Nursery business is a more profitable and effective business in Pakistan, especially kinnow nursery. kinnow is the most used mandarin cultivar in Pakistan due to its specific taste and fewer seeds in numbers. Complete take care is necessary from seed to complete plant. In this article, you will be able to understand each aspect of kinnow nursery business. The complete article about nursery business plan or how to start nursery business will be discussed in the following outlines,
- Seed sowing
- Land preparation
- Transplanting
- Fertilizers and irrigation
- Demand for market
- Nursery sanitation
- Nursery certification
- Conclusions
What is plant nursery?
Generally, someone from a non-agriculture background may have the question like what is plant nursery actually. So, for them, it is stated that a plant nursery is an area where different miniature varieties of plants are available. These are also called readymade plants.
Seed sowing
Initially, polythene bags of 4-5 kg of the volume are used, and before filling the soil mixture polythene bags should be porous then filled with sand: silt and FYM (well-rotted Farmyard manure) 1:1:1 soil media mixture. Soil media sterilization should be done before seed sowing with a 2 % formalin solution to kill the soil-borne pathogens, this practice has a key role to prepare the disease-free nursery plant. Seeds are extracted from fruits (Rough lemon) are placed inside the polythene bags, after 4-6 weeks grown rough lemon of pencil thickness is T-budded with healthy growing and vigorous scion (bud) and wrapped with polythene and allowed to grow for 3-4 weeks bud union will be successful.
Land preparation
Site selection is the first and mandatory phase from where it is started to the next phase. For this purpose, land plowed 2-3 times and then rotavate to crush clods and hardpan and to remove residues of the previous crop. Soil should be completely pulverized and then ridges, and furrows are prepared.
Transplanting
After two months, when land is well prepared with ridges and furrows, plants are shifted and transplanted on ridges with 5 inches plant to plant space. When plants grab more roots in the field then the plant is cut from the top which was the rootstock plant part. You can plant 16000 plants in 2 Kanal and similarly up to 50000 nursery plants can be prepared in 8 Kanal.
Fertilizers and irrigation
Experienced growers recommend the Urea when the plant is in the early two months of growth and after when the plant is transferred into the field and after cutting from the top when the plant starts growing the new leaves minimum two leaves then Nitro-Phos is applied to maintain the growth. Quality of water is very important because the nursery plants cannot tolerate salty water. The frequency and amount of water should be optimum it depends upon the weather conditions but over-irrigation and drought both are harmful to miniature plants.
Demand for market
After 1.5 years plants are ready for sale and the price of the plant fluctuates around 180-190 rupees per plant while if there is more demand in the market then the grower can go up to then 200 rupees per plant.
Plant protection
Plant protection is necessary to practice, local growers do cheap practices like purchasing the pesticides from the market and applying them to the field. Different experienced grower recommends spraying when the plant is transferred into a field and proliferate the differentiated leaves and mostly citrus canker is very common. There are different recommendations, but to avoid the citrus canker spray of copper oxychloride is most useful and common.
Nursery sanitation
This is a very common problem that growers only focused on that my plant should be sold in the market. If grower takes great care of their nursery for sanitation and follows the rules and regulations for disease-free nursery plant. Growers should pay attention to keeping the intercultural operations on time on a regular basis.
Nursery certification
The owner and grower should prepare the nursery to be treated as a well-reputed nursery and should be certified by following the rules and regulations developed by Pakistan Plants Certification Rules, 1998. Before registrations plants are tested to be true to type, free from viruses, insect-pest, and diseases. However, there is no true spiritual work is being done for a fruit plant nursery in Pakistan by these authorities. Province KPK government is doing some effort for plant nurseries certification.
Conclusion
- There are many varieties for citrus nursery business, but initially starting with the preparation of kinnow nursery plants is the best way to start.
- Patience and courage are needed for early 2 years for investment and complete nourished nursery plants.
- Normally, for seed sowing, the 4-5 kg volume of black bags are used for rootstock preparation. Rough lemon is a common rootstock that is suitable for Punjab’s soil.
- T-budding is a common method practiced when the rootstock is of pencil thickness in black bags.
- For soil media mixture mostly non-soil ingredients like coconut coir, perlite, vermiculite are available in the market from which you can make a good soilless media otherwise cheap and ease available soil mixture of sand, silt, and well rotten cow dung or farmyard manure (FYM) is mixed with 1:1:1 ratio.
- For free from soil-borne disease soil solarization or sterilization of soil is also done with 2% formalin solution in spray form.
- For land preparation to transplant the successful budded or grafted plants, the soil is prepared it should be well pulverized by using a rotavator.
- For a nursery, a small area is much suitable, 1 Bigha or 8 Kanal has the capacity to prepare the 50,000 nursery plants.
- A complete nursery plant is well prepared and ready for market demand in more than 1.5 years of duration.
- For fertilizer, Urea and NP are commonly used (from experienced nursery grower) and irrigation is depending upon the weather but avoids the overirrigation and drought stress.
- To provide the disease-free plant nursery sanitation practice is important for the grower.
- In Pakistan, cost per plant fluctuates from 180-190 rupees, when the demand is on peek its cost increases up to 200 rupees per plant.
- A grower should prepare his nursery as a well-reputed nursery and it should be registered from Pakistan Plants Certification Rules (PPCR).