2. Orchard
•Orchard is a long-term investment and needs lot
of planning and expertise.
•While planning and planting a new orchard,
utmost attention and care is to be given to
various aspects like,
•Selection of location and site
•Nature of soil and subsoil
•Planning of suitable kinds and varieties of
fruits
•Proper planting distance and
•Purchasing of plants from reliable source
3. Planning
The critical components like
•Roads,
•Orchard structures like office, implements shed,
godown-cum-store, pump houses etc.
•Fence and windbreak,
•Irrigation,
•Spacing and planting materials need adequate
attention.
4. Laying out of orchards
•Aim at providing maximum number of trees/ha
•Adequate space for proper development of the trees
•And ensuring convenience in orchard cultural
practices.
The system of layout can be grouped under two
broad categories viz.
a) Vertical row planting pattern
b) Alternate row planting system
5. a) Vertical row planting pattern
Square system
•In this system a tree is planted at each corner
of a square whatever may the planting
distance.
•The distance between row to row and plant to
plant is same.
6. Merits
•Easy to lay out.
•More space between row to row
•Inter-cultural operations can be done in both ways.
•Plants get proper space and sunlight
Demerits
•Major disadvantage - lot of space in the centre of
each square is wasted.
7. Rectangular system
•Similar to square system, except that the
distance between plants in the row and
distance between rows is not the same but
different.
•Row to row distance is more than that from
plant to plant in the row.
8. Merits and demerits:
•It has almost all the advantages of the square system
but cultivation is somewhat difficult, especially when
the trees have fully grown.
9. b) Alternate row planting pattern
Quincunx or filler system or diagonal system
•This is the modification of a square system of layout.
•Distinguished to make use of the empty space in the
center of each square by planting another plant is
called filler tree.
•Filler tree will be precocious and shorter duration and
not be of same kind.
10. •Guava, phalsa. plum, papaya, peaches, kinnow,
banana and pomegranate are important fillers.
•They yield some crop before the permanent trees
come into bearing.
•The filler tree is removed when the main fruit trees
grow to full stature and start bearing.
•Commercially practiced where spacing exceeds 8 m
or more or where permanent trees are very slow in
their growth and also take longer time for coming to
bearing. Eg. Sapota, Jackfruit.
11. Merits and demerits
•The main advantage of this system is that the plant
population is about double than the square system.
Accommodates 1.5 – 2 times double the number of
plants (89%) more than square system.
•The greatest disadvantage of this system is that, it is
difficult to carry out intercultural operations on
account of the filler tree.
12. Hexagonal system or equilateral triangle or septule
system
•In this system the trees are planted in each corner of
the equilateral triangle.
•Seventh tree is planted in the centre of the hexagon
and then it is called septule system.
•Distance between the rows is less than the distance
between the trees in a row, but the distance from tree
to tree in six directions remains the same.
•Usually employed, where land is
expensive and is very fertile with
good availability of water.
13. Merits and demerits
•The plants occupy the land fully without any waste as
in square system
•This system allows 15% more plants than the square
system of planting.
•Very difficult to layout - not generally followed.
14. Triangular system
•The trees are planted as in square system but the
difference being that those in the even numbered
rows are midway between those in the odd rows
instead of opposite to them.
•Triangular system is based on the principle of
isolateral triangle.
•The distance between any two adjacent trees in a
row is equal to the perpendicular distance between
any two adjacent rows.
15. Merits and demerits
•This system is not much of practical importance.
•Plants are not placed at equal distance from all sides.
•Accommodates 11 % lesser no of plants than square
system.
•Problem: Intercultural operations
16. •All the above systems are possible when the land is
flat, plain or level, but not on uneven lands and sub-
mountane areas (hilly areas).
•On undulating lands and hill slopes different types of
planting systems are followed, Viz.,
Contour and
Terracing.
17. Contour system
•It is generally followed on the hills where the plants
are planted along the contour across the slope.
•Undulated topography (slope exceeds 10 %)
•Advantages: reduce the soil erosion and conserve
the soil moisture.
18. Other systems
•Terrace system: Extension of contour system
•Double hedge planting system: accommodate 22%
higher plants than the single hedge row planting.
•Hedge row planting system commercially followed in
mechanized fruit cultivation. E.g. Apple and
Pineapple.
19. Planting of horticultural crops
The minimum vertical distance between any
two trees is called as planting distance.
Two principles – deciding the planting distance
•Trees when fully grown, the fringes of trees should
touch each other but the branches should not
interlock.
•The root of trees spread over larger area than top of
the tree, so there should be enough space for roots
to feed without competition.
20. Factors – which decide the planting
distance
Kind of fruit tree
•Mango (10 x 10 m), guava (5 x 5 m) whereas
papaya are planted at 2 x 2 m spacing.
Rainfall
•In low rainfall areas wider spacing should be
provided than high rainfall area
Soil type and soil fertility
•In heavy soil less spacing should be given
because the top and root growth are limited.
21. Root stocks
•Trees of some variety grafted on different root
stocks will grow to different size and such trees
require different planting distance. Eg. Apple
22. Pruning and training
•Trees trained on head system require closer
spacing than the other type of training.
Varietal factor: Spreading nature of varieties
requires wider spacing than upright growth types
Irrigation systems
23. Spacing generally followed for different fruit crops
Crops Spacing
Banana, Papaya and Grapes 1.8-2 m to 3 m x 1.8 m-2 to 3 m
Pineapple 30 cm x 60 cm x 90 cm
Passion fruit, Phalsa and
Pomegranate
2 m x 3 m, 3 m x 3 m
Custard Apple 4.5 m x 4.5 m
Date Palm, Fig, Mandarin,
Lime, Lemon and Sweet
Orange
6 m x 6 m
Pumelo and grapefruit 6-7 m x 6-7 m
Guava 6-8 m x 6-8 m
Sapota, Loquat and Avocado 8-9 m x 8-9 m
