Resource Book on Horticulture Nursery Management

a. Seedbed Preparation: The seedbeds should be prepared in an area having loose
and well-drained soil. The seed bed should have 1.5 m width, 10-20 cm height to
provide drainage and of convenient length with 75 cm space between beds. The
seedbeds should be drenched with Chlorpyriphos @ 0.05% before sowing of the
seed nuts. To prevent bud rot/dry rot in the seedlings, the nursery can be drenched
with Mancozeb @ 3% solution.
b. Sowing of Nuts: The seed nuts are sown in rows with spacing of 30 cm (between
rows) and 30 cm (between nuts) with four or five rows per bed. The nuts may be
planted either horizontally with the widest of the segments at the top or vertically
with stalk-end up. The nuts are then covered with soil, such that the top portion of
husk alone is visible. Only seed nuts with nut water should be selected for sowing.
c. Poly Bag Nursery: Poly bag nursery can be adopted for producing seedlings with
greater vigour. The seeds can be sown in black polythene bags of 500-gauge
thickness, 45x45 cm size for bigger nuts and 30x30 cm for smaller nuts. The
bottom of the bags is to be provided with 8-10 holes for draining the excess water.
To fill bigger bags around 10-12 kg and for smaller bags around 7-8 kg of potting
mixture will be required. The commonly recommended potting media are top soil
mixed with sand in 3:1 ratio or fertile top soil, sand or coir dust and well
decomposed and powdered cattle manure in the ratio of 3:1:1. Red soil, well
decomposed cattle manure and sand in 1:1:1 can also be used.
d. In order to produce poly bag seedlings, initially the seed nuts are sown very
closely and allowed to germinate in a pre nursery bed. The seed nuts start
germinating about three months after sowing. The germinated nuts are picked out
from nursery once a week till 80 % of nut germination or 5 months from sowing,
whichever is earlier. The germinated nuts are then placed in the half filled bags
with the sprout positioned upwards in the centre of the bag and sufficient potting
mixture is added to fill the bags up to two-third portion and the sides slightly
pressed to keep the nut firm. Usually the poly bag seedlings are maintained for
about 8 to 10 months. The size of the poly bag nursery bed can be 6x3 m with
about 1 to 1.5 meters spacing between beds for hose irrigation and other cultural
operations.
7.2.3 Mass Scale Production of Vegetable Plants
A good quality seedling production is very essential for getting higher yield and
quality of produce. Vegetable seedling production is a specialized activity and farmers
buy the seedlings from these nurseries. Vegetable seedling production system has
changed in recent years in the intensive vegetables growing areas. Seedling production has
come up as a specialized enterprise in these areas.
Seedling Production Using Seedling Trays:
It is already a commercial venture to produce the seedlings of tomato, capsicum,
cauliflower and cabbage hybrids using seedling trays and protective structure. Earlier the
seedlings required for transplantation were produced by the farmers themselves. This
practice was feasible until they used the comparatively low cost open pollinated
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