Ideal Agricultural Nursery Management Practices

Today we need to look at how our nursery beds are managed from planting to transplanting and those ideal agricultural nursery management pratices which enhances the chance for a better production from our crops.

There are different crops that are grown in nursery beds and they include but not limited to the following crops: Tomatoes, Egg plant, Cabbage, Sukumawiki and many more.

After planting, there are different nursery management practices otherwise known as plant nursery practices that follows up until the time of transplanting the seedlings. This applies to both containerized and flat bed nursery beds.

Some of those ideal agricultural nursery management practices for your plants include the following:

1. Watering

This should be done to field capacity (water moves slowly in the soil) especially for the first 3days before germination and after germination. This ensures adquate moisture in the soil for the seedlings.

2. Fertilizer Application

In this case folliar fertilizers may be applied to the seedlings forexample supper green, bio grow, vegmax, Kara after germination of seedlings to boost growth.

3. Pest Control

Pests that eat seedlings in the nursery forexample in case of tomatoes, grass hoppers , cartepillars,are the main pest but these. can be controlled spraying pesticide on the bed and a round the bed to keep them away.
Also ensuring a clean environment around the bed.

In case organic manure was applied before planting and also sterilization was done using organic mulch, this ensures that the primary nutrients are available for proper growth of seedlings.

Manure provides Nitrogen, phosphorus while the ash from burning of grass provide potassium for the seedlings.
Also sterilization deals with nematodes which is the most dangerous for seedlings.

Read Also: The Different Nutrients required by Crops at Each Growth Stage

4. Disease Control

Mainly it’s fungal disease that attack seedlings in nursery beds.
Once detected , immediate Care should be taken by spraying using fungicides like victory, kingmill etc.

However in case of tomatoes, cloudy weather, due can lead to burning of seedlings.

And incase you don’t have any fungicide to use, you can pour water on them as you get the fungicide to use (this works as an emergency).

5. Weeding

Weeding is done by hand pulling and maximum care not to pull out the wanted seeding. Since weeding literally means the removal of unwanted plants / crops / weeds from the farm, therefore keeping your nursery very neat is a way to ensure that there are no other unwanted plants struggling for nutrients with your desired nursery crops.

6. Providing the shade

To protect the seedlings from harsh weather conditions like strong sunshine, rain. After germination, the shed should be lifted to 1m high. Note after germination, seedlings should be given care as babies.

7.Transplantation

During transplantation, the following are ensured:

• Water the nursery to field capacity.

• Pick the seedlings more preferably in the evening. This enables the seedlings to have a cool weather overnight and also reduces stress to the seedlings.

• Pick seedlings with soil on the roots and also ensuring minimal damage to the roots.

• In the seed bed holes for planting you can add DAP as it contains a rooting medium which enables the seedlings to put on roots hence first growth.

8. Hardening off

Here watering is reduced, the shed is removed to expose the seedlings to environmental factors.

Incase you are to transplanting at 3 weeks, this should be done a week before and if it’s at 1months, it should be done 2 weeks before transplanting.

8. After planting, you can do ring mulching around the seedling to reduce on moisture loss from the soil during hot days.

9. Watering should be done early morning before the day becomes hot and late evening after sunset or when the weather becomes cool to avoid burning of the roots due to heat build up in the soil.

When we talk about nursery management practices, i have gone round within my area here to discover that there are actually some nursery near me or will rather say some plant nursery near me here that follows these guides and their nursery plants eventually turn up very well for transplanting.

Read Also: The Different Types of Manure and How they Work