Comparison on nursery raising of winter season annuals

Introduction

Annuals are those plants that complete their entire life cycle from seed to flower and back to seed within a single growing season (Kashyap et al., 2020) [6] . Annuals are the most versatile flowering plants in a garden. It has become a popular garden attraction because of the great range of annual blooms that are accessible in the winter. It is primarily grown in the northwestern plains, where the plant blooms in March-April and sets seed in April-May. More than ₹ 6-7 crores are reportedly exported each year from the Punjab state in the form of flower seeds to the United States, Holland, Germany, and the United Kingdom from an area of roughly 2000 acres (Anumala and Kumar, 2021) [2] . In a nationwide survey of growers and plant dealers conducted by Hodges et al. (2015) [5] in the United States reported that annual bedding or flowering annuals was the largest specific plant type sold with 17.6% of the total ornamental horticulture industry sales. Annual bedding and herbaceous perennial plants were estimated to have a combined wholesale value of $ 2.16 billion in the Floriculture Crops 2018 Summary report (USDA NASS, 2019), making them the largest contributor of all plant categories and accounting for 47% of the total wholesale value of floriculture crops.Normally winter season annuals are grown through traditional method by raising seedlings in nursery beds and then transplant them in beds or pots.Protray was developed to produce high-quality seedlings for quick, effective transplanting. The production of flower seedlings as plugs has garnered more attention recently. This technology reduces the loss of expensive seeds, improves seed germination, promotes uniform growth, reduces seed mortality, and, at the same time, saves labour, time, and overall greenhouse space, while accommodating more crops per unit area. It promotes easier handling during transportation and transplanting with little to no transplanting shock. Keeping in view, the experiment was conducted with the following objectives to standardize nursery raising technique for different sowing time of winter season annuals and compare traditional and improved methods of planting.

Materials and Methods

The experiment was carried out at the Research Farm of the Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (H.P), during 2021-2022, with the objectives to standardize nursery raising technique for different sowing times of winter season annuals and to compare traditional and improved methods of planting. The study was conducted on seventeen winter season annuals where sowing was done at 15-day intervals following two sowing methods-protrays and nursery beds. For nursery beds, recommended practices were followed. The seedlings sown in protray were composed of growing media, cocopeat, soil, and farmyard manure in the ratio 2:1:1. Once a week, fertilizer, i.e., NPK (19:19:19) was given @ 5g/l to seedlings. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (Factorial), with three replications. All nursery parameters were recorded. The data pertaining to the effect of interaction between flower crops x nursery raising methods x sowing dates presented in Table 1 revealed that the maximum germination percentage (95.00%) was recorded in Papaver rhoes sown on 30 th December in protrays In contrast, minimum germination percentage was recorded in Glebionis corornaria (6.00%) sown in nursery beds on 30 th November.This much wide variation may be due to genetic makeup of each winter annuals, seed size, seed coat as well as the environmental conditions Bungard (R A, et al. 1997) [3] and (Baweja, et al. 2001) [4] , prevailing during the growing period and sowing method i.e., protrays and nursery beds. [6] and (Tobe K, et al.2005) [11] . The data pertaining to the interaction between flower crops x nusery raising methods x sowing dates is given in Table 3 reveals that Lupinus hartwegii sown in nursery beds on 15 th October took the minimum number of days (26.83 days) for harvesting/production of ready to sale seedlings In contrast, Antirrhinum majus sown in protrays on 15 th October took the maximum number of days (61.50 days) for harvesting.The earliness to harvesting may be attributed to the genetic makeup of each winter season annuals, better growing media, supplemental nutrition as well as environmental conditions during the growing period reported by (Gesch R W. 2013) [8] .

Results and Discussion

The number of days taken for harvesting is usually a month when winter season annual flower crops are sown in the month of September-October (Kashyap et al. 2020) [6] . Seedling length varied among the different winter season annual flower crops, nursery raising methods and sowing dates. The seedling length ranges between the maximum in Centaurea cyanus (16.19 cm) to the minimum in Helichrysum bracteatum (7.36 cm). The difference in the seedling length can be attributed to genetic makeup of each winter season annuals, availability of more nutrients due better growing media and supplemental supply of NPK and also to the environmental conditions of the growing location. The seedling length decreases towards the latter months this may be because the time for vegetative growth deceases as the reproductive period approaches reported by (Abirami K, et al. 2010) [1] . [10] . Amongst the 17 different winter season annual flower crops, Lupinus hartwegii recorded the maximum seedling fresh weight (175.92 mg) and seedling dry weight (67.17mg) whereas, Papaver rhoes recorded the minimum seedling fresh weight (1.68 mg) and seedling dry weight (0.17 mg). [9] . However, the values were higher in the case of Mittal (2013) [9] due to higher germination percentage. Among the different winter season annual flower crops, Lupinus hartwegii recorded the highest Seedling Vigour Index II (480.38), Antirrhinum majus recorded the minimum value (1.97). These findings were in line with Mittal (2013) [9] . However, the values were higher in the case of Mittal (2013) [9] due to a higher germination percentage.

Conclusion

Annuals can be produced successfully over an extended period of time beyond the months of September and October. The protray method performed better than nursery beds, with higher germination and better seedling growth, improved seedling vigour and quality, and was preferred by consumers (77.25%).

From the present study, it can be concluded that protrays performed better than nursery beds.

References

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