Md. Sohrab Hossain Department of Agronomy HSTU, Dinajpur.

1. EXPERIMENT NO. 3
PREPARATION OF NURSERY BED FOR RAISING TOBACCO SEEDLINGS
A nursery bed may be defined as a well-prepared
plot of land where seeds are sown and get
favorable environmental conditions for
germination, and this gives rise to good seedlings
to be transplanted elsewhere.

2. Objectives:
1.To produce a greater number of seedlings in a small area.
2.To provide desirable plant density with true to the type,
healthy and uniform is vigour seedlings.
3.To eliminate the weak, poor in vigour, diseased seedlings,
rogues and seed contaminated weeds from desirable
seedlings.
4.To get enough time for ripening after maturity of the
previous or standing crop in the field.
5.To get the opportunity of using seedlings of the same age
for gap filling.
6.To reduce field duration and risks.

3. Selection of site for nursery bed
Critical points needed to be considered while selecting
nursery area are: Area selected should be well
drained, and free from water logging. There should
be proper sunlight, The nursery should be near the
water supply so that irrigation can be easy.

4. How to prepare a tobacco nursery bed for raising seedlings
A) Site selection: The nursery bed was well drained and preferable on the
higher level. It was free from flooded conditions any time but there must be
an assured irrigation facility. The soil of the nursery bed was sandy loam in
texture. The area was selected in the western part of the academic building of
our campus. It was free from weeds, previous crop residues, insects, pests,
excess salt, alkalinity, acidity and having proper fertility.
B) Land preparation: We know that the seeds of tobacco are very small;
therefore, they need a very fine fifth. The land for the nursery bed was
ploughed 8 to 10 times followed by laddering to achieve a fine tilth and
weeded till it comes to a fine tilth condition and was free of weeds.

5. C) Size of the bed:
An ideal tobacco nursery bed for covering one bigha of
land:
Length: 300cm
Width : 120cm
Distance between the two beds: 60cm.
Channel width: 50cm
Channel depth: 15cm

7. D) Sterilization of tobacco nursery bed:
1. Rabbing method of treatment
2. Sterilization by chemical treatment
E) Application of manures and fertilizers:
For this purpose, the addition of 5–6 kg of well-decomposed cow dung,
3kg compost, 45g urea, and 45g K2SO4 were recommended.

8. F) Seed selection and seed treatment:
• Physical method: Seeds are poured into a bucket containing water and the floating
ones should be taken out. The seeds are then kept in wet sunny bags. As a result,
the seed coats started splitting in three to six days and hastened the seed
germination.
• Chemical method: Sometimes to protect the seedlings from seed-borne diseases the
seed is treated with 2.5% formaline solution or Dithane M-45 before sowing them
in the nursery bed.
G) Seed rate: Seven (07) nursery beds of the mentioned size are sufficient for
planting one hectare of land where 80-90g of seeds is optimum. That is why 10 to
12g of seeds are sown in each nursery bed.

9. Method of sowing
Usually, the treated or water-soaked seeds are sown
broadcast on the surface of the beds.
Later they are mixed in the soil up to a depth of 1.5
to 2.0cm with the help of a rake.
Before sowing, the seeds are mixed with ash or fine
sand in a 1:15 or 1:20 ratio for their proper or
uniform distribution on the beds.

10. Care of the seedlings in the tobacco nursery/nursery bed
• a) To protect the young seedlings from the scorching sun or from beating rains the
nursery bed must be shaded which also minimized water loss from the beds; as a
result, the bed surface does not crack.
• b) In order to keep the beds moist irrigation is practiced with a watering can every
evening. No water is accumulated at any spot of the bed. Later the beds are
flooded with a controlled flow of water.
• c) The seedlings are thinned out 10 to 15 days after sowing to protect them from
damping off. Resetting of 3 to 4-week-old seedlings at a distance of 5 X 5cm2 in
new beds is done for hardening of the seedlings.
• d) Weeds are taken out of the beds soon after their emergence.
• e) Bordeaux mixture or DithaneM-45 is sprayed at the rate of 11 to 12 liters of
0.03% solution every 40m² areas prevented the spread of fungal diseases.

11. Precautions
a) Application of raw cow dung was strictly prohibited.
b) The seeds were not sown densely in the Nursery
bed.
c) Overwatering must be avoided. As a result, the
seedlings may be attacked with diseases and pests
especially damping off.

12. Thank you everybody for your
wonderful patience