mangaluru can a temperate fruit like the apple be tamed to grow in the tropics that its a distinct possibility has been shown by mandibased senior fruit scientist chiranjit parmar with help from a few farmers in the state though experimentation is still at the trial stage without reaching commercial production it has opened up new possibilities to challenge the dominance of jammu kashmir and himachal pradesh over this fruit but whats interesting is that himachal apple saplings planted here are in a confused state while apple trees bear fruit in five or six years in kashmir and himachal pradesh theyve started flowering and bearing fruit within two years of planting in bengaluru and somwarpet in north kodagu in dakshina kannada retired banker krishna shetty is still waiting to savour the fruits of his labour theyve started flowering i should be able to harvest apples next year he says the prolonged monsoon and pest attack here have stopped them from yielding the desired results he adds shetty planted 50 saplings at his farm in hirebandady near uppinangady he said the plant can be grown in regions where the temperature ranges between 10 degree celsius and 30 degree celsius in indonesia growers prune leaves and get about 60 tonnes of apples per hectare in our country pruning is not done and the yield is limited to 6 tonnes per hectare after three years the yield is still limited i need further guidance from scientists he said calistha dsilva from abburkatte somwarpet who planted seven trees three years ago says one of them bore fruit within the second year and without much care if id taken care they may have yielded better results he said the fruits were small but tasty parmar who visited my farm said the trees have achieved tremendous growth which would take six years in himachal this year hes planting eight trees in his garden nagananda k from mahalakshmi layout bengaluru has three apple trees in his terrace garden ive planted a few on my farm at basavanahalli ramanagaram the trees here have shown better results with good care whereas at my farm it isnt so encouraging probably due to lack of care said nagananda his trees also bore fruit within two years what started this experimentation was parmars visit to batu indonesia situated almost at the equator this area has now acquired the reputation of an appleproducing region after getting inputs from farmers there about this horticultural wonder parmar started thinking of the possibilities of repeating this in some parts of south india where there is no winter season shetty says the absence of winter helps growers here get two crops a year unlike in kashmir and himachal pradesh since theres no dormancy due to winter during his visit to the united kingdom in 2010 shetty saw apple trees in house yards i started thinking why not at my home but couldnt get much ahead then i saw an article on parmar in adike patrike