Common Nursery Practices A Presentation By Mr. Allah Dad Khan Former DG Agriculture Extension KP Province

Common Nursery Practices in Fruit and Vegetables Mulching - light mulch to prevent loss of moisture. Mulching also moderates soil temperature Watering - done immediately after planting and thereafter water regularly early in the mornings and late in the evenings. Weed control- to keep the nursery bed completely weed free by uprooting all the weeds. Pricking out- crowded seedlings should be removed to a seedling bed at a spacing of 3-4 cm apart. The remaining seedling will grow strong and healthy. Pest and disease control- control by application of appropriate chemicals. e.g Furadan. Hardening off- its preparing seedlings to adapt to the conditions that exist in the seedbed 1-2 weeks before transplanting.

What is a nursery for plants? A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size.... Some nurseries specialize in one phase of the process: propagation, growing out, or retail sale; or in one type of plant: e.g., groundcovers, shade plants, or rock garden plants.

What is a vegetable nursery? Definition of Nursery. "A vegetable nursery is a place or an establishment for raising or handling of young vegetable seedlings until they are ready for more permanent planting."

Soil Types for Nursery The Ideal Soil Type: Loam. The type of soil that gardens and gardeners love is loamy soil. It contains a balance of all three soil materials—silt, sand and clay—plus humus. It has a higher pH and calcium levels because of its previous organic matter content.

Factors to be considered for raising a nursery 1) Location of the nursery 2) Near the ho 3) Well exposed to the sun but protected against severe heat. 4) Well protected against animal damage, strong winds.

Advantages of nursery raising in vegetable production 1) It is convenient to look after the ‘Baby’ seedlings 2) It is possible to provide favourable growth conditions i.e. germination as well as growth. 3) Eliminates the problem of difficult soils 4) Easy weed control 5) Reduced field management costs 6) Improved crop uniformity 7) Higher yields 8) More optimal use of Hybrid seeds 9) Shorter growing season and more efficient use of land 10)More accurate prediction of harvest date

Selection of seed for vegetables Days to MaturityOn the back of most seed packets, and in catalog or online descriptions, you will usually see something like “65 days”. If you’re looking at radishes, the number might be 22 days. If it’s bell peppers it could be as high as days. A seedling transplant (like a tomato or pepper plant) should be counted from the days it goes into the ground, so that a 70 day tomato plant should theoretically be ready for harvest just over two months after you transplant it in May or June (so harvest happens in July or August). Seeds that are sown directly into the ground (like radishes, lettuce or carrots) should be counted from the day they germinate, so those 22 day radishes planted on April 1st should be ready just right around the end of April.

Varieties of Vegetables How boring it would be if tomatoes could only be grown as medium sized, red orbs for slicing. Thankfully they come in many shapes, sizes and types, such as cherry, plum, slicing, and those that are best for making paste, sauce or for dehydrating. The same is true for most vegetables. Cucumbers can be long slicers, short slicers, mini gerkins, or various sizes of pickling varieties. Carrots are long and skinny, thick and stout, small and gourmet, even short and stubby for container growing.

Varieties of Fruit plants Beyond practicality, choosing varieties that just plain taste good is important for your gardening and eating pleasure.

Need of Nursery Bed A poorly constructed and managed nursery bed will lead to poor germination or diseased seedlings. The seedlings may fail to grow when transplanted. A farmer may lose big in buying seeds and preparing the garden again and could plant in the wrong season. These affect food security, income and nutrition since vegetables are important components for our diets.

Types of nursery bed a) Flat bed b) Raised nursery bed Preparation of raised nursery bed Selected soil should be worked well to break the clods. Weeds, stones and stubbles should be removed. Height of the raised bed should be cm with a width of 1m and length may be according to the requirement and conveniences. Two parts of fine red earth, one part of sand and one part of FYM can be incorporated to each bed to improve aeration and fertility of the soil. Before preparing the bed, the soil should be drenched wit 4 % formaldehyde or 0.3 % copper oxy chloride to kill the pathogenic spores in the soil.

Advantage of raised nursery bed Water movement will be uniform and drainage of excess water is possible (In the case of flat bed water moves from one end to the other and there is possibility of washing away of seeds). Germination percentage of seeds is normally high. Operations like weeding and plant protection measures are easy.

What is proper seed bed preparation? A seedbed or seedling bed is the local soil environment in which seeds are planted. Often it comprises not only the soil but also a specially prepared cold frame, hotbed or raised bed used to grow the seedlings in a controlled environment into larger young plants before transplanting them into a garden or field.

What is the nursery bed? Nursery Bed is a special piece of land, normally of varying sizes (big or small) prepared for raising seedlings of certain of crops which normally would not be sown directly into the field before they are transplanted. Nursery practices refer to all activities carried out when preparing and managing a nursery bed. Seedbed is a piece of land or field that normally prepared ready to receive planting materials directly or indirectly from a nursery bed.

Preparation of seed bed for Nursery A seed bed is a protected environment where plants and vegetables are sown so that they can be after some days transplanted. Sowing could be made directly in the soil, but it is usually not recommended because low temperature and unfavorable weather conditions can prevent seed germination. Instead using a seed bed we can control climate and temperature thus increasing the amount of vegetables we could have at our disposal.

A nursery bed is a prepared plot of land for raising seedlings. It acts as a temporary home for young plants until they are eventually planted in a main garden. Vegetables such as cabbages, onions, tomatoes, eggplants are best raised in the nursery bed. The nursery should be near the main garden to avoid damage of seedlings during transplanting. The water source should also be near for irrigation. The nursery bed should be protected from strong winds and should never be located on a slope to avoid erosion of seeds and nutrients, it should face east-west direction and should never be put in a water logged area.

Bed preparation After site selection, clear the land. Measure 1m wide of any convenient length, dig it well at least to a depth of m so that stones and roots lying underneath are dug out and thrown outside the nursery. If the soil is gravely, it should be sieved through a ne wire mesh to remove gravel. The soil should then be mixed with farmyard manure with one wheelbarrow of compost and sand for 3m2 to make at least a 7cm layer. Charcoal dust and ashes can also be mixed in the bed to correct the acidity of soil and keep away worms. Note that inorganic fertiliser can also be added during bed preparation at rate of 900gm of NPK fertiliser per 9m2 of bed area.

Planting seeds Seeds should be planted at spacing of 15cm between rows, cover the seeds lightly and mulch the bed with dry grass. The bed should have been watered thoroughly on the day prior to sowing. Mulching a nursery bed soon after sowing seeds is a must.

Maintenance of nursery bed Mulch the seed bed after sowing until germination. Provide enough shade to the crop after germination 1m above bed. Thin the crops properly, remove weak or diseased seedlings and keep the bed weed-free.

Transplanting Transplant seedlings after 21–30 days. Harden the crop by removing the shade a day before transplanting as this gives the seedling chance to get used to the direct sun. Reduce water at this stage. Transplant at recommended spacing per crop early in the morning or late in the evening (from 6:00am to 10:00am or 4:00 to 6:00pm) and plants should receive water as soon as transplanting is done.

Sterilization of seed bed Using the heat of the sun to sterilise seed beds is a cheap and simple method of sterilising soil. When planting seed beds it is very helpful first to reduce the number of micro-organisms found naturally in the soil which can cause disease. There are chemical methods of doing this but they are expensive and may result in pollution. Solarisation is a technique developed It uses plastic sheets to cover the soil to be prepared as a seed bed.

Method First prepare carefully the area to be used as a seed or nursery bed. Remove stones and rubbish, dig and level the soil. Water it very well. Cover it using a clear plastic sheet. The bed must be narrower than the plastic sheet. If the plastic sheet is 120cm wide, for example, prepare a bed that is 90cm wide. Bury the edges of the plastic in a small trench and cover them with earth to hold the plastic in place.

Leave the plastic covering the soil for five sunny days. If there are cloudy days, leave it covering the soil for longer. The heat of the sun through the plastic will warm the soil to very high temperatures (40–50°), killing most micro-organisms and weed seeds. After removing the plastic carefully so it can be reused, plant the seeds immediately to gain the maximum benefit. You will notice that there is a higher rate of germination (so you will need fewer seeds) and better growth.