Bael, is known for its nutritional and medicinal values. Bael is a domestic fruit tree of India having religious importance. It is also known as Bengal quince, Indian quince, golden apple, holy fruit, and stone apple. It is known from the pre-historic times. All parts of plant are used for preparing Ayurvedic medicine. Drugs prepared from bael used to cure diarrhoea, dysentery, peptic ulcer, respiratory infections and relieving constipation. Bael is found growing along foothills of Himalayas, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh. Bael cultivation is possible in waste and underutilized lands.    

As it is a hardy crop it can grow in wide range of soil i.e. sandy soils, salt affected soils etc. But it give best result when grown on well drained sandy soils. It can perform well on soil having pH range of 6-8.5. 

Pant Shivani: Found in early mid-season. Trees are tall, vigorous, dense, upright growth, precocious and heavy bearer. The weight of fruit ranges from 1 to 2kg.

Pant Urvashi: It is mid-season variety. Trees are tall, vigorous, dense, upright growth, precocious and heavy bearer. Fruits are ovoid, oblong. The fruit weight ranges from 1.5 to 1.6 kg.

Pant Aparna: Its trees are dwarf with drooping flowers, almost thornless, precocious and heavy bearer. The leaves are large, dark green and pear shaped. Fruits are globose in shape with average weight 600-800gm.

Pant Sujata: Trees are medium dwarf with drooping and spreading foliage, dense, precocious and heavy bearer.

Narendra Bael-6: Fruit size is medium with about 600g of weight. The surface is rounding smooth having soft flesh with low mucilage content. They are mild acidic and good in taste. 

Narendra Bael-5: it has the medium fruits and fruit size is 900gm-1kg. Flesh is very tasty and soft.

Other state varieties:

Narendra Bael (NB) 1 and Narendra Bael (NB) 2 are most useful and good yielding variety.
 
Narendra Bael (NB)-7:- Fruit size is very large, flattened round greenish grey in color.

Narendra Bael (NB)-9: - Fruits of this variety are large in size, having oblong shape with low fibre and seed content.                                                             
           
Narendra Bael (NB)-16:- Prolific bearing, fruits are elliptical round in size having yellow pulp with low fibre content.        

CISH B-1: - It is a mid-season variety which matures in April-May. The fruits of this variety are oval-oblong in shape. The fruits are average in size having weight of 1.0kg and are the pulp is dark yellow in color with good flavoring taste. When tree matures it has 50-80kg of weight.

CISH B-2: - It is a dwarf variety and moderately spread. The fruits are oblong-oval in shape and are average in size having 1.80-2.70kg of weight. The pulp is orange yellow in color with good taste. They have low fiber and seed content. The tree at maturity bears upto 60-90kg weight.

Carry out ploughing operation and bring soil to fine tilth. In summer dug pits of “1mx1mx1m” size and left open for 20-25 day in sun. Then fill pits with mixture of top soil and well decomposed cow dung. Then apply light irrigation.

Time of sowing

Seed treatment:
Firstly the seeds are soaked in water for about 12-14 hours and then they are air dried. Then they are used for sowing. Seeds are sown in polybags or prepared raised beds.
 

Training is done in young plant to make plant grow straight. Remove tip of main stem at height above 1 meter. Remove dead, diseased, weak branches and keep only healthy 4-6 well spaced branches. Keep tree trunk clean i.e. remove side suckers.  

At the time of land preparation, apply 25 kg FYM, 1 kg of Neem oil cake and 1 kg of bone dust and mix well in soil. 

Too much weeding is not required in this crop. First weeding is done in initial stage of seedling growth and then next weeding is done when the plant is 2 years old. 

Young plants need to be watered regularly in summer and one month interval in winter for their rapid vegetative growth and establishment. In bearing trees irrigation is not required in dry summer, as it sheds leaves and resists hot dry summers. Irrigation can be applied at the time of new leaf emergence.

• Pest and their control

Lemon butterfly: It is caused by Papilio demoleus. It can be cure by the spray of (0.5%) at the interval of 8 days in nursery seedlings.

 Bael butterfly: It is caused by Bactrocera zonata.

Leaf eating caterpillars: It causes major problems when new leaves arise and it is cured by application of Thiodan @ 0.1%.

• Disease and their control:

Fruit cracking and fruit drop are two important physiological disorders found in bael. 

They can be cured by application of borax @ 0.1% twice at full bloom and after fruit set. 

Sooty mould: It is also seen in bael which can be managed by spraying wettable Sulphur + chlorpyriphos /methyl parathion+ gum acacia (0.2 + 0.1 + 0.3%).

Plants start giving fruits in 6 to 7 years after transplantation. Harvesting is done in the month of January when fruits start giving yellowish-green appearance.  The yellowish-green fruit is kept for 8 days so they loss its green tint. Handle with care so that the fruits will not fall otherwise minor cracks occur in the shell. For processing, fully ripe fruits with soft flesh are used. 

After harvesting, grading is done. Then fruits are packed in gunny bags or airtight bags to transport for long distances. It is stored for 15 days. Artificial treatment is also given to store the bael for longer time. From ripen Bael several products like juices, squash, jam, toffees and powders are made after processing.