• Haseeb ur Rehman
• Tasneem Mubarak

Present study entitled “Evaluation of performance of rejuvenated apple orchard in North Western Himalayas” was carried out at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kulgam during the year 2020-2022. Evaluation of top grafted plants of Delicious cultivar (16 year old) with Redlum Gala, Red Velox, Jeromine, King Roat and Scarlet Spur II, keeping Delicious as control was carried in various villages of District Kulgam. Performance in terms of fruit weight, yield/plant, economic grade evaluation, gross returns and BC ratio was calculated during 5th and 6th year after rejuvenation. Results revealed that better fruits in terms of average fruit weight was obtained in top grafted cultivars accept Redlum Gala as compared to control. In the studied years, Delicious yielded more as compared to other cultivars but major junk of this production was of inferior quality i.e. either grade B (32.68%) or grade C (29.34%). Top grafted cultivars resulted in better quality apple in terms of grade A and Fancy as compared to non-rejuvenated Delicious cultivar. Highest gross returns/tree (Rs.4850) was obtained in Jeromine and least in Redlum Gala (Rs.3724.25). Maximum cost/tree was calculated in Delicious (Rs.2479.50) and this was significantly higher than top grafted apple cultivars. Due to lowest cost/tree in Redlum Gala (Rs.1029.78), this variety proved the best (Maximum BC ratio) and the most preferred cultivar used in rejuvenation. Highest BC ratio (3.62) was calculated in Redlum Gala and lowest (1.87) resulted in case of non-rejuvenated Delicious cultivar. All top grafted apple cultivars excelled control in terms of BC ratio (Both Gross and Net income basis).

Cultivar, Rejuvenated, Top grafted, quality, BC ratio

"Evaluation of performance of rejuvenated apple orchard in North Western Himalayas", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 6, page no.c770-c776, June-2023, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2306285.pdf

"Evaluation of performance of rejuvenated apple orchard in North Western Himalayas", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 6, page no. ppc770-c776, June-2023, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2306285.pdf