RAISING NURSERY OF WARM SEASON
VEGETABLE CROPS UNDER PROTECTED
STRUCTURE
SUBMITTEDTO DR. MONISHA RAWAT
DEPARTMENTOF HORTICULTURE
SUBMITTED BY –CHANDA KUMARI
REGISTRATION NO. -11919701

Contents
 Introduction
 Advantages of protected structures
 Types of protected structures
 Difference between field grown seedlings and container grown
seedlings
 Components of protected structures
 Sowing
 Nutrient management
 Disease management
 Pest management
 Packaging and transportation
 constraints
 References

Nursery
"A vegetable nursery is a place or an establishment for raising
or handling of young vegetable seedlings until they are ready
for more permanent planting.“
Or
Nursery is a place where seedlings, cuttings and grafts
are raised with care before transplanting.

Types of Nursery beds
i. Temporary nursery – This type of nursery is developed only to fulfill the
requirement of the season or a targeted project. The nurseries for production of
seedlings of transplanted vegetables and flower crops are of temporary
nature. Likewise temporary arrangement for growing forest seedlings for
planting in particular area can also be done in temporary nursery.
ii. Permanent nursery – This type of nursery is placed permanently so
as to produce plants continuously. These nurseries have all the permanent
features. The permanent nursery has permanent mother plants. The work
goes on continuously all the year round in this nursery.

According to position it may
of three types
i. Raised bed nursery: Beds are raised 10-
15 cm above the level of the ground. In
areas having high rainfall raised beds are
prepared.
ii. Sunken bed nursery: Beds are prepared
10-15 cm below the level of the ground. In
dry and arid regions sunken beds are
prepared.
iii. Flatbed nursery: The beds are at
ground level. It is usually followed to
conserve the soil moisture for long period.
Well-drained soil is required.
SUNKEN BEDS
RAISED BEDS

According to type of plants produced
nurseries are classified in to following types
i) Fruit plant Nurseries
ii)Vegetable nurseries
iii) Flowers plants nurseries
iv) Forest nurseries
v) Miscellaneous nurseries

Protected structures;
 Protected structures are
those structures that allow
the process of growing
crops in a controlled
environment.This means
that the temperature,
humidity, light and such
other factors can be
regulated as per
requirement of the crop.
e.g greenhouse, polyhouse,
shade net house etc.

Advantages of protected
structures
 Enables Growing of crops and raising nursery
anywhere and anytime.
 Provides Protection from adverse climatic
conditions
 Improved survival rate and better yield.
 Gives opportunity for Off-season nursery and
off-season cultivation.
 Ensures Production of disease free quality
planting material..
 Saves water through micro-irrigation system

Cont…
 Barren and uncultivable land may be brought
under use.
 More profit due to continuous supply
throughout the year.
 Ideal for growing genetically modified crops and
tissue culture raised plantlets.
 Suitable for production of high value crops for
export purpose.
 Less chemical residue for better protection
against insect-pests and pathogens.

Types of nursery
Nursery
Open field
nursery
Raised bed
Sunken bed
Protected
nursery
Low tunnel
system
Polythene
bags
Green
houses
Tissue
culture unit
Hot beds
Cold frames
Net house

Green house Plastic house
Shade house Lath house

Hot beds Cold frames
Mist chamber
Plastic tunnel
Net house
Poly-house

Difference betweenfieldgrown seedlings and container grown seedlings
Singhandpeter2014
S.No Traditional method Modern method
1. More seeds required for raising seedlings.
For example hybrids seeds 100g per acre
required for tomato.
Less seeds required for raising seedlings compared to
traditional method. For example hybrids seed 70g per
acre required
2. Disinfect the nursery area by solarization. Use clean trays.
3. Prepare seed beds about 3m X 1m in size
and 20 cm heights.
Use the correct cell size according to the crop. For
example, cucurbit crops require larger cell size than
other vegetable crops.
4. Prepare the nursery bed soil loose and
friable and sow seed in lines about 5 cm
apart and 1-2 cm deep. Adjust the planting
depth according to the seed size.
Prepare growing media: normally coco peat mixes
with bio-fertilizer were used. Sown one seed in each
cell at a depth of 0.5 to 1.0 cm.
5. Cover the nursery bed with paddy straw or
dry leaves for germination.
Cover the trays with black polyethylene sheet for
germination
6. More loss of expensive seeds Less loss of expensive seeds.

Principle of
Polyhouse

Types of poly-house depending on cost
1.Low cost poly-house
(naturally ventilated)
2.Medium cost poly-
house
3.High cost poly-houses Low cost poly-house
Medium cost polyhouse
High cost poly-house

Components of greenhouse
structures
 Framing materials
Wood
Aluminum framing
Galvanized iron pipes
 Cladding materials
UV stabilized polyethylene, polyester or poly
vinyl film (100 & 200 micron thick)
Poly vinyl rigid panel, fiberglass-reinforced
plastic (88-90% light transmission), acrylic(8 and 16
mm thick) or polycarbonate rigid panel (4, 6, 8, 10
and 16 mm thick) - Single, double or triple layer

Cont..
Agro-shade net (10 to 90% shading)
Glass (diffused, haze glass and rigid fiberglass)
Pre-painted G.I. sheet insulated with poly urethane foam
 Foundation
Concrete
Natural
 Flooring
Cemented
Natural
Gravel/stone

Common physical structures of protected
nurseries (Roy et al., 2015)
 Mist propagation unit
 Agro-shade net house
 Polyhouse or polytunnel
 Lath house (sun and wind protection)
 Cold frame
 Hot bed
 Growth chamber
 Germination chamber
 Glass house
 Controlled environment greenhouse
 Tissue culture laboratory
 Nutriculture unit ( for hydroponics)

Things to consider before locating a
greenhouse
 Location and accessibility of site
 Availability and initial cost of land
 Availability, cost and quality of water sources
 Availability and cost of inputs
 Soil properties
 Land characteristics, topography and elevation
 Availability and cost of skilled labor
 Proximity to market and transportation facility
 Temperature (min/max), wind pattern, slope and
exposure
 Room for expansion

Modern facilities in a hi-tech nursery
a) Irrigation system.
b) Sensors.
c) Fertigation unit
d) CO2 generator
e) Heating unit
f) Cooling unit
g) Agro-chemical application unit
h) Photoperiodic lighting
i) Propagation and nursery tools
j) Propagation bench
k) Nursery trolley and conveyors
l) Plant container, root trainer and sowing tray or portray
m) Automation
n) Robotics
o) Greenhouse & nursery management software:

Components and process involved in modern
nursery raising system
 Seedling tray
 Media
 Mechanization
 Irrigation
 Nutrition
 Light and seed pelleting
 Priming
 Biological enhancement
 Hardening.

Seedling tray
 Choice of tray cell size (number
and volume) to grow seedlings
depends on several factors
 seed size
 Economics
 plant growth rates
 market demands
 Seedlings grown in larger cells are
taller and have greater dry weight
than those grown in small cells
[Smith and Duval 1998].
 Tomato, brinjal , capsicum, chilli ,
watermelon, broccoli, cauliflower ,
cabbage , onion and muskmelon
were reported to have earlier yields
and rapid growth when grown in
larger cells.

Media
o Media is one of the important components
for modern nursery raising system. Successful
nursery production is largely dependent on the
chemical and physical properties of the
growing media.
Physical properties
o A growing media must be sterile
o It should have cation exchange capacity (CEC).
o pH and nutrient buffering capacity.
1.) Soil System or Geoponics
2.)Soil less culture:
 Media used are:
Cocopeat, perlite, vermiculite,
saw dust, rockwool,
peanut hulls, rice hulls or the mixtures.
3.) Hydroponics or water culture
4.) Aeroponics
HYDROPONICS
AEROPONICS

Seed pelleting and priming
 Many vegetable seeds that are sown for seedling are small or big
and irregular shaped. Most commercial seedlings producers use
drum vacuum seeders thus, these types of seeds should be
pelleted or coated. Pelleting builds up seed size and uniformity
by layering the seed with layers of clay type material and binder.
 Seeds normally pelleted include tomato, brinjal, chilli, onion,
lettuce and celery. Seed coating is accomplished by applying wet
solutions containing a dye and many times fungicides or other
chemical treatments.The coating does not build up seed size, nor
does it change the shape of the seed.The coating makes the
seeds more flowable in the seeders. Species that are commonly
coated include cucumber, watermelon, squash and melon. Using
dyes in the coating or pelleting process allows the seeds to be
more visible at sowing .

SEED PRIMING
“Seed priming is a controlled
hydration technique in which
seeds are soaked in water or low
osmotic potential solution to a
point where germination related
metabolic activities begin in the
seeds but radical emergence does
not occur.”
(Heydecker and Coolbear, 1977;
Bradford, 1986;
McDonald, 2000; Farooq et al.,
2007)

Seed Enhancements
“Seed enhancements are the pre germination
treatments that improve the germination rate,
time and seedling growth required at the
time of sowing.”
 The purpose of seed treatments is to
shorten the time between planting and
emergence.
(Black and Peter, 2016)
Treat the seeds with
Trichoderma viride 4 g or
Pseudomonas fluorescens 10
g or Carbendazim 2 g per kg
of seeds 24 hours before
sowing. Just before sowing,
treat the seeds with
Azospirillum @ 40 g / 400 g
of seeds.

Germination of Primed
Seeds
IRREGULARITIEs IN
SEED
GERMINATION
POOR QUALITY
SEEDS
UNIFORMITY IN THE
GERMINATION
OF PRIMED
SEEDS

Sowing
 Sowing can be done either manually or
mechanically
 The transplant tray is the first area that
facilitates mechanization both in seedling
and potentially automatic field transplanting
. Essentially all seedling transplant
operations have mechanized the seeding
process. Trays are loaded in bulk onto a line
where they are filled with media, dibbled,
sown via a vacuum drum seeder, topped
with vermiculite, watered and then stacked
by hand. Operators have to inspect the line,
stack trays to fill, and stack the filled flats
as they come off the line. This process is
enhanced if the seeds are pelleted, round
and of reasonable size. More sophisticated
seedling operations use robots to load and
unload flats onto benches.
Fig. Prototype precision plug seeder
(source Gaikwaad and Sirohi 2018).
Dibbler

Germination
 Warm temperature and uniform moisture are
important for successful seed germination.
 Many seed germination chamber systems are
commercially available including custom built
germination units.
 Many growers use bottom heat or root zone
heating to provide warm, even temperature.
 A weed mat (Black polyethylene) is placed on
the top of the bench to help spread the heat
with skirts on the side to help contain the heat.
 Tomato seeds germinate are best at 210C.The
ideal root zone temperature is 26 to 290C
during the first four weeks of growth and 20 to
260C during the fifth and sixth weeks.
 In brinjal seed germinate at 21 to 240C.
 Chilli seed germinate at 28 to 320C [1].

Healthy nursery of potential crops for protected cultivation
cucumber Tomato
capsicum
Fibrous root growth

Temperature requirements of
warm season vegetable crops
Crop Minimum
(oF))
Optimum
range(oF)
Optimum (oF) Maximum
(oF)
Tomato 20 70-95 85 95
brinjal 60 75-90 85 95
Chilli 60 65-95 85 95
Okra 60 70-95 95 105
Cabbage 40 45-95 85 100
Cauliflower 40 45-85 80 100
bean 60 60-85 80 95
Source : Kimble and Musgrove (2006)

Irrigation
Seedlings can be irrigated
 Above the plants (requires
boom and nozzle)
 Sub irrigation via ebb and
flow(system requires concrete
floors and a recycling system
for the water Irrigation may be
applied using hose pipe,
 watering cane, overhead
sprinklers, travelling boom
irrigator, misting or fogging
system, drip irrigation (surface
as well as sub-surface) etc.
Basin/trench irrigation and
sub-surface drip irrigation are
used for maintaining the
mother block.

Nutrition and soil health
S.No Function source
1. For supply of plant
nutrients
Soil, vermicompost, concentrated organic
manures (blood meal, bone meal, fish meal,
soybean meal, cotton seed meal,
oil cakes etc.) and mineral amendments
(dolomite, green
sand, rock dust, rock phosphate, sulphate of
potash etc.)
2. For moisture retention Compost, peat moss, coco peat, coir fibre,
vermiculite, leaf
mold
3. For adequate drainage Coarse sand, perlite
4. For adequate aeration Coarse sand, perlite, vermiculite, leaf mold
5. For optimum pH Dolomite lime or Calcified sea weed (to adjust
upward),
Sulphur (to adjust down)

n
Nitrogen difficiency Potasssium difficiency
Phoshorous difficiency Magnesium difficiency

Disease and pest management
 Diseases
 Fungicides
 Bacterial wilt
 Captan(2.5gm)+bavistin (1gm)
 Powdery mildew
 Carathane (1gm/lt)
 Damping
 off
 Indofil M-45 (2.5gm/kg
 seed )
 Alternaria leaf spot
 Blitox (3 gm/lt)
 Fusarium
 wilt
 Carathane (1gm/lt)
 Blossom end rot
 Calcium chloride (5gm/lt)
Insect Insecticide
White fly Acetamiprid
Thrips Metasysstox
Aphids Roger
Spodoptera Spodocyte
Mites Dicofol
Nematode Carbofuron
Diseases Fungicides
Bacterial
wilt
Captan(2.5gm)+bavistin
(1gm)
Powdery
mildew
Carathane (1gm/lt)
Damping
off
IndofilM-45 (2.5gm/kg
seed )
Alternaria
leaf spot
Blitox(3 gm/lt)
Fusarium
wilt
Carathane (1gm/lt)
Blossom
end rot
Calciumchloride
(5gm/lt)
Common insect pest of nursery and their management

Common seed treatments in vegetable nursery
S.No Crop disease management
1. tomato, brinjal
and chilli
Damping off Treat the seeds with Metalaxyl 35% SD +
Thiram 75% WP @ 2.5 g each/kg seeds.
2. beans Anthracnose &
Rhizoctonia web
blight
Treat seed with Carbendazim 50 WP @
2g/Kg seed
3. Pea Aschochyta blight &
wilt
Treat seed with Carbendazim 50 WP @
2g/
Kg seed
4. onion Purple blotch Treat the seeds with Captan orThiram @
3g/kg seeds before nursery sowing
5. onion Damping off Treat the seeds with Metalaxyl 35% SD +
Thiram 75% WP @ 2.5 g each/kg seeds.
6. Cole crops Black rot Soak seed in tap water for 30 minutes
followed by hot water dip at 520C for 30
minutes and finally by giving a same
duration dip in Streptocycline solution (1
g/
10 L water).

Hardening
Hardening includes any treatment that makes the tissue firm to perform better
during unfavorable environment like low temperature high temperature and hot
dry wind . Hardening is the physiological process of whereby plant
accumulates more carbohydrates reserve and produces an additional cuticle on
the leaves. In the process seedling are given some artificial shocks at least 7-10
days before uprooting and transplanting . Seedling are exposed to the full
sunlight , all the seedling needs , polythene sheets should be removed and
irrigation is stopped slowly and slowly.
Technique of Hardening
 Hardening can be done by following ways.
 By holding watering to the watering to the plant by 4-5 days before
transplanting
 Lowering the temperature also retards the growth aids to the hardening process.
 By application of 4000 ppm Nacl with the irrigation water or by spraying of
2000 ppm of cycoel.

cont…
Effect of Hardening
Following effect must be observed by the hardening
 Hardening improves the quality and modify the nature
of colloids ion the plant cell enabling them to resist the
loss of water.
 Hardening improves the presence of dry matter and
regards in the plant but decrease the percentage of
feasible water and transpiration per unit area of leaf.
 Decrease the rate of growth in the plant.
 Harden plants withstand better against unfavorable
weather condition like hot day, wind and low
temperature. Hardening of plants increases the waxy
covering the leaves of cabbage.

The marketable stages of nursery plants of some important
vegetable crops
S.No Crop Marketable stage
1. Brinjal 4-5 weeks old seedling, 12-15 cm in height, 6-8
leaf stage
2. Broccoli 4-6 weeks old seedling
3. Chilli/Capsicum 6-7 weeks old seedling, 15-20 cm in height
4. Lettuce 4-5 weeks old seedling
5. Onion 6-8 weeks old seedling, 20-25 cm in height
6. Tomato 3-4 weeks old seedling, 12-15 cm in height, 4-6
leaf stage
7. Cauliflower/Cabbage 3-5 weeks old seedling
Source : Handbook of Seed and Planting MaterialTesting Manual for Horticultural Crops,
ICAR.

Packaging and transportation
Thorat et al. (2011) defined packing as placing
the nursery plants or propagating materials
into a suitable container for maintaining
their viability and vitality during storage and
transport. Proper packaging
minimizes desiccation and protects the
planting material from hazards
caused during transport and prevents them
from microbial and insect
damage.

Packing materials
 Paddy straw, sphagnum moss, dry grass, banana
leaves and newspaper etc. For wrapping the earthen
ball of the saplings
 Bamboo-matted box/basket, Polythene lined bags,
Corrugated fiber box, Plastic crates, Hessian cloth,
Sacking cloth etc -For bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and
corms.
 Cardboard box, plastic container, Cardboard -For
seedlings/cuttings/grafts/layers
 Moistened moss grass For wrapping up the delicate
planting material such as vegetable
 Refrigerated container - For seed or vegetative
propagule of high value plants

cont…
Transport vehicle
Seedling trays arranged in plastic
crates ready for transportation

Constraints
 ™
Lack of specialised techniques in vegetable
production.
 ™
Lack of sufficient money to construct the
protected structures.
 ™
Production cost of vegetable is higher.
 ™
Lack of skilled knowledge.
 ™
Higher seed cost.
 ™
Lack of market accessibility and cold storage
unit.

References
 Mishra,G. P., Singh, N., Kumar, H., & Singh, S. B. (2010).
Protected cultivation for food and nutritional security at
Ladakh. Defence Science Journal, 60(2), 219.
 Wani, K. P., Singh, P. K., Amin, A., Mushtaq, F., & Dar, Z. A. (2011).
Protected cultivation of tomato, capsicum and cucumber under
Kashmir valley conditions. Asian Journal of Science and
Technology, 1(4), 056-061.
 Bharathi PVL, Ravishankar M. 2018.Vegetable nursery and
tomato seedling management guide for south and central India.
WorldVeg Publication No. 18-829.WorldVegetable Center,
Taiwan. 30 p.
 Sahu, B., Dalai, S., & Mallikarjunarao, K. Cultivation of Off-season
Vegetables under Protected Conditions.