The document provides an extensive overview of peaches, detailing their botanical classification, origin, and cultivation practices. It highlights the importance of peaches in terms of nutritional value, production statistics, and popular varieties, as well as the ideal climate and soil conditions for growth. Additionally, it discusses methods for propagation, field preparation, training, irrigation, pest control, and post-harvest handling.

1. PEACH
Submitted by,
Omkar SunilWarang
HDPM/17/0126
Jr. M.Sc Horticulture
Fruit Science
Submitted to,
Mr.Y R Parulekar
Department of Horticulure
College ofAgriculture, Dapoli

2. Peach
Botnical Name:- Prunus persica
Family:- Rosaceae
Nectarine:- Prunus persica var. nucipersica
Nectarines are group of peach which donot have fuzzy skin, usually
smaller in size with greater aroma than peaches.

3. Origin and History
• Origin of pech is in china.
• Where its culture dates back at least to 3000 years.
• Three wild species are still commonly found there:-
1.Prunus davidiana
2.Prunus mira
3.Prunus ferganensis

4. Area and Production
• China is the leading producer of peach in the world.(FAOSTAT
2013)
• Area of peach in India during 2014-15 is 19000 ha.With
production of 96000 tonnes (NHB Database 2015)
• Uttarakhand leading in production 49000 tonnes with 51%
share in India. (NHB Database 2015)

5. Importance and Uses
NutritiveValue:-
1. Total sugar:- 8%
2. Ascorbic acid:- 6-13 mg/100gm of pulp
3. Carotenoides:- 0.19-0.53 % inWhite flesh peach
0.75-0.79% inYellow flesh peach
Peach kernel Contain
I. Fats:- 39-55%
II. Protiens:- 23-30%
III. Curde fiber:- 14.8 %
IV. Minerals:- 2.7%
• Peach kernel oil used in food, cosmetic preparation, pharmaceutical preparation,etc.
• Peach flower and leaves are puragative and anthelmintic.

7. Genetic Resources
• In India, about 36 prunus species are reported so far and 18 species are useful for
cultivation.
• In India, 63 varieties or accessions are present at Regional Horticultural Research
andTraining Station, Mashorba, Shimla.
• 12 varieties or accessions are present at ICAR- CITH, Shrinagar.

8. Botony
• Peach belongs to family Rosaceae, subfamily Prunoideae with 8 basic and 16 somatuic chromosome number.
• The large genus Prunus includes peach, nectarine, almond, plum, prune, apricot, cherry and many species.
• In this genus, flower buds donot contain leaves but only flower and they are always lateral and never terminal.
• Peach and alomond belomgs to subgenus Amygdalus which is characterized by sessile or short stalked flowers,
opening before the leaves, fruit tomentose, stone pitted or smooth, leaves conduplicate in bud, buds 3 in axil,
the lateral one being flower buds.
• It is small to medium sized (3-5 m height), upright spreading, open topped, deciduous tree with a rather deep
root system.
• The tree trunk is dark brown, branches medium, stocky, spreading and have large oval lenticles.
• The leaves are simple relatively large (6-12 m), oblong lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate, petiole glandular.
• Flowers are numerous, nearly sessile, pink, appearing before the leaves.
• Fruits are variable in size, shape, colour of skin and flesh, sulcate, glabrous, usually with fuzzy skin, fleshy juicy,
sweet, stone large, free or clinging, deep pitted corrugated, sutured and hard.
• Necterines are the group of the peaches having fuzzless skin.They have been developed from peach as a bud
sports in which the single gene responsible for fuzziness is lacking.

9. Varieties
• TableVarieties
Elberta, J.H. Hale, Babcock, Cardinal, Dixigem, Redtop, Redheaven, Red Globe, etc.
• CanningVarieties:-
Cortex, Dixon, Halford, Fortuna, Golden Blush,Veteran, etc.
1. Elberta:-
this is important peach cultivar, fruit is large in size, smooth skin, excellent quality and
free stone
2. J. H. Hale:-
This is an old peach cultivar in commercial production. Fruit is large , yellow with firm
flesh of excellent quality. Free stone peach good for table purpose. It is self-unfruitful cultivar.
3. Dixigem:-
It is resulted from cross Admiral Dewey X st. John in 1944. the fruit is medium, round
with bright yellow skin having light blush (Brooks and Olmo, 1972). It matures before Elberta.

10. 4. Redheaven:-
A cross of Halehaven and Kalehaven introduced by Stanley Johnston at Michigan in
1940. Firm flesh, which enables easy packing and handling, excellent red colour, good size and
heavy cropping.
5. Flordasun:-
A low chilling cultivar developed in Florida. It is an early maturing cultivar which ripens in
last week ofApril. Fruit medium sized, freestone, round shape with red blush on the surface,
pulp yellow, acidic sweet taste with 11.5%TSS.
6. Sharbati:-
It is a chance seedling selected at Sahranpur (Singh, 1960). It is late cultivar and fruits
ripen in second week of June. Fruits are medium size, clingstone and round oblong in shape.
Pulp is white, soft, juicy and aromatic with aTSS of 13.5%. It is a heavy yielder and most popular
cultivar of western U.P, India.
7. Sunred:-
It is a low chilling nectarine bred by R. H. Sharpe in Florida. Fruits are small in size, round,
bright red skin and of excellent dessert quality. Ripening occurs in first week of May. Requiring
300 chilling hours.

11. Elberta Desert Gold Flordasun

12. J. H. Hale Redheaven Sharbati

13. Climate
• Peach is originally a temperate-zone plant, meaning thereby that the cold temperature has
profound effect on its growth and productivity.
• The limiting factor in peach cultivation are the minimum winter temperaturs, chilling hours,
spring frosts, hailstroms, high humidity and dessicating winters during the summer.
• The most important limiting factor in temperate region is the lack of flower bud
hardinesseither to low dormant temperatures, or to frosts or freezing condition during spring.
(Hesse, 1975)
• At a temperature of 0.4°C, considerable damage to the linear shoot growth and flower buds
were recorded in cv. Alexander. (Pandey 1997)
• Peach flower bud is hardy even between -23°C to -26°C, absolute hardiness of the whole
plant becomes less important (Hesse 1975)
• Chilling housr of 700-1000 at 7.2°C more effective.
• Temperature below 2-3°C – does not break dormancy.
• High temperature in December – January causes bloom abnormality and failure of fruit set is
noticed.

14. Soil
• Peach can be grown in varying soil conditions.
• For commercial plantation deep sandy loam soil rich in organic matter is ideal
• Mild to moderate steep hill slopes are ideal
• Deep valleys not prefused, because sensitive to water logging.
• Sandy soils with a depth of 7.0 m is ideal.
• Oxygen supply to the root zone is important, so compact soils which having pores less
than10-20% should be avoided. (Hoffman 1975)
• High water table and a hard impervious soil layer need to be avoided as they causes yellowing
of foliage, premature leaf fall, and cessation of growth and death of tree in severe cases
(Teskey and Shoemaker, 1972).
• Ideal pH – 5.8 to 6.8.

15. Propagation
Peaches are Commercially propagated by budding and grafting on seedling peach, plum and
apricot rootstocks (Layne, 1987).
• Seed Propagation:-
 Peach seedling are the principal rootstock all over the world and the seed for this purpose is
obtained from wild types or commercial cultivars (Rom, 1983).
 Peach seeds do not germinate readily and require low temperature for stratification which is
usually done under moist conditions at about 5°C for 70-90 days.
• Budding:-
Peach is generally propagated by Shield or Ring budding (Pathak and Pandey, 1976).
Budding during September was reported superior than in May-June in the western hills of
India (Srivastava,1966)
Ring Budding during April-May and Shield budding from June-September gave good success
(Thaper, 1960)

16. T Budding

17. Ring Budding

18. Rootstocks
• Apricot P. armeniaca – Root knot nematode rest.
• Almond P. amygdalis – dwarfing rootstock
• Western sand cherry – P. berseyi, P. tomentosa – dwarfing.
• Namking cherry – P salicina – medicinal to large trees.
• Micropropagation of both rootstock and scion is possible, axillary shoots and embryo culture
are successful.

19. Field Preparation and Planting
• The site of orchard should be cleared and ploughed the whole area.
• Pits of 1X1X1m are digged at 4-6 m distance in month of September-October.
• The pits are filled with 15kg FYM, 400-500 gm SSP and 40-50 gm aldrin and top
soil.
• One year old grafts are used for planting.
• Planting time:-Late winter (December-January)
• Planting Density:- 5X5m or 6X6m.
• Trees bare to be white washed to protect it from sun.

20. High Density Planting
1. Hedge row planting:- 4 X 1 m 2500 tress/ha.
2. Medow orcharding:- 1 X 1m 10,000 trees/ha.
Canopy management in HDP:-
• In medow orcharding, mostly self rooted cultivars are planted which are subjected to annual
postharvest pollarding (Belini, 1985).
• Combination of paclobutrezol and pruning treatment to reduce growth and increase yield in
intensive peach medow orchards.Winter application of paclobutrezol at 20-50 mg/tree with
light pruning in soil was found the most effective (Erez 1986).

21. Training
• Young plant is trained to build up the strong framework of plants.
• In India, where sunlight is plenty, peach tree should be trained to the modified central leader
system with 4-5 scaffold branches.
• Where sunlight is limiting factor, peach tree should be trained to open vase system.
Various training system:-
1) Modified leader
2) Open centre
3)V-shaped tatura trellis
4) Pillar
5) High density vase
6) 2=scaffold vase – most efficient for low density (277 to 625 plants/ha)
7) Belgium bench

23. Pruning
1st year :- Stem cut at 61 cm from ground, 3-4 branches allowed, well spaced and well developed on all
sides.,All other new growth are removed.
2nd year :- 2 well spaced secondary branches on each main branch (Dormant season).
2nd summer :-Water sprouts suppressed, Secondary branches encouraged. Forked branches cut to
make crotches strong outside buds are pruned to have speedy shape.
3rd dormant pruning:- diseased, criss-cross branches, water sprouts removed. No severe pruning in
early seasons.
Pruning – bearing trees:-
Annual heading back
- to maintain low canopy
- 2-3 year old branches to be removed.
- Side branches to be shortened and thinned
- Annual new growth to be maintained @ 41-61 cm length.

24. Manures and Fertilizers
• Mannures and fertilizers in peach fruit farming is as follows:-
• FYM along with MOP and SSP should be given in December and January
months.
• Urea should be applied 2 weeks before bud break.
Tree Age
(year)
FYM
(Kg)
Urea
(gm)
SSP
(gm)
MOP
(gm)
1 5 200 200 150
2 10 400 250 200
3 15 800 750 250
4 10 1000 1000 400
5 and
above
30 1200 1200 500

25. Irrigation
• After planting the trees are irrigated immediately.
• Drip irrigations is the best method for effective use of water.
• Watering is important during the flowering stage and fruit development stage.
• Irrigate the peach in April, May and June.
• 7-8 irrigations during these months are sufficient in peach for proper fruiting.

26. Flowering
• Peach is precocious tree commencing bearing in third year after planting.
• It bears on shoots developed in the previous year from terminal and axillary vegetative buds.
• Flowering period of peaches is determined by completion of chilling requirements and
prevailing temperature during early spring.
• Flowers appears in first week of March and continue upto third week.
• Flowers are numerous, pink and appearing before leaves.

27. Fruiting
• Autogamy has been reported byWeinbaum and Erez (1983) in all peach and nectarine
cultivar
• All peach cultivar are self fertile except J. H. Hale, June Elberta, Halberta, etc.
• A self sterile cultivar needs to be planted in double rows, alternating with two rows of self
fertile cultivar.
• Honey bees are main agent of pollination in peach orchard.
• The development of peach fruit follows typical double sigmoid growth curve (Sandhu and
Dhilon, 1983).
• Fruits are variable in size, shape, colour of skin and flesh, sulcate, glabrous, usually with fuzzy
skin, fleshy juicy, sweet, stone large, free or clinging, deep pitted corrugated, sutured and
hard.

28. Crop regulation
• Application of ethephon at 100-250 ppm delay flowering in peach (Coston, 1985).
• Application of 200 ppm GA3 in early February causes 20% reduction in flowering (Raff and
Hallpike, 1983).
• Spraying of 1000-2500 ppm DNOC at full bloom is effective for fruit thining (Westwood 1978).
• Time of thinning : Depends on maturity.
1. Early cultivars – blossom thinning.
2. Mid & early – at petal fall or fruitset.

29. Maturity and Harvesting
• Picking of fruits at proper maturity is very important operation.
• The early verities take 80-100 days, mid varieties take 100-120 days while late verities take
120-140 days from floering to the maturity.
• Pit discolouration and freeness of pit are good maturity indices in some cultivar.
• Pit get separated from flesh in freestone cultivar on maturity.
• The green colour of peach fruit changes to light green and then developed yellow-orange or
red.
• Fruits are harvested by twisting by hand.
• In developed countries, because of high density planting limb and shock wave type trunk
shaker are used for harvesting, particularly for processing cultivar.
• Yield:-
Average yield in traditional farming:- 7-20 t/ha
In high Density Planting:- 70-80 t/ha

31. Post Harvest Handling
• Peach fruits are precooled immediately after harvesting.
• Vaccum cooling and Hydro cooling have been found suitable for peaches.
• Hydrocooling with running water at 10°C is best
• Hydrocooled fruits devlope more yellow colour than uncooled fruits.
• Peaches are stored at 0°C with 85-90% RH for 28-36 days.
• Controlled Atmospheric Storage is very effective.
• Peach fruits are packed in corrugated fiber box.
• Thechnokogy for improving shelf life of peach using semi-permeable films, aloevera gel
coating and by treatment with salicylic acid followed by Ca-EDTA was developed by CITH,
Shrinagar.

32. Physiological disorder
1) Split pit and gumming – At pit hardening stage splitting at joint of dorsal and ventral side.
Exudation of gum and the gum fills the pit cavity and seeds become abortive, fruits become
unfit for consumption.
Causes : prolonged drought followed by sudden rain – temperature and humidity increased –
splitting.
2) Sunscald – Constant exposure to sun causes Sunscald on trunk, twigs and branches and
fruits.
Control : Painting the exposed area with time and propride shade.

33. Pest and Diseases
1) Peach leaf curl aphid:- (Branchycaudus helichrysi)
• Activity of hopper occus with new growth during February-March.
• Aphid suck sap from buds and sprouting foliage causing curling, yellowing and thickening of leaves.
• To control this, spraying of methyl demeton or dimethoate or parathion or diazinon at 0.1%.

34. 2) Peach scale insect:- (Eulecamuim coryli)
• The nymph suck the sap and thus restrict the vigour and production.
• Spraying of dimethoate or phosphomidon or parathion @ 0.03%.

35. 3) Fruit flies:- (Daucus sp.)
• IT is the most destructive pest.
• The attacked fruits devlope brownish patches due to rotting.
• Two sprays of 0.075% fenthion emulsion are effective in month of june at 10 days interval.

36. 4) Bacterial spot:- (Xanthomonas pruni)
• Small water soacked areas developed on leaves which eventually dry and drop.
• Similar spots observe on fruit also.

37. 5) Brown rot:- (Monilinia sp.)
• Masses of ashy-grey powdery spores appear on surface of infested parts.
• Infeected blossom wither and die.
• Spray of fungicides such as sulphur difolatan(150 gm/100 lit of water) or Captan (300 gm/100
lit water).

38. 6) Powdery mildew:- (Sapherotheca pannosa)
• The young leaves, terminal shoots are coated with thick layer of mycelium.
• These disease is controlled by spraying with sulphur compounds.

39. ThankYou