Stress bloom alarms Kashmir farmers

Srinagar, Nov 4: A surreal sight is unfolding this autumn, with rows of apple trees in parts of Kashmir bursting into delicate pink blossoms.

Nearly six months ahead of spring’s awakening – and just after harvest - dormancy in apple trees has been shaken away by life, leaving farmers and scientists anguished.

Photographs widely circulating on social media since late October have captured the anomaly in south Kashmir’s fruit-rich Shopian district, which contributes nearly a third of India’s apple produce.

Apple farming sustains approximately two-thirds of the families in the district.

Traditionally, varieties like Red Delicious and Golden Delicious bloom in April, undergo pollination in May, and yield crisp fruit by September and October.

However, this year, many trees are showing an unseasonal bloom.

Blossoms have also been reported in almond and pear orchards in south Kashmir’s Pulwama and Anantnag districts, and north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

Fruit Scientist at the Division of Fruit Sciences, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Prof Khalid Mushtaq, acknowledged the unusual timing of the blooms and linked it to a “variety of factors.”

He said the weather pattern this year was “disturbing.”

“Summer was very hot and created a drought-like situation, which was followed by a period of heavy rainfall,” Prof Mushtaq said. “The biotic as well as abiotic changes resulted in stress bloom in apple trees and some other fruit trees.”

He said this year saw early defoliation in apple trees, an indicator of stress.

“The trees started losing leaves earlier due to disease and pests. This resulted from stress and created conditions like no leaves and no photosynthesis,” Prof Mushtaq said. “The period of stress was followed by a wet spell in the beginning of October and then a period of warm days.”

He said these factors together created conditions for apple trees to develop blooms rather than leaves.

Prof Mushtaq said that early flowering consumes the metabolites meant for the next flowering season.

He said that leaf miner, scab, and other pests and diseases caused leaf shedding as early as August.

“These diseases need to be prevented, and we need to maintain good irrigation for trees,” Prof Mushtaq said.

Director of the Meteorological Department, J&K, Mukhtar Ahmad, said October this year was “warmer than usual.”

“We had a wet spell at the beginning of October, and then warm days,” he said. “Stress bloom is not happening for the first time. This year, we even saw dandelions flowering in hilly regions, including Zojila.”

However, many farmers are already looking at a grim year ahead.

“This isn’t a miracle of weather, but a disruption in the trees’ life cycle,” said Gulzar Ahmad, a horticulturist.

He said apple growers have been bearing the brunt of weather vagaries for several years now.

“Sometimes there is untimely snowfall, sometimes hailstorms, and sometimes we are just let down by the logistics of apple trade,” Gulzar said.

An April 2025 paper in the Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science examined meteorological responses of fruit trees to climate stressors.

It found that water deficits can halve photosynthesis rates and stunt fruit development, in addition to compounding the risks of early blooms.

A 2021 study from the University of California, published in ScienceDaily, found early bud-breaks in trees to be a genetic adaptation under warming conditions.