Nursery Management in Horticultural Crops PDF

Topic: Nursery Management and Mechanization  Nursery & Types Definition: A nursery is a managed site, designed to produce seedlings grown under favourable conditions until they are ready for planting A nursery is a place where plants are grown, nurtured and sold out. A modern nurse...

Topic: Nursery Management and Mechanization  Nursery & Types Definition: A nursery is a managed site, designed to produce seedlings grown under favourable conditions until they are ready for planting A nursery is a place where plants are grown, nurtured and sold out. A modern nursery apart from the above sells seeds, fertilizers and manures, soil conditioners, plant protection chemicals, rooting hormones, garden implements, pots, etc. It can even be established on wastelands, degraded lands; Nurseries may be of following types: Forestry/ agro-forestry nursery Fruit and plantation crops Hybrid vegetables and annual flowers Floriculture and avenue trees Foliage plants and turf grass carpet  Importance of Nursery Seedlings and grafts are produced in nursery from which the fruit orchards and ornamental gardens can be established with minimum care, cost and maintenance.  The nursery planting materials are available at the beginning of the planting season. This saves the time, money and efforts of the farmers to raise seedlings. It assures the production of genetically improved quality planting material. Better care of younger plants as it is easy to look after nursery in small area against pathogenic infection, pests and weeds. As vegetable seeds are very expensive particularly hybrids, so we can economize the seeds by sowing them in nursery. They are an important source of supplying the seedlings for meeting the fruit, pulp and paper, fuel wood, timber and other demands of the industries. Nursery provides employment opportunities for technical, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labor. There is a huge demand of skilled professionals for grafting, budding, potting, repotting and other nursery operations. Nursery can itself be a very remunerative enterprise in the changing national scenario.  Why do We Need True-to-Type Quality Planting Material ? Planting in new areas (Area expansion) Replacement planting (to change old and senile* orchards) Harnessing the genetic potential of the crop/ new varieties Testing of rootstocks for potential benefits *Senile orchards: Senility is a stage of the plant in which after a long span of continuous fruiting, the ability of the branches or limbs and or whole tree to produce vigorous and efficient twigs having capacity to bear the fruits is reduced.  Status of Nurseries At present, there are about 6,750 nurseries under public and private sectors. About 1200 nurseries have been established under NHM/Govt. schemes during the last 5 years. Of these, 1500 nurseries have been registered under the Indian Nurserymen Association, Kaithal, Haryana established in 1987. About 250 nurseries producing and dealing with vegetable and flower seeds are registered with different associations like:  All India Seed Growers, Merchants and Nurserymen Association established in 1988 at Chennai.  Seed Association of India, New Delhi having about 150 private seed producers as members in the country.  Fruit Nurseries in India Sector No. of Fruit Nurseries Public sector 1594 Private sector 4607 SAUs/ICAR 138 Model nurseries established by NHM 385 now MIDH (Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture) Total 6,724  Hi-tech Nursery Hi-tech nursery is the one, which has different modern facilities like environment independent structures, macro & micropropagation facilities, large scale media preparation / mixing /filling machineries, sterilization facilities, bio-composting units, scion/ mother and rootstock blocks, micro- irrigation and misting facilities, multi-tier stacking facilities, automated propagation, machineries, hardening structures, packaging machineries, etc.  Hi- tech Nursery Management 1. Propagating Structures for Nursery: In order to get better results, different propagating structures are used for plant propagation. The important structures are greenhouses, polyhouses, shadenet houses, poly tunnels, mist propagation units. 2. New techniques of plant propagation /tissue culture e.g. Banana, orchids 3. Timely availability of all inputs : Timely availability of propagation media, fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, plastic, sutali, etc. 4. Use of micro-irrigation system with fertigation 5. Proper nutrition 6. Weed control  Hi- tech nursery management 7. Use of plant growth regulators 8. Use of plastic mulch/use of plastic for germination of seeds e.g. guava 9. Frequent inspection for diseases, pests and timely control measures. 10. Use of bio-pesticides/bio-fertilizers/bio-agents 11. Soil sterilization 12. Mechanization: Use of controlled irrigation, fertigation, soil sterilization unit, media siever, media mixer, trays/pots/bags filling machines, grafting machines.  Why Hi-tech Nursery ? Controlled conditions offer higher scope for faster multiplication of appropriate size of plants of desired quality & standards. Favorable growing conditions can be provided for raising propagules due to ideal media, temperature conditions and constant high R.H. leading to higher multiplication rates. High success rate and better crop stand due to less mortality of plants. Easy maintenance and better management of propagules. Better application of plant protection chemicals, manures and fertilizers for efficient management of diseases and pests. Containerized plants are less crowded and more healthier & stockier. Better maintenance of high-value plants which can be efficiently multiplied under controlled conditions.  Importance of Hi-tech Nurseries It maintains all requisite and recommended nursery features, scion/mother plants, protected structures, mist chambers, rootstock banks, primary and secondary hardening structures, hot beds, cold frames, bio-compost units, automated and machines, tissue culture unit, follows all nursery standards. Genuine source of quality plants and follow all quarantine and virus indexing protocols. Hi-tech propagation methods and automated plant propagation techniques can effectively be employed. It is registered and also accredited. Both low and hi-value foliage and woody plants can be propagated and maintained most efficiently. Follow all recommended standards for containers, potting media, quality water, bio-regulators, bio-agents, etc. All the year availability of quality planting material of desired age and size.  Nursery Management Often we consider the nursery management and plant propagation are same, though they are altogether different but inter-related. In fact large scale multiplication of quality planting materials is the central theme of nursery management. Nursery management is a trade oriented dynamic process, which refers to efficient utilization of resources for economic returns. The main phases of nursery management are: i. Planning Demand for planting materials Provision of mother block Requirement of land area Proper layout Water supply Working tools Growing structures and inputs availability Accessibility Trained manpower Plant protection Disposal of planting materials, etc. ii. Implementation: Land treatment, protection against biotic interference and soil erosion, proper layout, input supply. iii. Monitoring and evaluation: Physical presence, rapid response, critical analysis, incentive to workers. iv. Feed back for further refinement.  Types of Nurseries According to the Type of Sale 1. Retail Nurseries: Retail nurseries raise plants for sale to the general public. These places are small, locally owned nurseries that sell seasonal, annuals, ornamental trees, other landscaping plants and garden decoration to the general public or companies that specialize in a particular type of plant, such as tropical plants, citrus trees, bulbs or roses. 2. Wholesale Nurseries: Wholesale nurseries usually grow plants in bulk for the purpose of selling to large clients. These clients may include florists, garden centers or departmental stores. A wholesale nursery may fill a niche for particular types of plants, such as vegetables or houseplants, or they may grow a general selection of plants to sell such as fruits, vegetables and landscaping plants.  Types of Nurseries According to the Type of Sale Contd……. 3. Private Nurseries: A private nursery grows plants exclusively for a single client. The private nursery may be owned by the client or it may be under contract for use by the client. Clients for private nurseries include large estates, corporations and institutions. These nurseries are concerned with raising documented historical plants for the historic preservation of the estates. 4. Mail Order: Privately owned, retail and wholesale businesses may all be involved in mail order businesses. As shipping technology improved, it became possible to ship dormant ornamental trees and bedding plants via mail. The internet has largely shifted mail order from catalog to online shopping. Bedding plants may be shipped via postal carrier, but are primarily handled through third-party shipping agents. Different Structures used for Hi-Tech Nursery Greenhouse Net house Mist chamber Cold frames Hot beds Lath house Micro irrigation with fertigation Fogger system Use of PGRs Use of advanced containers Greenhouse : It is structure constructed of plastic, poly ethylene and fiber glass having microclimate control and ample light availability needed for propagating plants by seeds, cutting and grafting. Lath houses  Lath (lath - thin strip of wood) or shade houses provide outdoor shade and protect container-grown plants from high summer temperature and high light irradiation.  They reduce moisture stress and reduce the moisture requirement of plants.  Lath houses have many uses in propagation, particularly in conjunction with the hardening off and acclimatization of liner plants* prior to transplanting and for maintenance of shade requiring plants. *Liners is a horticultural term referring to very young plants, usually grown for sale to retailers or wholesalers, who then grow them to a larger size before selling them to consumers. Liners are usually grown from seeds, but may also be grown from cuttings or tissue culture. Net house: Suitable for propagation of shade loving plants like orchids, pansy, gerbera, etc. It provides necessary ventilation and maintains an ideal temperature for germination of seeds and subsequent growth of the seedlings.  Hotbed: It is used for growing small tender seedlings and rooting of cuttings. A hotbed is a bed of soil enclosed in a glass or plastic frame. It is heated by manure, electricity, steam, or hot-water pipes. Hotbeds are used for forcing plants or for raising early seedlings. Cold frame: It is used for hardening of rooted cuttings. Cold frames utilize only heat of sun retained by the transparent covering, when we place tender plants in cold frames, initially the covering is generally kept closed tightly to maintain high humidity.  Mist chamber  Mist propagation chamber is a unit where artificial relative humidity is maintained more than 90% by spraying water with pressure.  Special nozzles those can produce very fine mist are used in this technique. It helps in reducing the loss of plant moisture and helpful for rooting of cuttings and hardening off tissue cultured plants.  Physical and Financial Resources for Nursery Nursery can be a profitable venture only when it is thoroughly planned.  Nursery depends on its physical resources as well as the financial resources.  The physical resources include, land, water, labour and other supporting items such as transport, market communication facilities and availability of required technical knowhow.  Second resource is finance. The capital requirement of a nursery should be fulfilled sufficiently and timely. There are several sources for finance, like, the banks, co-operative societies, personal loans, Govt. subsidies etc. It must be remembered that none of the above suffice 100 per cent requirement. Even though the budgets are planned, it takes much time to get the money in hand. It is therefore very essential to know these two aspects thoroughly.  Physical Resources for Nursery 1. Land: Basic and fundamental physical resource for plant nursery. The area available must be considered before planning the nursery and the products.  Soil sample testing should be done to avoid problematic and unmanageable soils. Soil should be well drained, porous and light to medium in texture.  Soil pH should be 6.0 – 7.5. Heavy, black cotton soil, sandy, ill drained and soils having high pH more than 8 should be strictly avoided.  Low lying land should not be selected. The soils should be free from salts and other harmful elements.  The selected site should be close to railway station or bus station.  Wind breaks and shelter belts should be raised prior to planting nursery plants.  Physical Resources for Nursery 2. Irrigation facilities: Required land with sufficient and assured supply of irrigation is the most important basic resource. Quality of irrigation water should be at prescribed level. Harmful factors can be tested by water testing in laboratory. The pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of irrigation water should be tested. 3. Labour: Labour is another important resource. Degree of mechanization must be considered before estimating the labour requirement. Skilled as well as unskilled manpower is necessary for grafting, budding, weeding, irrigation, spraying, dusting, training, pruning, etc. Technically sound gardeners are also necessary. Labour should be available at reasonable rates. 4. Mother Plants: Mother plants are the most important factor for successful nursery. Separate planting of mother plants is necessary. Different varieties of mother plants are planted in different plots. Pests and diseases are controlled regularly by spraying pesticides and fungicides. Mother plants should be authentic and selected from Government nurseries or from Agricultural Universities. Mother plants should be selected very carefully as the sale of the nursery stock depends on the mother plants used for the propagation. 5. Electricity: Regular supply of electricity is very essential. Electricity is required for water pumps, spraying, dusting and many other operations. 6. Road and Transport: Once the nursery stock is ready for sale, there should be good roads and transport facilities. These facilities are also required for timely importing of stock and other material for the nursery. 7. Propagation Structures: Propagation structures are very essential for production of grafts or seedlings. They are useful for multiplication of grafts and seedlings. Hardening off plants is done with the help of propagation structures. 8. Space for Hardening off Nursery Plants  Small shade net houses are required for hardening off nursery plants. Young, pampered seedlings that were grown either indoors or in a greenhouse will need a period to adjust and acclimatize to outdoor conditions, prior to planting. This transition period is called "hardening off".  Hardening off gradually exposes the tender plants to wind, sun and rain and toughens them up by thickening the cuticle on the leaves so that the leaves lose less water.  This helps prevent transplanting shock in which the seedlings have a stunted growth or they die from sudden changes in temperature.  Hardenings off time depend on the type of plants grown and the temperature fluctuations.  9. Fencing: Hedges like golden duranta (thorny shrub), and agave are used as hedges in nurseries. Barbed wire fencing is also used. Hedges protect the nursery plants from wild and stray animals, theft, etc. They fix the borders of the nursery and are ornamental and decorative. 10. Store and Office Garden tools, implements, raw materials, insecticides, fungicides, manures, fertilizers, boards, polythene bags, etc. are stored in store house. An ideal nursery has at least one well managed office for keeping all registers, notebooks, information books and for instructing the team. The record of mother plants, progeny, stock of plants, etc. is preserved in office.  Financial Resources for Nursery 1. Bank Loans: Terms and conditions differ from bank to bank, state to state. 2. Financial Resources from Government: National Horticulture Mission (NHM) started in 2005 in India with an objective to establish ideal nurseries for production of genetically pure plant materials. Nurseries in the public sectors (on government establishments) are entitled to get 100 per cent subsidies on expenditure. The nurseries in the private sector get a subsidy of 50 per cent on their expenditures. There are two types of nurseries based on their sizes. Big nurseries are those with size of 1 hectare area. Such nurseries are entitled to receive financial assistance up to Rs. 30 Lakhs as subsidy. The small nurseries with size of 1 Acre are entitled for a subsidy up to Rs. 18 Lakhs. The subsidies are given as per the bank loans sanctioned. 3. Financial Resources from Private Sector: There are various private financing institutes funding the establishment of horticultural nurseries. Private Credit Co-operative Societies also extend loan facilities to nurseries.  Techniques for nursery plant production  Container grown Plants  In modern nurseries, plants are grown in containers, made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), plastic, metal or clay. However, peat fiber pots, paraffin paper cups and polyethylene bags are also common. Nursery production in containers has gone through many changes in the last few years. In past, mostly clay pots, peat containers, plastic pots containers were used for growing nursery plants.  Now-a-days, nursery growers mostly raise nursery in hardened polystyrene or plastic containers. Although use of polystyrene and plastic containers is a significant financial investment; however, most of these can be reused several times.  Reusable containers must be sterilized after every use. Usually 10% chlorine bleach solution is used for sterilizing the containers. Advantages of container grown nurseries include  More efficient use of resources i.e. space, water and fertilizers.  Management of nursery is easy and with less labour, more plants can be raised in same space.  Due to shallow tap root system, transportation and transplanting of plants are easy and without any root damage. Moreover, plants can be raised and transplanted whole the year round.  Plants can be shifted/stored under shade before planting without any mortality issues. Seedling Trays/ Pro-trays/Plug-trays  The dimensions of the trays generally are 54.0 cm in length and 27.0 cm in width and cavity depth is 4.0 cm.  These trays are made of polypropylene and re-usable.  Life of the tray depends on the handling of the seedling trays.  Seedling trays have been designed in such a way that a sapling gets a pre-calculated growing media and the right amount of moisture.  The trays have pre-punched holes to each cavity for proper drainage of excess water and also right spacing. Advantages of Raising Seedling in Pro-trays:  Growing in seedling trays with right growing media helps in proper germination as it provides independent area for each seed to germinate and grow.  Seedling mortality or damping off diseases are reduced by using sterilized growing media. This results in uniform and healthy growth of all seedlings.  The use of trays enables easy handling and economy in transportation.  The use of trays improves germination and saves a lot of expensive seeds.  Root development in seedlings is better and no root damage while transplanting is almost avoided. This results in uniform crop with early maturity. Root-trainer A root trainer is a special container that encourages a plant’s roots to grow straight down, towards the bottom of the trainer. A root trainer has a hole in the bottom to allow air pruning of roots, and it has grooves on the inside to prevent the roots from circling around the container.  Seedlings grown in root trainers have more vigorous and rapid root growth than seedlings grown in polybags.  Out planting survival and more importantly, long-term survival are much better.  Plants grown in root trainer systems are often ready for planting out when they are substantially smaller than those from conventional polybags.  This helps to reduce space requirements in the nursery and transport costs to the field. Selection of Media The substrate on which seeds are sown, germinated, seedlings grown and cuttings rooted is known as growing medium. Different ingredients are used in varying composition for preparing commercial or homemade growing media. Media for plant growth and seed germination have great significance in nursery business. The material for rooting and growing media may be used either alone or incorporated with one or more products in combination. Ideal medium has the following qualities: Should be firm and dense that can hold the propagation material (seeds, cuttings, layers etc.) properly. Should have good water holding capacity and must be porous so that air can move and excessive moisture can drain out easily. Should be free from weeds, diseases and insect-pests. Should be properly decomposed with pH range from 5.5-6.5 and very low concentrations of salts. Should be cheap, easily available and can easily be mixed with other media. Integrated Nursery Disease Management  Selection of apparently healthy seeds/propagules for seedling production.  Seed dressing with 0.2% Carbendazim/Benomyl/Thiram.  Sowing in sterilized/fumigated, clean beds and adequate watering.  Using sterilized budding knife, secateurs, and scissors during budding and grafting.  Transplanting seedling after root dip for 3-5 min in 0.02% Carbendazim solution.  Healthy planting material maintenance by keeping them under proper sunlight, watering and clean environment  Frequent examination of seedling health and removal of diseased stocks.  Foliar spray of 0.2% Carbendazim/Dithane M-45 at regular interval