Effect of mulching on in-situ soil moisture, growth, yield and economics of plum fruit trees under rainfed condition in mid hills of Himalayas

In mid hills of Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh state, plum is an important fruit crop. Most of the plum orchards under rainfed condition have low productivity and production. For this an investigation was carried out on 8-years bearing plum (cv. Santa Roza) trees. The experiment was laid out under three mulch treatments viz., unmulched (control); plastic mulch (black polythene sheet); and hay mulch, in a randomized block design and replicated six times. The results demonstrated that growth and fruit yield of plum trees increased significantly under mulch treatments in sandy loam soil as compared to unmulch treatment. Fruit yield in hay mulch was 93.3 q ha⁻¹ which was 41.0 q ha⁻¹ higher in comparison to unmulched condition. However, average fruit yield was higher by 6.8 q ha⁻¹ under hay mulch, which was statistically at par in comparison to plastic mulch trees. In hay mulched fruit trees, in-situ soil moisture conservation was 1.74 to 8.20% higher than that of unmulched trees. The seasonal income under hay mulch and plastic mulch was 1.56 and 1.34 times higher in comparison to the unmulched fruit trees.