Most deciduous trees enter dormancy in respect to shortening day length in fall, dormant buds require a period of chilling to break this rest. To familiar with the exact chilling requirement of 20 varieties, the present study was carried out in the district Pulwama of South Kashmir and it was observed that among the studied varieties ‘Sunheri’ (1959.2 cu) required maximum chilling units followed by ‘Ambri’ (1887.5 cu) which is a local strain of the valley whereas ‘Tamma’, ‘Early Shanburry’, ‘Parlins Beauty’ and ‘King David’ were low chilling varietiess. ‘Ambri’ and ‘Sunheri’ took maximum number of days for all the characters studied, which shows that these required maximum chilling hours to produce fruits in the next summer. It is clear from the present study that late blooming varieties required more chilling than those which bloom earlier.
Apple, chilling requirements, assesment
