannot fruit commercially in the plains. The one genuine exception is HRMN-99, a low-chill genotype discovered by Hariman Sharma in Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) at only ~1,000 m altitude, that does set fruit in much warmer conditions — it is a real innovation being trialled in several states, but its fruit quality and size are below the premium high-altitude crop, and it is a niche rather than a replacement for the traditional Himalayan apple belt.

Why does apple need a second variety for pollination?

Apple is largely self-incompatible — most varieties cannot fertilise their own flowers or flowers of the same variety. A Red Delicious orchard without a compatible pollinizer variety nearby (Golden Delicious is the most common choice) and active honeybee cross-pollination at bloom will set very little fruit, no matter how heavy the bloom. Most commercial orchards plant every third or fourth row with a pollinizer and bring in honeybee colonies at flowering.

What is the single most important disease in Indian apple production?

Apple scab (Venturia inaequalis), without close competition. It is the disease that structures the entire growing season: the fungicide spray programme from green-tip through harvest runs 8–12 applications and is the single largest recurring cost in a commercial orchard. Red Delicious — the variety that dominates Indian production — has zero scab resistance and depends entirely on this spray programme. Scab-resistant varieties like SKUAST-Kashmir's Firdous carry the Vf resistance gene and can dramatically reduce spray dependence.

What rootstock should I plant apple on?

The three most common rootstocks in Indian apple orchards are M9 (very dwarfing — produces a small tree that bears in 3–4 years and suits high-density trellis planting at 1,000+ trees/acre, but needs irrigation, staking and good soil), MM106 (semi-dwarfing — more forgiving, widely used in Himachal Pradesh) and MM111 (vigorous, deep-rooted, drought-tolerant — good for poor or dry sites but takes 5–6 years to bear). The rootstock choice drives tree size, bearing age, management intensity and the entire orchard economics.

Where do Kashmir apples go after harvest?

Most of the Kashmir apple crop moves by refrigerated truck to APMC fruit mandis in Delhi (Azadpur is the largest), Chandigarh, Mumbai and other cities, passing through commission agents. A growing share goes through direct procurement by organised retailers and exporters. The cold chain — from orchard-level grading through CA (controlled atmosphere) storage to refrigerated transport — is the critical post-harvest infrastructure, and any break in it causes rapid quality and value loss.

Is Ambri the same as Red Delicious?

No — Ambri is the only truly indigenous Kashmir apple variety, genetically distinct from the Red Delicious family. It has a distinctive flat shape, aromatic flesh and a flavour Kashmiris prize. Its commercial acreage has declined as Delicious sports took over for their better colour, storage life and market acceptance outside Kashmir, but Ambri is increasingly valued as a heritage variety and commands a local premium.

Most eligible families qualify for these too — the same land records and bank account do double duty.

Overview

Crop timeline, sowing to harvest

Planting

Establishment

First bearing

Full commercial bearing

Flowering

Fruit development

Harvest

Suitable states

Climate requirements

Soil requirements

Land preparation

Choose a site with genuine winter chilling at the right altitude

Choose a rootstock and planting system before ordering saplings

Plan for cross-pollination from the start

Seed information

Sowing guide

Fertilizer schedule

Young trees (Year 1–3)

Bearing trees

Micronutrients

Irrigation schedule

1. Establishment (Year 1–3)

2. Flowering and fruit set

3. Fruit development

4. Pre-harvest

Critical stages

Water-saving tips

Weed management

Common weeds

Organic control

Chemical control

Nutrient deficiency identification

Nitrogen

Potassium

Calcium

Zinc

Boron

Diseases to watch for

Apple scab

Powdery mildew

Die-back & branch canker

Pests to watch for

Aphids

Red spider mite

Codling moth

Common mistakes to avoid

Planting a single variety block without a pollinizer, expecting good fruit set.

Burying the graft union below the soil line at planting.

Skipping the green-tip and pink-bud scab sprays in a wet spring.

Growing only Red Delicious sports without considering scab-resistant alternatives.

Using overhead sprinkler irrigation during the scab-susceptible period.

Neglecting to clean up fallen leaves after harvest.

Harvesting

Signs it is ready

Tools

Expected yield

Post-harvest & storage

Market prices

Weather

Profit calculator

Where the money goes

Official downloads

SKUAST-Kashmir — Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology

YSPUHF Nauni — Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry

ICAR-CITH (Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture), Srinagar

National Horticulture Board (NHB)

Kisan Call Centre — 1800-180-1551

Frequently asked questions

Related schemes

PM-KISAN

Crop Insurance (PMFBY)

Kisan Credit Card

Soil Health Card

MIDH

Still have questions?