IMPORTANCE OF NURSERY TECHNIQUE AND POST HARVEST MANAGEMENT FOR COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE DR. DIPALI BORPUJARI* PUMMY SINHA** *Asst professor & HOD, Dept. of Botany, Margherita College, Assam, India **4 th Sem M.A., Dept. of Economics, Dibrugarh University, Assam, India ABSTRACT Floriculture, or flower farming is a discipline of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and for floristry, comprising the floral industry.some farmers cultivate flowers for domestic purpose and some for commercial purpose. This paper highlights about the importance of nursery techniques and post harvest management like storage, packing, transportation and marketing for commercial floriculture. INTRODUCTION Floriculture is becoming a booming industry in the world today. It is the branch of ornamental horticulture which concerned with the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants of gardens and for floral industry. One who is expert in floriculture is known as Floriculturist. The major occupation of floriculturist is the development of floriculture, via plant breeding and development of new varieties. Floriculture may be defined as the art of knowledge of growing flowers to perfection. Being a branch of horticulture, it deals with the cultivation of flowers and ornamental crops from the time of planting to the time of harvesting. It also includes production of planting materials through seeds, cuttings, budding, grafting etc. up to the marketing of the flowers. Scopes and significant of Floriculture There is a good scope for commercial floriculture. But the scope is decided by some important factors like soil, labour, transport and Market. Thus, taking into consideration the different points i.e. bio-aesthetic planning, floral garden, indoor decoration, social functions and religious functions, the demand of floriculture is increasing day by day and to meet out the same. When flower trade is concerned, different flowers like Rose, Gladiolus, Tuberose, and chrysanthemum are great demand in the market as cut flowers. While Marigold, Nerium, Jasmine are as loose flowers. 638
Significance: Flowers have been considered as the symbol of grace and elegance. They are used in all religious festivals, Temples, Gurudwara, church and Masjids. When cut flowers are used for vase decoration that will be a marvellous piece of indoor decoration. Significance of flowers are not restricted up to the beautification, decoration or preparation garlands, veni or Bouquets but also have the industrial importance too. Some flowers like Rose, Tuberose, and Bakul are used for extraction of oils which is based for preparation of perfumes, Scents or attar. From Rose Gulkand, Rose water etc are produced which are greatly in skin care, eye care etc. Objectives: As the commercial floriculture has a great demand, so the aim of the paper is to focus on two main themes- 1. Importance of nursery techniques and 2. Importance of post harvest management. Data base: The paper is based on primary and secondary data. Secondary data are collected from study report, books, internet etc. NURSERY TECHNIQUE (a)establishment of nursery (b)management of nursery There has been an increasing demand for horticultural crops in both urban and rural areas of India. With this, the demand for good quality planting materials have gone up and hence the nursery business has developed rapidly in the recent years in our country. (a)establishment of nursery: Nursery is developed gradually. The mother plants planted for vegetative and seed propagation and seed propagated plants such as seasonal flower seedling are raised for sale simultaneously. Important factors considered for establishing a nursery are agro climatic conditions, soil types,soil PH location, area,irrigation facilities, communication to market, availability of germplasm, skilled person etc. Selection of site: The site selection for raising a nursery should preferably be located near marketing centre for the convenience of transportation of the products with minimum or no 639
damage. The site should be convenient enough for transportation of input materials also. It is important to have or develop a perennial source of water inside the nursery. If need arise, wind break of tall plants like eucalyptus, mango etc may be planted to provide necessary shade and protection. Product choice: The product choice will primarily depend on the market demand in nearby areas. For wider market coverage, the choice may be dependent on market studies in the desired areas. Varieties of various ornamental plants like shades loving foliage plants, flowering plants, creepers, plant suitable for parks. Gardens and roadside plantation, offices, business houses, hospitals, residential buildings, etc may be propagated in the nursery. Planting materials such as seedling of flowers, bulbs, corms, etc may also be produced. Method of propagation Plants may be raised by seeds or by vegetative propagation. (1) Raising from seeds: germination from seeds may not be 100% even if the seeds are sown in perfect conditions. The factors that control the germination are age, stage of maturity, and viability of seeds, water, free supply of oxygen, and temperature. Some seeds are not germinate easily due to dormancy. Seeds with hard seed coats require some external treatment for germination. (2) Vegetative propagation: Methods of vegetative propagation like cutting, layering, budding and grafting are adopted for multiplication of ornamental plants. (3) Tissue culture: The propagation of orchid through meristem culture was first commercially successful in tissue culture. Structure required: A number of structures may be necessary for raising a nursery. Work shed: The work shed of 6m*4.5m with thatch roofs and locally available materials like bamboo, wood etc may be constructed. Polyhouse: The poly house of 9m*4m dimension with 90cm brick wall, 3.6m tall netting with expanded metal and polythene roof supported by local materials like bamboo, wood and planks, may be constructed. Fencing: A goat proof fencing only will be affective for a nursery. Store-cum-office: A store-cum-office of 6m*4.5m constructed with locally available materials may serve the purpose. 640
Land preparation: The land development for nursery is very important. In nursery, the land may be divided into four parts: Area for mother plant Area for seed production Area for raising flower seedlings and Area for storing of seedlings The land of a nursery is prepared by ploughing and cross ploughing. All kinds of waste materials are kind to be removed and the must be level properly. Management of Nursery: Seedbed and nursery: For raising flower seedling, some permanent or temporary seedbed may be prepared. These beds will be minimum 0.5 to.75m high from ground level. Storage of dried, cleaned soil, and compost manure, storage of propagated plants in nursery, watering and drainage are also very important under nursery technique. POST HARVEST MANAGEMENT Every horticultural product is associated with a channel. Within the channel, there are some stages like, Production Storage and preservation Processing Distribution and consumption. A farmer must understand the importance of every activity related to horticultural products after harvesting (post harvest). We cannot ignore the stage production because it is increasingly dependent on other stages. Storage and preservation: Flowers can be stored for a longer period at low temperature. There are two methods of cold storage one is wet other is dry. Wet method is short term storage where cut stems are dipped in water. Dry storage is very costly. The controlled atmosphere based on reduction of respiration rates. 641
Preservative solutions: Preservatives in the form of tablets or powder are prepared from a mixture of chemicals, sugars, germicides, salts and growth regulators. Various types of conditioners are sugar and biocide, antiethylene compound, and hydrated compound. The flowers like gladiolus, chrysanthemum etc. are benefited most by the pre- treatment. Antiethylene compounds reduce the action of ethylene. Fresh cut flowers responding to silver thiosulphate are gladiolus, gerbera, snap-dragon, sweet pea etc. greatest improvement in cut flower quality and longevity is obtained when DICA or DDMH were combined with sucrose. Speed processing, packing and storage: After harvesting seeds are appropriately processed. Seed processing primarily consist of five major steps (a) Extraction (b) Drying (c) Purification (d) Treatment (e) packing. Packing is important for preservation. A label is put on each tested seeds packed by the certification agency. The certified seed packed are stored up to the next flowering season for sale to the farmers or gardeners. It is necessary to prevent deterioration in the quality and the loss in the germination percentage during the period of storage. Advantage of packing: The chief of package and packaging are: (i) It protects the flowers against breakage, spoilage and pilferage during the transportation period. (ii) It helps in quality identification, product differentiation, branding and advertisement of the product. (iii) Packaging helps in reducing the marketing cost by reducing the handling and retailing cost. (iv) It ensures cleanness of the product. (v) Packaging with labelling facilitates the conveying of instructions to the buyers as to how to use or preserve the flowers or buds or seeds. Packaging material: In general, the material used for packaging must have the following characters: (i) The material must have protective strength. (ii) The material must be attractive. (iii) Consumer convenience. 642
(iv) (v) Economy (it must be cheap) Free from chemical reaction. Transportation: Transportation or the movement of products between places is one of the important marketing functions at every stage. All floricultural commodities have to be brought from the farm to the local market and from there to the primary wholesale markets and ultimately to the consumers. Importance of transport has increase with urbanization. Trade and transport go side be side, the one strengthens the other. Advantage of transport function: The main advantages of transport function are: (i) Widening of the market: Transport helps in the development or widening of market by reducing the gap between the producers and consumers. (ii) Narrowing price difference over space: Transportation helps in checking price rise in the scarcity areas and price fall in surplus areas. (iii) Mobility of the factors of production: Transport helps in increasing the mobility of capital and labour from one area to another. Flowers are generally transported by truck, air, and sea. For short distance and time period shorter than 20hrs, cut flowers may be transported in insulated truck, without refrigeration after pre-cooling and proper packing. Air shipment is quickest and usually the temperature is not controlled during the flight. The flowers which are sensitive to ethylene, ethylene scrubbers containing KMnO 4 should be added to the cardboard boxes. Some of the flowers like gladiolus and snapdragon are sensitive to geotropic bending. So these should be transported in upright position. Grading: After harvesting the flowers should be grades as per specification for local and distant market. CONCLUSION It is believed that the focus of the paper increase the awareness among the farmers and it will motivate the farmers positively so that they will get a good returns after applying scientific knowledge in commercial floriculture 643
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