Write short notes on cultivation of following fruit crops : Peach
Answers
Peach, (Prunus persica), fruit tree of the rose family (Rosaceae), grown throughout the warmer temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Peaches are widely eaten fresh as a dessert fruit and are also baked in pies and cobblers; canned peaches are a staple commodity in many regions. Yellow-fleshed varieties are especially rich in vitamin A.The peach probably originated in China and then spread westward through Asia to the Mediterranean countries and later to other parts of Europe. The Spanish explorers took the peach to the New World, and as early as 1600 the fruit was found in Mexico. For centuries the cultivation and selection of new varieties of peaches were largely confined to the gardens of the nobility, and large-scale commercial peach growing did not begin until the 19th century, in the United States. The early plantings were seedling peaches, inevitably variable, and often of poor quality. The practice of grafting superior strains onto hardy seedling rootstocks, which came later in the century, led to the development of large commercial orchards.
Small to medium-sized, peach trees seldom reach 6.5 metres (21 feet) in height. Under cultivation, however, they are usually kept between 3 and 4 metres (10 and 13 feet) by pruning. The leaves are glossy green, lance-shaped, and long pointed; they usually have glands at their bases that secrete a fluid to attract ants and other insects. The flowers, borne in the leaf axils, are arranged singly or in groups of two or three at nodes along the shoots of the previous season’s growth. The five petals, usually pink but occasionally white, five sepals, and three whorls of stamens are borne on the outer rim of the short tube, known as the hypanthium, that forms the base of the flower.