How to plant gular

As practical guidance, plant a healthy nursery sapling about 1 m tall at the start of the rains, in moist, deep soil with space for a big crown. We found no Indian forest-department planting note written for gular, so the months, pit and spacing below are our rule of thumb.

When to plant

As a guide, plant in July or August in most of India, once the monsoon has properly soaked the ground; plant when the rains have wetted the soil in your district. On the Tamil Nadu coast, where the main rains come with the north-east monsoon, October–November also works. As our rule of thumb, avoid the hot, dry months of April to June.

Choosing a sapling

Ask the nursery for Ficus racemosa by its botanical name, so you do not get the look-alike hairy fig. In a nursery trial at the Kerala Agricultural University station at Odakkali (Mathew and colleagues, 2011), gular seedlings grew faster than banyan, peepal and the Malayan banyan, and were ready to transplant after 7–8 months.

Three ways of raising plants were tested in that trial:

• Seed: each ripe fig held about 1,628 tiny seeds, but only 5% of untreated seed germinated; a 10-minute soak in hot water raised this to 11%. Germination fell sharply when the seed was stored at room temperature.
• Stem cuttings: only 10–12% rooted, so cuttings are a poor choice.
• Air layering: 80–90% of layered branches rooted when done in August–September, when the tree was in new leaf, against only 13–40% in May–June, when it was shedding leaves.

Pit, spacing and protection

• Pit: dig about 60 × 60 × 60 cm (our rule of thumb). Refill with the dug soil mixed with well-rotted farmyard manure, plant at the depth the sapling stood in its bag, and make a basin to hold rainwater.
• Spacing: as our rule of thumb for growing room, leave about 10–12 m between a gular and other big trees; this is not a safe distance from a house, wall, tank, borewell or pipe; ask your local forest or horticulture office if space is tight.
• Guard: fit a tree guard where cattle, goats or nilgai roam (practical guidance).

First-year watering (rough starting point)

Check the soil a few centimetres down near the roots: water deeply when the root zone is drying, skip watering after rain, and never let water stand around the stem. Gular likes moist soil, so do not let a young plant dry out in its first summer. The intervals below are only a rough starting point, not trial results.

Season	Rough interval (check the soil first)
Monsoon (Jul–Sep)	Usually none; only in a long dry break
Post-monsoon and winter (Oct–Feb)	About every 2 weeks
Spring (Mar–Apr)	About weekly
Summer (May–Jun)	About every 3–4 days in hot, dry places