Solapur Lal
An improved selection on the same colour- and quality-focused breeding line as Ruby. Not yet individually researched for a detail page.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Pomegranate
- Type
- Planting material
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- 160–165 days
- Expected yield
- High
- Suitable soil
- Sandy / light soil
- Release
- ICAR-NRCP (National Research Centre on Pomegranate), Solapur, Maharashtra — released 2022, from the cross Bhagwa × [(Ganesh × Nana) × Daru]
About this variety
Solapur Lal is a pomegranate variety released in 2022 by ICAR-NRCP (National Research Centre on Pomegranate), Solapur, Maharashtra, from the cross Bhagwa × [(Ganesh × Nana) × Daru]. Its aril and rind are deep red, with a medium-thick rind and slightly smaller fruit than Bhagwa; arils have harder seeds than Bhagwa and 17.5–17.7°Brix TSS. It matures in 160–165 days, 15–20 days earlier than Bhagwa, yielding 130–140 fruits per tree (35–39 kg/tree), and carries significantly higher vitamin C, anthocyanin, iron and zinc content than Bhagwa — a biofortified line suited to both table and processing use.
Key characteristics
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
160–165 days
Expected yield
High
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Major diseases
- Moderate
Advantages & considerations
Things to consider
- A real tension worth flagging: the source describing Solapur Lal's bacterial-blight reaction says it is "similar to Bhagwa" — and Bhagwa is documented elsewhere in this dataset (in the Arakta record) as scoring 58.11% disease severity in a 149-accession ICAR screening study, a genuinely high-susceptibility result, not a "Moderate" one. If Solapur Lal truly performs similarly to Bhagwa, this record's existing "Moderate" diseaseResistance rating may overstate its resistance — flagged for review rather than silently changed.
- Corrected 2026-08-15: two independently corroborating directly-fetched sources (ICAR-NRCP's own nrcpomegranate.in landmark-varieties page plus a global-agriculture.com release page) both give 160–165 days maturity, notably shorter than this record's old "~180 days" field — duration corrected to "160–165 days".
- This variety's parentage includes Bhagwa (bred at MPKV Rahuri) as one cross component, alongside Ganesh, Nana and Daru — a good example of how NRCP's newer hybrids build on the older MPKV Rahuri breeding lines (Ganesh, Bhagwa, Arakta, Mridula) already documented elsewhere in this rollout.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Maharashtra
Frequently asked questions
Who released Solapur Lal and when?
ICAR-NRCP (National Research Centre on Pomegranate), Solapur, Maharashtra, released it in 2022.
What is the parentage of Solapur Lal?
It comes from the cross Bhagwa × [(Ganesh × Nana) × Daru] — building on the older MPKV Rahuri breeding lines with newer parent material.
Is Solapur Lal resistant to bacterial blight?
Not clearly — its blight reaction is described as "similar to Bhagwa," and Bhagwa is documented elsewhere in this dataset as highly blight-susceptible (58.11% disease severity in one screening study), so this record's existing "Moderate" diseaseResistance rating may overstate its resistance — flagged above for review.
Why is Solapur Lal called biofortified?
It carries significantly higher vitamin C, anthocyanin, iron and zinc content than Bhagwa, giving it added nutritional value alongside its table and processing uses.
How does Solapur Lal compare to Bhagwa on maturity?
It matures in 160–165 days, 15–20 days earlier than Bhagwa's typical 180–190 days — a genuine, if modest, earliness advantage.