Abstract

Among the numerous fruits tried at Coonoor, some varieties of peach were found to be promising, though like all introduced fruits, the peach has yet to be studied in respect of nursery and orchard practices. Till now shield budding has been the rule in peaches under Coonoor conditions, the common peach being the only rootstock, employed for the purpose. The optimum age of common peach seedlings for bud insertion and the relative rate of growth made by different peach scion varieties when worked on rootstock of different sizes or ages are not yet known and there has been a great deal of diversity in the prevailing nursery practices. The tendency to prefer large plants for planting is also based on the belief that large plant size at planting-time will mean earlier and better yields in the orchard. The initial advantage ascribed to plants of large size is a subject well worth study from the standpoint of the peach grower. To the peach nurseryman, such a study would enable him to restrict his propagational activities to the production of the optimum plant size and also reducing the large variation that is met with in regard to nursery tree size. With these ends in view a small-scale trial was started in 1948 at the Pomological Statoin, Coonoor.

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