Aonla Cultivation Practices

Aonla is also known as Indian gooseberry, scientific name Emblica officinalis L. It belongs to the family Euphorbeaceae. It has a high medicinal value. The fruits have the richest source of vitamin-c (700mg in 100gm of fruits). It is a prolific bearer, needs much care. It is considered to be an excellent liver tonic; ayurvedic medicines like chyavanprash, tri phalaehurna, brahma rasayan and madhumehga churna contain essentially aonla as their ingredients. The fruit is valued as an antisorbatic, diuretic, laxative, antibiotic. It has very good demand in the industries for the preparation of various health care products also like hair oils, dyes, shampoos, face creams and toothpowders.

Climate

Aonla plants can be grown in both tropical and subtropical climates. Annual rainfall of 630-800mm is ideal for its growth. The young plants up to the age of 3 years should be protected from hot winds during May- June and from frost during winter months. The mature plants can tolerate freezing temperature as well as a high temperature up to 45°C.

Varieties

The varieties recommended for cultivation are Banarasi, Chakkayya, Francis, NA-4(Krishna), NA-5 (Kanchana), NA-6, NA-7, NA-10, BSR-1, Anand-1,2,3.

Inputs

Number of seedlings for one acre area should be 200. The field should be incorporated with 4 tonnes FYM. Fertilizer should be given in the ratio of 90:120:50 kg of NPK along with elemental sulphur 10kg and micronutrients 10 kg per acre. 15kg FYM and 0.5 kg of p should be applied to each pit before planting also application of 30 kg. of nitrogen each year during Sep-Oct up to 10 years for each tree is recommended.

The young plants should be given 15-20 kg of FYM and the mature trees should be fertilized with 1kg of superphosphate and 1-1.5 kg of murate of potash. These fertilizers should be given in two split doses to mature, bearing tree once during Sep-Oct and again during April-May.

Cultivation - Propagation

Aonla is generally propagated by shield budding. Budding is done on one year old seedlings with buds collected from superior varieties yielding big sized fruits. Older trees or poor yielders can be changed into superior types by top working. Aonla plant has long been raised from seed and used as rootstock. The seeds attain full maturity by February for which they should be sown in the last week also for getting the higher percentage of germination. The best results were obtained by sowing at the commencement of rainy season and subsequently weeding regularly.

Planting

The pits of 1 sq.mt are to be dug during May –June at a distance of 4.5mt x 4.5mt spacing and should be left for 15-20 days exposing to sunlight. Each pit should be filled with surface soil mixed with 15 kg FYM and 0.5 kg of phosphorus before planting the budded seedlings. Healthy grafts or budded plants are planted during rainy season preferably during the early monsoon in July with square system.

Irrigation

Young plants require watering during summer months at 15days interval till they are fully established.
Watering of bearing plants is advised during summer months at bi weekly interval. After the monsoon rains, during October-December about 25-30 litres of water per day per tree through drip irrigation should be given.

The schedule can also be done as follows:

Plants up to 2 years of age -at 10 days interval
Plants up to 4 years of age -at 15 days interval
Plants after 4 years of age -at 20 days interval

Training and Pruning

Leaving only 4-5 well shaped branches with wide angle at about 0.75mt from the ground level, other dead, diseased, weak criss-cross branches and suckers should be pruned off at the end of December .

Mulching and Intercropping

During summer, the crop should be mulched with paddy straw or wheat straw at the base of the tree up to 15-20 cm from the trunk. Inter crops like green gram, black gram, cow pea and horse gram can be grown up to 8 years.

Harvesting and Yield

Aonla tree starts bearing after about 4-5 years of planting. The fruits of Aonla are harvested during the month of February when they become dull greenish yellow from light green colour. The mature fruits are hard and they do not fall at gentle touch and therefore vigorous shaking is required. Fruits can also be harvested using long bamboo poles attached with hooks.

A mature Aonla tree of about 10 years will yield 50-70 kg of fruit. The average weight of the fruit is 60-70 g and 1 kg contains about 15-20 fruits. A well maintained Aonla tree yields up to an age of 70 years. A full grown grafted Aonla tree with good bearing habit yields from 187 to 299 kg fruit per year. Average fruit yield is 200kg per grafted tree.


Extracted from AgriGold SwarnaSedyam