Introduction
A nursery is a controlled site for the production of seedlings either by seeds or vegetative methods under optimal conditions before they are ready to be planted. The prime aim of a nursery is to produce sufficient amount of good quality healthy planting material to meet up the consumer needs. Fruit production is the source for the employment and livelihood of many people in India. The fruit growers have been adopting conventional, tried-and-tested methods for eons. With the increase in the population the demand for the fruits has been increasing in both the domestic and foreign export markets. As a result, the demand for quality planting materials has increased many folds and the nursery sector in our country has grown rapidly in recent years. True-to-type, healthy planting material is required for the production of highly productive and disease resistant fruit plants. Hence, a healthy nursery with quality planting material is the key to a highly successful and productive orchard.
Settlement of a fruit nursery:
There are certain recommendations for maintaining the proper nursery hygiene and avoiding the risk of insect-pests harming the health of quality planting material in the nursery. Certain considerations to be kept in mind before the setting up of a nursery are:
Site
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It must be built in an area which is agro-climatically favorable for the production of envisaged crops.
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Gentle slopes are preferred as they attain good drainage and encourage air circulation.
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Soil should be rich in nutrients, organic matter.
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Sufficient space should be there for construction of plant houses, work areas (for media preparation, media filling, grafting), storage houses (separate chemical stores), offices, amenities, pathways and parking for vehicles.
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It should be near to reliable source of water that is enough for current and future needs.
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It should be kept isolated from the orchard of same crop as they can act as a vector for insect-pests and various pathogens leading to spread of diseases in the nursery.
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There should be a reliable power source of electricity (no hindrance in automated irrigation system).
Production areas
Separate structures are raised for carrying different operations in the nursery.
Structure/Area |
Operation carried |
Propagation house |
Seed sowing, grafting/budding |
Mother block |
Primary repository of true to type material |
Pot-filling |
Potting of germinated seedlings or grafted trees |
Plant house |
Growing of potted plants, hardening-off plants |
Dispatch house |
Sorting out trees prior to transplanting |
Chemical store |
Storing and preparation of chemicals |
Irrigation unit |
Water treatment system |
Store house |
Storing equipment, machinery and other supplies |
Support services |
Administration office and customer reception |
Plant house
Protected environment conditions by controlling heat, light and wind is provided inside the plant houses promoting the growth of seedlings. Basically, plant houses are of three types
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Detached– stand independently and may have access to work area or plant house. E.g. Quonset and gable houses.
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Lean-to– leans against wall of any pre-existing structure
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Ridge/furrow– two or more houses are connected at the eave with a common gutter. As the span area connected by gutter expands, heat and light becomes less uniform and difficult to control.
Different structural components are available in the market for the framing and covering of these plant houses. Earlier, bamboo frames were used for the framing but in modern day’s aluminum or steel are used for the construction of frames.
Appropriate covering material should be selected for the frames. It should allow sufficient light to pass through it and retain enough heat energy inside.
Covering material |
characteristics |
Glass |
90 % light transmittance |
Acrylic |
Long service life, high coefficient of expansion and contraction, 80 % light transmittance, inflammable and costly |
Polycarbonate |
Low inflammability, 78 % light transmittance but reduces with life |
Fiberglass reinforced plastic panels (FRP) |
80 % light transmittance, 6- 12 years of life spam |
Polyethylene |
88 % light transmittance, UV stabilized sheet, 200 micron (0.2mm) thickness |
Temperature management in plant houses
The temperature can be managed by using shade nets of selective color, positioning of plant containers and irrigation timely. During the summers heat buildup can be reduced by increasing the shade. Internal screening of plant houses is done with a green shade cloth for reducing heat in summers, conserving heat in winters and allowing proper air circulation. However, greenhouses provide better controlled conditions than screen/shade houses, with in-built ventilation windows, watering systems and evaporative coolers.
Media/Pot mixture preparation
The good quality media should consist of all types of essential ingredients required to aid the healthy growth of seeds and seedlings grown. Various ingredients used in the media preparation differ in their capacity to maintain drainage, aeration, hold nutrients and release of toxins. The growing media should be slightly acidic – neutral with pH of 6 – 6.5.Different organic and inorganic ingredients used in the media preparation are as:
Inorganic ingredients
Product |
Aeration |
Water holding |
Nutrient holding |
Toxins |
Vermiculite |
Good |
Good |
Fair |
Low salinity |
Washed river sand |
Fair - good |
Poor |
Poor |
Low salinity |
Perlite |
High |
High |
Good |
Low |
Canal silt |
Poor |
Moderate |
Variable |
Variable |
Organic ingredients
Product |
Aeration |
Water holding |
Nutrient holding |
Toxins |
Rice hulls |
Very good |
Poor |
Poor |
Low salinity |
Cocopeat |
Good |
Very good |
Good |
Variable salinity |
Bagasse |
Variable |
Very good |
Good |
Low salinity |
Animal manure |
Good |
Good |
Good |
Toxic if not composted |
Peat moss |
Good |
Very good |
Very good |
Low salinity |
Pine bark |
Good |
Fair |
Fair – Good |
Low if well composted |
Sawdust |
Generally fair |
Fair |
Good |
Low if well composted |
Press mud |
Very poor |
Prone to waterlogging |
K rich |
High K |
The ingredients are chosen according to the climate, crop grown and local availability. The ingredients are mixed in equal (1:1:1) proportion with the sand and garden soil. Coco coir is popularly used worldwide for the media preparation in the nursery. This media is wrapped in a clear, thin, UV-resistant plastic sheet (25–50 µm) and solarized for a period of 5 – 15 days.
Plant containers
The nursery plants can be grown on the ground or in the containers. Complete growth period from the germination of seed to final sale ready grafted plant can be attained in a single container avoiding the transplanting damage. There are many kind of containers used in nurseries which are made of different materials:
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Jiffy pots– These are biodegradable pots made of compressed peat. The roots even penetrate into the container walls and reduces the root curling.
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Poly-bags– These are made of polyethylene sheets with drainage holes at bottom. Sometimes, the roots get spiraled up at the base resulting in the restriction of plant growth.
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Root trainers– These have internal vertical ribs which encourage the roots to grow downward (tap root) and reduces root curling. They can be set above the ground in order to air prune the roots. It offers a great survival rate to the plants and get plants ready earlier to polybags.
Mother block/ Bud line
The production of true to type quality material is the major aim of the nursery. For the production/supplication of healthy planting material it’s necessary that scion/bud wood should be collected from true to type mother plants. Since, for the regular supply and timely availability of the scion/bud material, mother block is raised in the nursery where high yielding clones of the registered and released varieties of the fruit crops are maintained inside the mother block. These mother plants should be obtained from authentic/reliable sources like research stations, government nurseries or from registered nurseries of repute. The maintained lines should be labeled as per variety and be numbered serially. The layout of different varieties grown inside the mother block should be maintained in a register. Genetic purity (true to variety), healthy, vigorous and high yield are some of the considerations foe the selection of mother plants. All the commercial agronomic operations are carried out inside the mother block specific to variety recommendations. Regular pruning is done for the production enough scion wood for propagation. Rigorous monitoring should be done to keep plants free from the insect pests and diseases.
Quality propagule production
Production of the quality planting material with preserving the characteristics of mother plant is done in two ways:
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Sexual propagation
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Asexual/vegetative propagation
Sexual propagation
The sexual propagation of the planting material is done by the means of seed. The mature seed constitutes of three parts: a) outer seed coat, protecting the seed, b) endosperm, which is the food reserve and c) the embryo, which is the plant itself. When seed gets favorable environment, it germinates and starts its active growth. Seed is the easiest mean of propagation and is a source for rootstock production. Healthy rootstocks can be produced which will impart good impact on the vigor, precocity, yield and longevity of the scion.
Seed collection, extraction and sowing
The seeds are collected from seed bank/orchard. Otherwise, healthy mature fruits have been collected from the trees, just prior to falling to so as to avoid exposure to soil moisture and microorganisms. The seeds are extracted out of the fruit, cleaned and treated with fungicide (Thiram or Captan @ 2 g/kg seeds) without causing any damage to seed. It is generally advocated to use fresh seed for seedling raising. The orthodox seeds (guava, cashew etc.) which can retain its viability for long period can be stored and sown later, but recalcitrant seeds (citrus, mango, jackfruit, avocado, mangosteen, lychee, rubber, cocoa etc.) need to be sown immediately after extraction.
Pre sowing treatment
Seeds are subjected to pre sowing treatments with different chemicals to overcome dormancy, increase the germination index, uniform germination and seedling vigour. In most of the methods seeds are treated for 24 hours prior to sowing while, it take few to several days in others. The treatment are applied according to the nature and dormancy characters of the seed to be treated. The most commonly used methods are:
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Hot water soaking (Mango, jamun)
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Cold water soaking (Ber, Guava, macadamia Nut)
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Boiled water treatment
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Scarification (mechanical, acid, manual) methods (Guava, ber, jackfruit)
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Fire/heating methods
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Alternate wetting and drying
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Soaking in chemicals
Crop |
Chemical |
Rate of application |
Cultivars preferred |
Mango |
GA₃ KNO₃ |
100 ppm 0.5 % (Aatla et al. 2013) |
Olour, Goa, Kensington Pride, Vellaikulumban |
Citrus |
ZnSO4 GA₃ |
1500 ppm 2000 ppm (Sharaf et al. 2016) |
Rough Lemon, Karna Khatta, Trifoliate Orange, Troyer Citrange, Rangpur Lime, Gajanimma, Grapefruit |
Guava |
GA₃ HCl |
1000 ppm 10 % (Dinesh et al. 2019) |
Pusa Srijan |
Jackfruit |
GA₃ NAA MH |
200 ppm 50 ppm (Harshavardhan, 2012) 1000 ppm (Singh et al. 2002) |
NS – 1, Black Gold |
Ber |
GA₃ |
200 ppm (Hore et al. 1994) |
Jhar Ber, Banarasi Karka |
Karonda |
Cow urine GA₃ |
25 % (Shreesty, 2019) 25 ppm (Bankar, 1987) |
Konkan bold, CHES K-II-7, CHESK-35. |
Papaya |
KNO₃ Thiourea BA GA₃ |
1 % 1000 ppm 100 ppm 100 ppm (Arjun et al. 2017) |
Solo, Honey Dew, Washington, Coorg Green |
Sapota |
KNO₃ GA3 Triacontanol |
1 % 100 ppm 0.1 % (Shirol et al. 2005) |
Rayan, Khirni |
Aonla |
KNO₃ GA₃ |
1 % (Chiranjeevi et al. 2017) 600 ppm (Rinku et al. 2019) |
Banarasi, Local cultivars |
Custard apple |
Thiourea Cow dung slurry |
1 % 10 % (Mane et al. 2018) |
soursop, sugar apple or pond apple |
Loquat |
GA₃ |
250 ppm (El-Refaey, 2005) |
Henry, Mark, Ulleta, Wild loquat |
The seeds should be sown at appropriate distance and depth in the nursery beds.
Asexual/Vegetative propagation
True to type plants identical to the mother plants are raised by the vegetative means. Cuttings can be obtained from the mother block and planted directly in the field or operations like grafting, budding, layering can be practiced on the previously growing seedlings in the nursery. The vegetative methods of propagation for different crops are:
Crop |
method |
Time |
Cultivars preferred |
Mango |
Grafting |
May – June |
Alphonso, Sindhu, Ratna, Amarpalli, Kesar |
Guava |
Budding Air-layering |
June – July |
L-49, Shweta, Lalit, Red Flesh, Allahabad Safeda |
Citrus |
T-Budding Inverted-T |
Mar/Sept Jul – Aug |
Nagpur Santra, Kinnow mandarin, Valencia, Malta, Mosambi, Hamlin, Jaffa, Kagzi Lime, Baramasi Lemon |
Pomegranate |
Cutting, Air-layering |
July – Aug |
Bhagwa, Kandhari, Ganesh, Sinduri, Jalore Seedless |
Grapes |
Cutting/grafting |
Feb – Mar |
Thompson Seedless, Sonaka, Sharad Seedless, Perlet |
Aonla |
Shield budding Softwood Graft |
June – Aug |
Chakaiya, Kanchan, Krishna, NA 6, NA 7, NA 10. |
Ber |
Shield budding |
June – Sept |
Umran, Seb, Gola, Kaithli, Goma Kirti, Mundia |
Sapota |
Approach graft |
Feb – Mar |
Cricket Ball, Kalipatti |
Custard Apple |
Budding |
June – Sep |
Arka Sahan, Red Sitaphal, Mammonth |
Bael |
Budding |
June – Aug |
Pant Nagar Selections, NB 5, NB 9 |
Datepalm |
Off shoots /Suckers |
Aug – Sept Feb – Mar |
Zahidi, Halawy, Khunaizi, Medjool, Barhee |
Karonda |
Air layering Budding |
June – July |
Pant Manohar, Pant Suvarna, Pant Sudarshan. |
Micropropagation
It is a vegetative method for the production of genetically identical plants by tissue culture techniques. A plant tissue (explant) is cut from the plant, disinfested and placed on a growing medium (Murashige medium). This explant is introduced to a cytokinin and auxin rich medium where shoot and root formation occurs. Later, these plants are taken out of medium and acclimatized for growing in open conditions. Aonla, mango, bael, banana, and guava are observed to be successfully growing by micropropagaion.
Nursery Hygiene
The hygiene maintenance aims at keeping nursery weeds, insect-pests and disease free. Different activities involved in hygiene management are:
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Heathy planting material
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Control access activities and manage people
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Clean working areas and sterilized equipment’s
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Clean water
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Waste management
Nutritional disorders, weeds, pests and disease management
The plants should be supplied with adequate nutrients for maintaining the healthier and fast growth. Fertilizers should be applied either directly in the plant containers or foliar application should be done.
Weeding should be practiced at defined intervals to reduce the competition for the nutrients among the plants. Many microorganisms may arise in the nursery from numerous sources present in the field or outside by wind or rains. These microorganisms acts as a source for different pests and diseases. So, IPM procedures should be followed and target sprays are on the plants with symptoms.
Production skills and market orientation
As a specialized commercial enterprise, the success of a nursery depends upon the quality of the planting material raised by it. Plant age, height, stock-scion variety, nutritional status are some of the factors that must be taken into consideration for improving the sale. The infrastructure raised (polyhouses, shadenets etc.) should be utilized efficiently. Advertisements should be made through various social networks and publically for accentuation.
Conclusion
Demand for the quality planting material of fruit crops has been increasing tremendously over the years. Most of the orchards are raised on poor quality seedlings making them susceptible to different diseases-disorders and low production per capita. Hence, nursery production is a good entrepreneurial tool for the production of large quantity of planting material in a limited space and act as a source of livelihood for many people.
References
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Aatla, Hima Bindu and Srihari D (2013). Influence of pre-sowing treatments on germination, growth and vigor of mango cv. ALPHONSO, Asian J. Hort., 8(1: 122-125.
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Dinesh A, Padmapriya S, M Kavino, K Raja and KB Sujatha (2019). Effect of different physical and chemical methods of seed treatment on germination and seedling growth attributes of guava (Psidium guajava), Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry; 8(3): 4373-4377.
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Hore J K and Sen SK (1994). Role of presowing seed treatment on germination,seedling growth and longevity of Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana ) seeds. Indian J. Agric. Sci., 28:285-289.
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Singh D K, Bhattacharya B and Mondal K (2002). Role of pre-sowing seed treatment with different chemicals on germination behavior and seedling growth of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). Env. and Eco, 20:741-743.
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Bankar G J (1987). A note on influence of gibberellic acid on seed germination and vigour of seedlings in Karonda (Carissa carandas). Prog. Hort., 19:90-92.
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Bertocci F, Vecchio V and Casini P (1997). Effect of seed treatment on germinationresponse of Papaya (Carica papaya ). Ad v. in Hort. Sci., 11:99-102
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Shirol A M, Hanamashetti S I, Kanamadi V C, Thammaiah N and Patil S (2005). Studies on pre-soaking, method and season of grafting of Sapota rootstock Khirnee. Agric. Sci.,18:96-100.
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Harshavardhan Aand Rajasekhar M (2012). Effect of pre-sowing seed treatments on seedling growth of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). Journal of Research ANGRAU, Vol.40 No.4 pp.87-89.
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Shreesty Pal, T R Sharma and Nagar O P (2019). Effect of Cow Urine and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) on Seed Germination, Growth and Survival of Karonda (Carissa carandas L.) Seedlings. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 8(11): 1967-1978.
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Rinku Verma, C S Pandey, S K Pandey and Kumudani Sahu (2019). Influence of Pre-Sowing Seed Treatment and Growing Conditions on Growth Performance of Indian Gooseberry Seedlings (Emblica officinalisGaertn). Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 8(03): 1936-1948.
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Chiranjeevi M R, B M Muralidhara, M K Sneha and Shivanand Hongal (2017). Effect of Growth Regulators and Biofertilizers on Germination and Seedling Growth of Aonla (Emblica officinalisGaertn). J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 6(12): 1320-1326.
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Mane S B, Jaiswal SB, Parse R N and Naglot U M (2018). Effect of Different Pre-Sowing Treatment on Seed Germination and Growth in Custard Apple (Annona squmosa). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Special Issue-6 pp. 1744-1748.
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Arjun Manohar Parab, J C Mathad and K V Malshe (2017). Effect of pre-soaking chemicals on germination and subsequent seedling growth of papaya (Carica papaya) cv. Solo. International Journal of Chemical Studies; 5(4): 1812-1816.
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El-Refaey F A and El-Dengawy (2005). Promotion of seed germination and subsequent seedling growth of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica, Lindl) by moist-chilling and GA3 applications. Scientia Horticulturae 105: 331–342.
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Sharaf M M, Atawia A R, Bakry K A and EL-Rouby M Z (2016). Effect of Pre-Sowing Seeds Soak in Different GA3 and ZnSo4 Solutions on Germination and Growth of Cleopatra Mandarin and Rangpur Lime Rootstocks.Middle East J. Agric. Res., 5(2): 233-238, ISSN: 2077-4605.
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