Punjab Agricultural University Plus-Tree Stock

This planting material traces back to a candidate plus-tree selection survey conducted across Punjab, which identified trees with the greatest height, clearest bole and best straightness among naturally growing sheesham — a direct response to the state's well-documented problem of crooked stems and poor form arising from unimproved, uncontrolled local seed. The selected material has been conserved ex-situ at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana for ongoing research and propagation. Unlike a single named commercial clone, this is improved seed-source stock distributed through PAU-linked and Punjab state forest-department nurseries, giving a farmer better-formed planting material than an unverified local seedling without the cost of tissue-culture cloning.

Plant typeSeedling (improved seed source)
Maturity15+ years to marketable girth
Yield potentialImproved form over unselected local seed
Disease resistanceNot separately documented
SoilAdaptable; alluvial loam to sandy soils, avoid a fluctuating water table
SeasonAll seasons

• Spacing2 × 2 m to 3 × 3 m for a dedicated block; 2–3 m along a canal, road or boundary line

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Punjab

• Gonda Clones (C196, C198)

  Individually documented clones from the Dalbergia sissoo clonal seed orchard established in 1996 at Lachhiwala, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) under a World Bank-funded forest research project, evaluated from among 30 clones collected across India and Nepal — the strongest height and girth performers in that trial.

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• CCS Haryana Agricultural University Breeding-Programme Stock

  Planting material from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar's long-running Dalbergia sissoo plus-tree selection and breeding-system research (including work confirming sheesham is a strictly self-fertilising species), distributed through university and Haryana state forest-department nurseries.

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• Local Seed-Origin Nursery Stock

  Ordinary one-year-old seedlings raised from seed collected off good local mother trees — still, honestly, how most sheesham actually gets planted across north India, since no single branded commercial variety dominates the market the way it does for poplar.

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