Balanagar
The long-standing commercial standard custard apple of India, a seedling selection widely grown across the dryland belts for reliable, heavy cropping and good-quality fruit тАФ the benchmark variety.
Quick facts
- Type
- Seedling selection / grafted plant
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- First fruit ~3тАУ4 years; fruit matures SepтАУNov
- Expected yield
- Heavy; commonly 100тАУ150 kg/tree on a mature tree
- Suitable soil
- All soils
About this variety
Balanagar is the long-standing commercial standard custard apple of India, originally a seedling selection that has become the benchmark across the dryland belts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Vigorous and well adapted to poor, dry land, it crops reliably and heavily with good-quality fruit, and remains the variety against which newer selections are compared. It is grown both from seed and as grafted/budded plants; for a commercial orchard a grafted Balanagar bears sooner and more uniformly than a raw seedling. Like all custard apple it rewards hand-pollination and firm-but-mature harvesting.
Key characteristics
Sowing & cultivation
- Spacing5 ├Ч 5 m (~175 trees/ha)
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
First fruit ~3тАУ4 years; fruit matures SepтАУNov
Expected yield
Heavy; commonly 100тАУ150 kg/tree on a mature tree
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Major diseases
- No special resistance widely documented
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Reliable, heavy cropper and the proven commercial standard across the dryland belts.
- Vigorous and well adapted to poor, dry land.
Things to consider
- A raw seedling bears later and more variably тАФ use a grafted Balanagar for an income orchard.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for тАФ check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Maharashtra
- Andhra Pradesh
- Telangana