How to Grow Pilkhan Tree: Air Layering, Roots and Clearance (Video)

Transcript

A tree that reaches thirty-five metres. Where should you plant it?

A tree that reaches thirty-five metres. Where should you plant it?

Pilkhan Tree Guide

Grow the tree that shades Lahore, and stay for the one distance that saves your home.

What is a pilkhan?

Pilkhan. Those huge, low-spreading trees that shade the Lahore canal and old Mall roads, they're mostly pilkhan. Growing one is easy. Finding the right place is the hard part. This isn't a small garden tree. It's a giant fig reaching about thirty-five metres in native forests. Parks, canal banks, wide roads, and farm deras. Not a tight little backyard.

Where it grows best

Where does pilkhan belong? It suits the Punjab plains, so Lahore, Faisalabad, Delhi, plus Islamabad and Peshawar. It also does well in the hot dry belt of Multan and Bahawalpur, with water. In Karachi, it grows but needs more watering on sandy, salty soil. Young trees in Islamabad can lose leaves to frost, but recover in spring. The hills? Too cold.

How roots behave

Here's the thing about pilkhan roots. Like most big figs, it has thick, shallow, spreading roots. With age, you get aerial roots from the trunk and lower branches. Its seeds, dropped by birds, sprout in wall cracks, where roots slowly split masonry. The RHS guidance applies: roots can spread up to three times the tree's height, and the risk is highest on shrinkable clay. Cautious rules, not guarantees.

Max height in the wild

In its native forests, pilkhan can reach about thirty-five metres. That's taller than a ten-storey building. In cities, it's usually smaller, but always very wide. The crown often ends up wider than the tree is tall. So think big. Really big.

Roots spread three times height

According to the RHS, roots can spread up to three times the tree's height. So if your pilkhan is ten metres tall, the roots could be spreading thirty metres out. That's why placement matters so much. It's not just the crown you need to worry about, it's everything underground too.

Air layering method

Now, the fun part: how to grow one. Air layering works best in warm, humid months. In March to April or July to August, pick a healthy branch as thick as a thumb. Thirty to forty-five centimetres from the tip, peel off a ring of bark and scrape lightly. Wrap damp moss around the cut, cover with clear plastic, tie both ends. Check after four to eight weeks. When roots show through, cut below the ball.

Tree in one summer

Here's a trick I love. Instead of air layering a twig, do it on a branch that's already a metre or more long. You get a ready sapling that can go straight into a park or farm pit after one month of shade hardening. So ask a friend with an old pilkhan for one branch at the start of the monsoon. It's like skipping the nursery.

When to plant

When should you plant it? February to March, after frost risk has passed, or July to August in the monsoon. Dig a pit about seventy-five centimetres wide and deep. Mix the soil with a third compost. Plant at bag depth, firm it down, and water until soaked. Stake loosely for the first year. That's it.

How fast it grows

How fast does it grow? Fast when young and well watered. A monsoon-planted sapling can give a small patch of shade within a few years. It slows as it ages, but keeps spreading outward. So the crown often becomes wider than the tree is tall. That's pilkhan: not just tall, wide. Very wide.

First two years care

For the first two summers, water deeply twice a week. In the second year, weekly. Every two weeks in winter. During those brutal forty-five degree weeks, add extra water. Feed with compost or manure in spring. Keep a single trunk and lift lower branches gradually in late winter. And if you're in Islamabad or Peshawar, wrap young trees on frost nights.

Pests and mess

Pests? Thrips and leaf rollers sometimes curl the new leaves in spring, but the tree grows out of it. Scale and mealybugs on young plants can be scraped or hosed off. The bigger problem is what falls. Fallen figs and bird droppings stain cars and paving under the canopy. So don't plant it beside a car porch.

Safety first

One more thing. Pilkhan sap is a milky latex that can irritate skin and eyes. So wear gloves and glasses when air layering or pruning, and wash your skin afterwards. Big limbs are heavy. Any cutting above head height or near power lines is a job for trained workers. Fallen figs on tiles are slippery. And if you spray for pests, read the label and keep children and pets away until it dries.

The one distance to respect

So what should you do? Here's the one number to remember. From a house, especially older brick on shallow footings, keep about ten metres. From a boundary wall, paving, or driveway, at least five metres. And from sewers, septic tanks, or underground water tanks, six metres or more. Cautious rules, not guarantees. But they'll save you a lot of grief. That's the one distance to respect.

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Read the full guide

Read the complete guide on thecareonline.com. This is general information, not medical advice.