The tree has no exacting cultural requirements, doing well with a minimum of fertilizer and irrigation. Seedlings begin to bear in 6 to 7 years, vegetatively propagated trees in 5 years. Full production is reached in 15 years. Harvesting Normally, the fruit is harvested when yellowish-green and kept for 8 days while it loses its green tint. Then the stem readily separates from the fruit.
Care is needed in harvesting and handling to avoid causing cracks in the rind.
A tree may yield as many as 800 fruits in a season but an average crop is 150 to 200, or, in the better cultivars, up to 400. Thereafter, mold is likely to develop at the stem-end and any crack in the rind. The bael fruit seems to be relatively free from pests and diseases except for the fungi causing deterioration in storage. Food Uses Bael fruits may be cut in half, or the soft types broken open, and the pulp, dressed with palm sugar, eaten for breakfast, as is a common practice in Indonesia. A beverage is also made by combining bael fruit pulp with that of tamarind.