Nursery Management

Requirement of nursery

Young plant whether propagated from seed or vegetative reproduction require lots of care particularly during the early stages of growth. They have to be protected from adverse temperature, heavy rain, drought, wind and varieties of pest and disease. If small seeds of vegetables are direct sown in field, germination is often poor and the young plant grow very slowly and require lots of time to mature. Also there may be limitations in terms of available season for full development in the field. To overcome this problems, vegetable crops are grown in nursery before being transplanted in the field.

About nursery

A vegetable or fruit nursery is a place where plants are cared for during the early stage of growth, providing optimum conditions for germination and subsequent growth until they are strong to be planted out in their permanent place. A nursery can be as simple as a raised bed in an open field or a sophisticated green house with microsprinklers and controlled atmospheric systems. Nursery management and plant propagation are considered same. They are different but inter-related.

In fact, mass multiplication of quality planting materials is the center theme of nursery management is a trade oriented dynamic process, which refer to efficient utilization of resources for economic returns. Nursery management is team effort to reach the desired goal.

Nursery management

The main phases of nursery management are-

• Planning -  demand for planting material, provision of mother blocks, requirement of land area, water supply, working tools, growing structures and input availability.
• Implementation - land treatment, protection against biotic interference and soil  erosion, proper layout, input supply, etc.
• Monitoring and evaluation - physical presence, rapid response, critical analysis, incentive to workers, etc
• Feed back for further refinement.

Advantages of Nursery Management

1. It is possible to provide favourable growth conditions i.e. germination as well as growth
2. Better care of younger plants as it is easy to look after nursery in small area against pathogenic infection pest and weed.
3. Crop grown by nursery raising is quite early and fetch higher price in the market. So economically more profitable.
4. There is saving of land and labour as main field will be occupied by the crop for lesser duration. Hence  intensive crop rotation can be followed.
5. More time is available for the preparation of main field because nursery is grown separately.
6. As vegetable seeds are very expensive, particularly hybrids, seed cost can be economized by sowing them in the nursery.