Improvement of plum had been taken up since 1989, by screening the rich indigenous genetic diversity in Punjab - the Indian subtropics, with the objective to select the superior varieties/strains. Extensive explorations were made in the plum growing areas of Punjab state and twenty accessions identified, were evaluated for fruit characters, maturity period, bearing, tree vigour etc. Physicochemical evaluations were carried out on fifty fruits randomly selected at maturity. The pooled data (1989-96) showed a high range of variability in respect of average fruit weight, size and chemical composition, stone weight and size. The fruit colour varied from whitish yellow to dark brown. The morphological traits like fruit shape, base and apex also varied. The maturity period varied from the first week of May to mid June. High variability was also observed in tree growth and flowering. On the basis of fruit quality characters and tree longevity, the most promising was the genotype (ASR/BL-2) collected from village Bahila in Amritsar district. The ex situ conservation of this isolated genotype was carried out and propagated plants were planted during 1995 in the experimental orchards of Khalsa College and Government orchards Attari to critically examine the genotype in subsequent years. The selection named as Alu Bokhara Amritsari showed its promise by producing large sized fruits of attractive red colour having high TSS : acid ratio coupled with some special merits like free stone, pink coloured flesh with uniform sweetness and thus is absolutely free from sourness near the pit, the serious most drawback of Indian plums. The maturity period is also quite earlier as compared to those of temperate plums. The germplasm of some other elite genotype had also been conserved and is under observation for their future use as donor parents for the attributes of early maturity, high yield and dwarfness etc.
