Nursery management

NURSERY MANAGEMENT
FSC 505 : Propagation and nursery management for fruit crops
 Submitted to:-
Dr. B. M . Tandel
Assistant Professor,
A.C.H.F, NAU, NAVSARI.
 Submitted by:-
Solanki kaushik S.
1st sem Msc (Floriculture),
ACHF, NAU, Navsari.

Nursery is the place where planting materials are raised
either by seeds or by vegetative means with care
before transplanting at desired site.
• The word 'nursery' is also used sometimes for
young saplings raised by seeds.
• Often, we consider the nursery management and the
plant propagation are same, though they are altogether
different but inter-related.
• In fact, mass multiplication of quality planting
materials is the central theme of nursery management
but nursery management is a trade-oriented dynamic
process, which refers to efficient utilization of
resources for economic returns.

Planning edaphoclimatic and socio-economic
considerations;
 Demand for planting materials
 Provision of mother block
 Requirement of land area
 Proper layout
 Water supply
 Working tools
 Growing structures and inputs availability
 Accessibility
 Trained man power
 Plant protection
 Disposal of planting materials etc

The key elements of nursery management are
(1) The place,
(2) The plant
(3) The person behind.

(1) The place
i) Selection of site: In our country, less emphasis is given
on selection of site for the nursery.
An unsatisfactory site will increase the cost of operation
and poor stock production.
However, no site is perfect in all respect,
hence site selection requires some
compromise.
Therefore, setting up of a nursery is a long- term
venture requires careful planning, because mistake
committed initially can not be rectified easily at later
stage and may adversely affect the returns from the
investment.

ii) Layout: A perfect master plan is required otherwise
improper layout plan will cause considerable anxiety to
nursery manager in future.
The nursery lay out should be compact and as far as possible, it
should be in rectangular or square shape to minimize the length
of boundary for fencing and watch and ward point of view.
For setting up of a commercial nursery provision of wind break/
shelter break must be done all along the boundary not only to
protect against hot wind and wild life but also to modify the
micro-climatic situations.
The nursery should be connected by main road for better
approach and disposal of produce.
There should be proper provision for road and path, irrigation
and drainage channels, mother block, nursery beds, growing
structure, store, compost pit, display site-cum-sale counter
etc.

(2) The plant
i) Plant types and propagation techniques: The type of
planting materials intended to be multiplied are based on the
agro-climatic situations, type of nursery e.g. for fruits,
vegetables, ornamental plants or mixed plant types and
farmers demand.
The important arid zone fruits are: datepalm, ber, pomegranate,
guava, Citrus species, phalsa, mulberry, fig etc. which can be
grown successfully under arid zone but very little efforts have
been made so far to standardize their nursery management
practices.
Similarly, there are vegtetables melon,cluster bean, Capsicum
spp,chilli, brinjal etc. and ornamental
plants (Bougainvillia, Vinca rosa, annual chrysanthemum,
which can withstand to typical hot arid climate.

Normally, seed propagation is not recommended in
fruit crops owing to variability in growth and fruiting
because of the cross pollination, long juvenile phase,
chances of transmission of seed born diseases etc.
but, where vegetative propagation is unsuccessful,
difficult, expensive; for raising rootstocks as clonal
rootstocks are not standardized in most of the fruits
and multiplication of clonal materials is also
expensive and time consuming, for evolving new
varieties etc. the seed propagation is the feasible
alternative. Still, the seed propagation is commercially
practiced in case of papaya, phalsa, etc.

Though, the availability of stock (seeds or mother plant) of
recent released varieties are low at initial stage but by
multiplying them even at smaller quantity, one can fetch
better price in the market.
Recently, emphasis has been given for multiplication of
plants by tissue culture technique and protocol has been
standardized in some horticultural plants like date palm and
banana.
But it has so far not beencommercialized, as setting up a hi-
tech tissue culture laboratory require high cost and
specialized skill.

Most of the vegetables are grown by directly sowing the seeds in
the field, however some of the vegetables are first sown in the
nursery beds where seedlings are raised and then transplanted in
the field at desired site.
The soil of seedbed should be worked well to break the
clods.
The weeds, stones and stubbles should be removed.
Height of the raised bed should be 10-15 cm with a width of 1.25
m and length may be according to requirement and convenience
but generally, it is to be kept 6.25 m long.
Two parts of fine soil, one part of FYM can be incorporated to
each bed to improve aeration and fertility of the soil.
Before preparing the bed, soil should be drenched with 0.4 per
cent formaldehyde or 0.3 per cent copper oxychloride to kill
pathogens in the soil.

ii) Plant standard:
 Production of quality planting materials is another factor, which not
only decides the establishment of plants in the field but also useful in
handling and transportation and ultimately earning of better returns.
 There is a misconception among the growers particularly in case of
fruit plants that while purchasing the plants from the nursery, they
demand plants of big size, thick stem, large size leaves, straight
growing etc,, with the view that they will establish better and come
in early fruiting.
Therefore, there is need to educate the farmers about the standard
of quality planting materials, which differ with the plant types.

(3) The person behind
 The ultimate success depends upon the person who is
dealing the whole affairs of nursery management.
The nursery manager must understand the dynamics of
business terrain.
 He should always keep in touch withthe organizations
working on nursery management to understand the
innovations made in recent past.

In brief, a nursery manager shouldhave better
understanding of
i) well definedgoal
ii) ability to use innovations as tool,
iii) team spirit,
iv) courage to face uncertainties,
v) ability to recognizeopportunities
vi) channelizing human resource in right direction, and rapid
response.
 Nursery manager should also consider the provision of
incentives for the workers, as nursery management is a
teamwork. He should analyze the reasons for success and
failure, which will help in refining of activities in
subsequent year for better outcome.

Media for raising nursery
For satisfactory germination of seed, subsequent seedling growth and
anchorage or directly planted vegetative part of a plant and their root
and shoot development; proper media is required.
 The media may be solid, liquid or spongy moss.
In general; good soil, compost, Farm Yard Manure, shredded bark,
saw dust, sand, peat, vermiculite, perlite, and sphagnum moss
having better water holding with acidic pH.
These media are being used either alone or in combination.
 Sometimes, the amendments like gypsum and pyrite are also added in
the beds while raising the nursery.
 In some cases, organic media may also contain some toxic
materials to plants, especially when fresh.

The media should have sufficient amount of plant
nutrients, which are essential for growth and development.
 For raising seedling, soil should be friable and should
absorb water readily and dry quickly at the surface, but it
should not become dry too early.
Loam and sandy loam soils well supplied with organic
matter are good, provided that they are free from
pathogen.
To make the soil free from soil borne diseases especially
damping off, it may be disinfected by soil fumigant.

Sterilization of soil by steam soil solarization by polythene
cover is also suggested. It is recommended one part of
formalin mixed with 100 parts of water should be applied at
the rate of 4.55 liter per 0,09 square meters of surface soil
so as to saturate it up to depth of 152.40 mm.
Then the soil mixture is covered with gunny bags or a thick
paper for a day so that fumes may penetrate the soil and kill
all fungi and insects.
The soil mixture is then uncovered and left for a few days
till the smell disappeared.

In general, the media should have
following characteristics;
(i) The media must be sufficiently firm to provide anchorage to
seeds or cuttings.
(ii) It should be decomposed materials with high C/N ratio.
(iii) Its volume must be fairly constant when either wet or dry.
(iv) It should have better water holding capacity.
(v) It should be porous to drain excess water.
(vi) It should be free from weed seeds and harmful pathogens
.
(vii)Slightly acidic medium is preferred.
(viii) It should be readily available, reusable and cheaper.

Mother block
 Once an superior type of material has been identified, it
should be multiplied and maintained under conditions that
prevent recontamination and allow detection of any
significant change from the original source.
 From this further stock is maintained permanently under rigid
control to be used as primary source for all subsequent
propagation is a foundation block. It will serve as primary
repository of true-to-type of stock and not as a direct source of
propagating material itself.
 The planting stock that maintained as a source for commercial
propagation is referred to as a mother block.

 Therefore, for preservation of pathogen free planting stock;
proper isolation, sanitation, periodical inspection and testing
and maintenance are very important.
 As far as possible mother block should be in the close
proximity of the nursery site. The scion shoots should be
taken only from bearing plants.
 There should be proper record and certification
of planting stock.
 Commercial planting stock can be referred as certified stock
if it is grown under supervision of a legally designated agency
with prescribed regulations designed to maintain minimum
standards of cleanliness and clonal identity.

Raising of rootstocks :-
The plants propagated by grafting or budding require raising of
rootstocks, upon which scion shoot or bud of a promising
cultivar is grafted or budded. This should be planned well in
advance.
There are several activities like, collection/ purchase of seeds to
be sown for rootstock purpose, preparation of seed bed, use of
poly containers, filling mixture, type of seeds (orthodox or
recalcitrant), seed quality (boldness, viability, germination, free
from pest and diseases), seed treatment, time and method of
sowing, irrigation, pest, disease and weed management, thinning,
removal of basal and side branches if required, after care etc.
Under arid conditions, the sunken type (10m x 1m x 0.30 m) of
beds is recommended for raising of seedlings.
This will facilitate irrigation and prove beneficial
in well-drained sandy soils.

In general, about one-year oldrootstocks are used, which
are sown in monsoon (July-August) of previous season and
ready for grafting or budding purpose in June-September
of current year.
This practice is expensive and requires long time. Such
rootstocks invariably lose their tap root system as a result
of repeated transplanting in the nursery and plants raised
in containers developed coiled roots.

The plants with bigger earth ball arealso not feasible for
transportation at longer distance and any damage of earth
ball may cause of poor field survival.
Therefore, the rootstocks must have root structure with a
strong tendency to penetrate into deep soil horizons.
Based on the plant types, the pricking of poly container
raised plants should be done before starting budding and
grafting operations

Use of containers
Use of polythene bags/ tubes is veryuseful particularly
under sandy soil. This is very cheap and convenient
method for raising large-scale plantations. It is
normally transparent but black and blue coloured
polythene bags are also used some times.
The size of polythene bags should be decided
judiciously as small bags do not give large
seedling and large bags require more filling mixture
owing to more cost. The per unit production efficiency
of planting materials is also reduced by using over size
polybags, besides difficulty in transportation.

The chief advantage of using polybags is that
the seedling can be raised almost year the
round under controlled conditions; therefore
plantation programme will not suffer due to
dry spell or shortage of labourers. It has
suggested that the rootstock can be raised in
polythene tubes (25x 10 cm) filled with a
mixture of FYM, sand and clay (1:1:1).

Nursery is not raised generally in wooden boxes, clay
pans and earthen pots except for the flowers but it is
convenient to raise particularly vegetable seedlings as it
has several advantages like;
i) It is very easy to sow and transplant comfortably.
ii) Sowing or transplanting may be continued
whatever may be the weather outside,
iii) It is convenient to check the plant growth during
abnormal temporary weather condition,

iv) Plants raised in boxes can easily be removed
for transplanting without any damage to their
roots
v) There is an economy of labour and space if trays or
boxes of standard size are used for this purpose.
There are different types of pots available in the
market which can be use for growing of ornamental
plants particularly under indoor gardening. Besides
this there are fancy hanging pots are also available
for raising shallow rooted plants

Root trainers
Beside, genetic purity and above ground physical
growth of the plants; the root system is equally
important for better establishment under arid
conditions.
Therefore, there should be a strong uncoiled tap root system
with sufficient lateral roots. Though, the use of poly
containers/ poly bags have several advantages but if seedling
or component plant left for a longer period or undersize poly
bags used; the tap roots coiled up, thereby poor performance
after out planting.
In order to overcome these problems, root trainers are used
and the seedlings grown in root trainers are vigorous and
have rapid growth rate as compared to seedlings grown in
poly bags.

The root trainers are semi-rigid or rigid containers
with internal vertical ribs or corrugated walls and thus
roots tend to develop straight down rather than spiral
growth. There are various types of plastic or metal
containers e.g. simple plastic trainers, corrugated walled
plastic trainers, ISSA- pots etc. designed to prevent root
coiling. They have holes at the bottom for aerial pruning
of tap-root, aeration and drainage. These root trainers
are generally made of black colour plastic.

Growing structures
 The environmental manipulation i.e. managing microclimatic conditions (relative humidity,
temperature, light and gases), edaphic factors (propagation media, mineral nutrients and soil
moisture) and biotic factors (interaction of symbiotic mycorhiza fungi and other organisms)
is essential for better success of nursery activities.
There are several type of growing structures based on ecological situations, requirements and
cost involvements like; plastic covered green house, fibre glass house, Ultraviolet resistant
fibre glass house, polyhouse, shade net, lath house etc. with or without provision of misting.
These structures are not only for controlling temperature, humidity and misting but also there
is photoperiod control system, heating and cooling systems

 Mostly, partially controlled structures are used in our country. Now a days,
fully controlled automatic hi- tech nursery green house has been developed to
regulate nursery activities year the round.
 However in some cases if rootstocks are raised inside the shade net, the stocks
are thin and long with poor sap flow; owing to poor success when they are
used for grafting and budding.
 To overcome this problem, the photoperiodic requirement, and optimum input
supply coupled with proper management should be standardized.
 This problem is not serious when plants are raised by cuttings. The plants
raised under control environments also require hardening before planting at
desired site.
 The infestation of pest and diseases are also low in controlled environments
but once plants infected it is transmitted easily.

Irrigation, weed and nutrient management
Water is limiting factor under arid ecosystem, meanwhile water is a
essential input of any commercial nursery; therefore every care should
be taken for judicious utilization of every drop of water.
No flood irrigation is recommended under sandy soil.
Sprinkler system of irrigation is suitable for nursery plants. For a big
nursery, irrigation should be done in parts instead of watering whole
the nursery at a time.
If plants are raised in beds, the bed should be kept fresh not wet. Too
much watering creates superficial root system. The irrigation should
be done either in the morning or preferably in the evening.

The runoff collected in the ponds can also be used for nursery.
The waste water containing pollutants, sediments, debris and also
saline water can be recycled after necessary treatments.
Now a days, a better but costly methodof improving water
quality is available i.e. deionization process.
The pH of irrigation water should be 6.5 to
7.5 and free from harmful salts.
For lowering down the pH, aluminium sulphate and for
increasing calcium nitrate can be used.
Negligence of weeding may adversely affect the health of the
plants due to competition for nutrients, moisture, light and
space.

The weeds may also act as host fordifferent pest and disease.
Weeding in the nursery bed should be done as early as
possible. First weeding is recommended soon after germination,
when soil is wet.
Proper soil working and thinning out of seedling in order to
maintain desired spacing should be done at the time of weeding.
Use of undecomposed compost or FYM may also cause weed
infestation.
The frequency of weeding depends upon intensity of weed
population; however, frequent weeding is required during
monsoon season.

Pre-emergence weedicide can also be used,
however post-emergence weedicide should not be
used without knowledge of proper recommendation
for a particular plant type.
For development of healthy stocks, proper nutrient
management is essential.
Fertility of seedbeds goes on decreasing due to
repeated growing of plants in the beds, which can
be restored by following proper rotation, mixing
of decomposed materials, green manuring and use
of inorganic fertilizers.

Important organic manures, which are used
for nursery bed as: Farm Yard Manure (FYM),
compost, leaf moulds, oil cakes and wood
ash.
The organic manure is incorporated in to the
soil beds or as filling mixture for the
containers before sowing seeds.
Use of organic manures have added
advantages in sandy and degraded soils. In
recent years use of vermi-compost is also
becoming popular.
Application of inorganic fertilizers in nursery
is not so common but initially small amount
of N, P and K can be given for fair growth and
development of nursery plants.

These fertilizers are applied only after
irrigation because due to lack of moisture,
they will become ineffective.
Foliar feeding up to limited extent can
also be given. Even in cases of deficiency
symptoms, liquid fertilizers can be applied.
In nursery management, there is
additional advantage that the waste
materials can be composted in a corner of
the nursery and utilized as and when
desired.

Hardening of nursery plants
The plants raised under growing structures or
protected environments with high management
become tender and require hardening off before
planting out in the field.
Infact, hardening off is a term applied to any
treatment that makes the tissues firm to endure
better in the unfavourable environmental
conditions.
The techniques employed for hardening are;
(i) by watering the plant sparingly till it is not
wilted and providing increased ventilation
(ii) lowering of temperature also retards
growth and adds to the hardening process.
These methods are employed according to the
kind of the plants e.g. tomato, brinjal, and chillies
are less hardy and they should not be hardened
severely.

Vegetables like cabbage and lettuce can
withstand low temperature. In hot region,
hardening is done to withstand plants against
possible burning due to sunshine, hot winds
and deposition of warm sand,
while in cold region hardening may develop
protection against freezing. The process of
hardening should be such that there is an
assurance of high survival and slow growth
under the conditions to be expected at the
time of transplanting.
conditions, withholding watering followed
by shifting of the plants under partial shade
or lath house is the best and practical
method for hardening.

Over hardening should be avoided as it
delays renewal of growth after setting out.
Hardening should be gradual in order to
prevent a severe check on growth or the
possible killing of plant.
It is better to maintain a moderate rate of
growth through out the plant growing period
than to have rapid growth up to the time of
hardening and then check it suddenly.
Hardening
(i) increases the quantity and modifies the
nature of colloids in the plant cells enabling
them to resist the loss of water,
(ii) increases the percentage of dry matter
and sugars in the plant but decreases
percentage of freezable water and
transpiration per unit area of leaf,

(iii) decreases the rate of growth in the plants,
(iv) greater resistance to plasmolysis and
deplasmolysis due to greater resistance to the
injurious effects of the protoplasmic strain,
(vii) hardened plants can withstand better against
unfavourable conditions of transplanting such as
lesser intakes of water, hot dry winds and low
temperature.
They tend to be hard and stiff rather than
succulent.

Management of pest, disease and natural enemies
 The nursery activities are adversely affected if plant protection
measures are not adopted timely. In the arid region nursery, there are
several pests, diseases and natural enemies causing significant loss at
various stages of nursery activities. Some of the major pests and
diseases and their management are as follows :
(i)Pests
Termite
The termite is a major problem in arid region. The damage by termite is
underground and mainly in upper workable soil depth. They damage
the root portion; affected plants turn yellowish showing wilting of
leaves and tender twigs and ultimately plant dries. The symptom is
judged by dumbbellshaped region near the root collar and ring
barking.
For control— keep the nursery clean, no wood debris should be left in
nursery area, do not use undecomposed organic manures, apply
chemical like chloropyriphos 20 EC (2.0 %).

Cutworms (Agrotis ipsilon): Cutworms are restless feeders
and wander here and there in search of food. They damage
the seedlings soon after germination. Generally, they cut the
young plants during night. They also damage bud, leaves
and tender shots. For control— remove the weeds from the
nursery, where cutworms hide, irrigation and digging the
soil also reduce their population, seed bed should be treated
by methyl parathion dust as chemical control.
Defoliaters: There is a group of minor pests causing defoliation
of young seedling, rolling of leaves, feeding on leaf tissues
etc. They can be controlled by spraying of insecticides like
endosulphon (0.01%) or monocrotophos (0.03%) at 1015
days interval.

(ii) Diseases
Damping-off: The plants in nursery are often affected by this disease.
A group of fungi is responsible for damping off the seedlings. The
disease is so serious that it may destroy the entire nursery stock in
one season. Mostly damping off occurs at tender stage of seedlings.
The seedlings topple down and dry up. For controlling damping off
disease in nursery beds, drenching of seed bed with 4%
formaldehyde or 0.3% copper oxychloride.
Collar rot: Some times nursery plants affected by collar rot and
root rot problems. The fungus is air borne and infects in collar
region of the plants. The disease can be controlled by soil
drenching with dithane Z78 (0.2%).
(iii) Others: In arid region, there is problem of rats and birds,
which should also be controlled as and when desired

Disposal of produce
Disposal of produce also requires skillful management,
otherwise whole efforts are futile. It requires timely action
so that users may get qualityplanting materials at proper
time and at the same time, producer may gain the desired
returns.
Sometimes, planting materials remain unsold if they are
produced delayed in the season.
Further, keeping them for longer period in the nursery may
not only involve additional expenditure but the quality of
planting materials reduced due to coiling of roots and over
growth of plants.
The nursery manager must contact the users and even he
should do advance booking. The planting stocks are delicate;
hence they should be handled carefully.

The planting materials raised either in beds or in
polybags should be lifted properly; unwanted foliage
should be removed to minimize transpiration losses.
They should be graded based on size, age, vigour etc.
and packed in such a way that roots remain moist.
For wrapping of the planting stocks, grasses, straw,
perforated polythene, gunny bags, moss grass etc. are
generally used as packing materials.
Now a days wooden or perforated paper boxes are
used for long distance transit.

There should be minimum time gap between
lifting of the stock from the nursery and planting at
desired site. To avoid exposure to sun, the planting
materials should be lifted from the nursery in the
evening and planted on the next day.

Nursery act
 The nursery owners are not keeping any record about their
nursery activities.
There is uncontrolled transit of planting
materials.
There is no proper certification system.
There is no fixed standard of quality planting materials for
the crops suitable to arid region.
Nursery act is essentially required to check the disposal of
inferior quality seeds and planting materials.
Therefore, for development of arid horticulture by quality
planting materials, there should be proper nursery act.
nursery act is not implemented so far. There are some areas
where nursery act is there but not implemented properly,
which should be reviewed and implemented with due
modifications.

Economic viability
Besides various considerations, economic viability is
the prime concern of nursery management. Based
on prevailing local market rates, for raising 10,000
budded plants of ber under arid region, an estimate
of economics has been given in table. The estimate
indicated that one could earn about 35000/ per year
from the ber nursery under arid conditions.
Moreover, multiplying other plant types
simultaneously with the intensive management on
the same peace of land can increase this return

Nursery management

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