Plum (Aloo Bukhara)

1. Land Preparation Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with farmyard manure, spacing 18 x 18 ft. Plum tolerates heavier soil than peach and is the safer choice on the wetter Swat and Hazara land. 2. Sowing Time & Method Plant grafted plants in January–February.

Rabi Sowing Jan–Feb Harvest Jun–Jul 100–180 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with farmyard manure, spacing 18 x 18 ft. Plum tolerates heavier soil than peach and is the safer choice on the wetter Swat and Hazara land.

Sowing Time & Method

Plant grafted plants in January–February. Many plum varieties need a pollinator — check with the nursery and plant a compatible second variety in every fourth row, or the tree will flower beautifully and set almost nothing.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Certified grafted plants from a registered nursery. Fazli Manani and Santa Rosa are grown in Swat.

Fertilizer

Per bearing tree per year: 25–30 kg farmyard manure, 1 kg urea, 750 g DAP and 750 g SOP, applied at bud swell with the urea split half then and half after fruit set.

Irrigation

Every 10–15 days through the season. Plum is shallower-rooted than most stone fruit and shows stress quickly in a dry June.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Purple Nutsedge (Deela) Pushes up through the straw mulch and takes the basin water and nitrogen from the shallow roots. Hoe the basin clean before laying the straw mulch
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) Creeps in from the alley underground and mats the basin, drinking the summer irrigation. Dig it out with a kasola at the basin edge, roots and all
Bathu (Lambsquarters) Comes up thick in the basin in spring and takes the water and nitrogen while the fruit is setting. Hoe the basin clean while the plants are small, then lay the straw mulch
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Climbs over the low fruiting branches and shades the fruit, so it colours poorly. Unwind it from the branches and uproot it from the basin
Johnson Grass (Baru) Runs into the basin from the alley on its rhizomes and takes the water in the hottest weeks, while the fruit is sizing. Dig the rhizomes out of the basin; scythe the alley before it seeds

Clean basins, mulched with straw in summer to hold moisture.

Insect Pests

Plum fruit moth bores the fruit near the stalk. Aphid curls new growth. San Jose scale encrusts branches. Fruit fly attacks the ripening crop and is why unbagged plum often arrives at the mandi already breaking down.

Diseases

Brown rot in warm wet weather at ripening — remove mummies in winter. Bacterial canker sinks dark patches into the bark and oozes gum. Leaf spot defoliates trees early in a wet year.

Crop Care

Prune in late winter, keeping the centre open. Thin fruit in April to 4–5 inches apart. Plum sets far more than it can carry and unthinned trees break branches.

Harvesting

Pick firm with the bloom (the natural waxy dust) intact — rubbing off the bloom drops the grade immediately. Harvest in the cool of the morning and never fill a crate more than four layers deep.