Resource Book on Horticulture Nursery Management

material, labels, pesticides, fertilizers etc. A store-cum-office of 6.0 m x 4.5 m
constructed with locally available materials may serve the purpose.
7. Seed Beds: In a nursery, this component is essential to raise the seedlings and
rootstocks. These are to be laid out near the water source, since they require frequent
watering and irrigation. One meter wide beds of convenient length are made. A
working area of 60cm between the beds is necessary. This facilitates ease in sowing
of seeds, weeding, watering, spraying and lifting of seedlings. Irrigation channels
are to be laid out conveniently. Alternatively, sprinkler irrigation system may be
provided for watering the beds, which offers uniform germination and seedling
growth.
8. Nursery Beds: Raising of seedlings and rootstocks in polybags requires more space
compared to nursery beds but mortality is greatly reduced along with uniformity in
plant growth. Nursery bed area should also have a provision to keep the grafted
plants either in trenches 30cm deep and 1 m wide so as to accommodate 500 grafts
/layers in each bed. The grafts/ layers can be arranged on ground in form of 1 m
wide beds. There must be a 60cm working place in between the beds to facilitate
irrigation either with a spray attachment fitted to a flexible hosepipe or by overhead
micro-sprinklers.
9. Potting Mixture and Potting Yard: For better success of nursery plants, a good
potting mixture is necessary. The potting mixtures for different purposes can be
prepared by mixing fertile red soil or riverbed soil of tested pH ranging between 6.5
to 7 and electrical conductivity less than 0.5 mmhos/cm. The soil can be mixed in
well decomposed FYM, leaf mold, oil cakes etc. as organic supplement and sand in
2:1:1 proportion. The potting mixture must be prepared well in advance by adding
sufficient quantity of superphosphate for better decomposition and solubilization.
The potting mixture may be kept near the potting yard, where potting or bag filling
is done. Construction of a potting yard of suitable size facilitates potting, bag filling
of seedlings, grafting and budding operations even on a rainy day.
Structures for Nursery
Shade Houses: Shade net houses in nurseries in tropical and sub-tropical regions
offer many advantages like raising of seedlings in bags directly, protecting the grafts
from hot summer months, effective irrigation through upside down overhead
microsprinklers. Shade nets (50% or 75%) are used in shade houses for regulation of
shade. They are particularly useful in arid regions where the humidity is very low during
summer months. A nursery requires around 400 square meter area of shade house to
produce 40000 to 50000 plants in a year.
Green Houses/Polyhouses: The success rate of grafting or budding of several fruit
species under polyhouses or low cost green houses with natural ventilation is more,
besides; the growth of grafts is also faster due to favorable micro climatic conditions in
the polyhouse. In all polyhouses or green houses means of providing air movement and
air exchange is necessary to aid in controlling temperature and humidity. A green house
with heating system, self opening ventilators, and evaporative cooling systems are more
preferable. A nursery must have a poly house over 200 m 2 area.
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