Advances in protected cultivation of Flower Orchard using best Soil Management and Horticultural practices

Introduction

Floriculture in India protrudes at high altitude of growth industry and an important source from the export point. The globalization and liberalization of Indian economy through industrial and trade policies pared the way for the export oriented production and productivity of the flowers orchard (esp. – cut flowers). Indian floriculture is on the street which shifts its traditional flower cultivation towards their cut flowers as export angle. Statistically, it is being practiced in 0.25 million hectare with 1.65 million tons production of loose flowers and 0.57 million tons of cut flowers in 2015-16 respectively. The increased production and productivity accelerates to the extent of 2.86 million tons in 2018-19 as compared to 2.78 million tons in 2017 – 18 (NHB, 2020).

International market of rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, gargera, gladiolus, gypsophila, liastris, nerine, orchids, archilea, anthuriu, tulip and lilies have their valuable position. Thus the multitudes of various systems towards flower orchard management have been advocated by the various workers which are conducted in the various part of the world. The distribution of orchard throughout the world is largely determined by the soil type, climate, varietal evaluation and new seed breeding techniques with different management practices. Furthermore, one management practice suitable for an orchard under a set of climatic condition may be undesirable for the other. Hence, a common myth for the protected cultivation was adopted by the clean cultivation with the cover crop throughout the part of year. The optimization in the improvement due to additional technological intervention supports to uplift the improvement of protected cultivation. Recently, zero tillage technique had been adopted in orchards with the use of herbicides and microclimate to the vegetation from the entire orchard land. 

Soil management practices too effect the growth of plant, flower yield, flower quality, flower characters by influencing the orchard eco-dynamics, physico-chemical and biological status of the soil, nutrient availability and moisture content. The presence of adequate amount of micro-flora, micro-fauna and the various vermin i.e., pest and disease also affects the potential dynamics of the orchard. Thus, a short review communication had been made to enhance the production and productivity of the flowers generation in India using cheap and best soil conservation and agricultural practices.

The global demand of the flowers increases day by day hence, it is difficult to provide the flowers of good quality throughout the year under an open condition. Protected cultivation i.e., cultivation under the green house or poly house suits to be the best option to get a quality and quantity of the flowers. These houses are well framed structure covered with transparent or semi translucent material so as to get optimum climatic condition for the plant growth. Thus, the yield and its attributing character would definitely optimize. Therefore, protected cultivation can be defined as a cropping technique where in the micro climate surrounding the plant body is controlled partially/ fully as per the requirement of the plant species grown during their period of growth. In India green house or poly house are practiced for the quality production of the flowers in an off-season. Crops which are grown remain unaffected with the outer atmosphere with regards to diet although it produces 10-12 times more than open environment. Therefore, protected cultivation is named for the condition in which the plants are grown well in an unfavorable condition for the normal growth and thus protects them from various biotic and abiotic stress. Only the controlled and optimum use of sunlight is made available to the plants.

A Comparative Studies Crop parameter in relation to Protective Cultivation and Open Field Condition

The comparative study was carried out by various scientists for floriculture under protective condition (green house or poly house) versus natural or open condition. They found that all the yield and its attributing characters suppress due to low availability of nutrients in an open condition as compared to protected due to major deficiency of soil organic matter content. Along with this there is deficiency of virtual micro-climatic condition in open condition which can be easily possible in protected.

Horticultural Management Practices

The following are the preventive measures which one has to take care under consideration:

1. The planting area should be ploughed twice and cleared from the weeds and leveled so that there should not be any competitions for the nutrients and other input surplus.
2. The proper soil analysis of the soil organic carbon must be made if the nutrient is deficient in the organic carbon then, FYM must be incorporated and mix well with top most layer of the soil @10kg per pit.
3. In general fertilizer application must be sprayed foliar, if equipment is not available then soil incorporation can also be achieved.
4. The planting material should be either transplanted or two to three month old cutting should be sown above the soil surface and mixed well with VAM.
5. Proper irrigation should be given with 3 – 5 days interval depending upon the prevailing microclimatic condition.
6.  Proper care should be taken for the plant protection from the insect, pest and diseases.
7. Desuckering, hoeing and removal of water suckers must be attended regurly. To increase the vegetative framework and quality of flowers, the first emerged flowers bud must be pinched off.
8. Flowers must be harvested in the early morning or evening hours when they attain 50 per cent opening for loose flower purpose.
9. For the best quality, the pedigree must be noted for the various growth parameter (viz – plant height, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, plant spread and stem girth), flower characters (viz – days taken for the emergence of flower bud, days taken for bud to bloom and days to 50 per cent flowering), yield parameter (viz – flower diameter, number of flower per plant, per cent of mortality, flower weight, average flower yield per plant per month, average flower yield per meter square, total flower yield per hectare). Finally, acceptance of the especial variety of flower from the consumer must be practiced so as to increase the quantum profit.

Soil Management Practices

As far as soil management practices are concern there is no such rule or law which has to be adopted so as the yield and its attributing character are affected because aeroponics and hydroponics are very well practiced. Though several points which can be taken as consideration when ever soil is used under the protective measures are as follows:

1. pH of the irrigation water should lies in between 5.5 to 7.0 and that of soil must lies between 5.5 to 6.5.
2. E.C. of the irrigation water should lies in between 0.1 dSm^-1 to 0.3 dSm^-1 and that of soil should be 0.5 dSm^-1 to 0.7 dSm^-1 so as plants should not affect with salts.
3. If not then take the management practices regarding to irrigation water and soil.         

Soil parameter Comparative Studies in relation to Protective Cultivation and Open field Condition

Regular application of the organic matter (i.e., compost, animal dung and manure) decreases the bulk density and makes the soil more acidic under the protected condition than in open condition. In general, pH range of the soil lies in between 5.5 to 6.5 and EC 0.5 dSm^-1 to 0.7 dSm^-1. The soil under this situation pertain less compactness with a good soil aggregate stability, high porosity and improved soil structure (Kharche et al., 2013). The addition of inorganic fertilizers to the protected shield increases the nutrient availability for the plant upto certain extent but more addition of inorganic fertilizers shows net loss of fertilizers and experimentally it shows a very close relation between the fertilizer application and its improper use. Contrary to this if the application high organic matter is increased beyond a certain limit, the rate of immobilization increases resulting decrease in the availability of the nutrient and water (Kumar et al., 2011). Thus, the nutrient in the close shed structure is mainly lost by the fixation. Hence, the input should be applied in the balanced way so as to make available plant nutrient.

Organic matters are the open source of various microbes hence, rhizospheric effect is much more pronounced in protected cultivation than the open source which are exposed to solar and heat treatments. Protective cultivation has both positive and negative impacts on the microbial dynamics as high use of organic matter increases the population on the same hand inorganic fertilizers of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium containing minerals reduces microbial biomass sharply due to the fact that high level of these nutrients are disables the growth of root of plants and therefore produces less biomass. High level had also been reported to be much more toxic for the pants (Biswas, 2007; Sparling, 2003).

The data shown below gives the best proper approximation of the comparative study between the soil properties when it is being exposed in poly house and open field.

Soil Indicator	Condition	Reference
	Polyhouse	Open
BD (mg m-3)	1.18	1.25	Chandel et al., 2017
Porosity (%)	45.86	42.2	Chandel et al., 2017
Cl– (cmol(p+) kg-1)	0.05	0.04	Chandel et al., 2017
HCO-3 (cmol(p+) kg-1)	1.65	1.06	Chandel et al., 2017
CEC (cmol (p+) kg-1)	14.97	14.21	Chandel et al., 2017, Mandal et al, 2016
pH	6.8, 5.18	6.7	Chandel et al., 2017, Mandal et al, 2016
EC (dS m-1)	0.56, 0.35	0.23	Chandel et al., 2017
OC (%)	1.76	1.37	Chandel et al., 2017
N (kg ha-1)	320.81	287.64	Mandal et al, 2016
P (kg ha-1)	82.94	55.43	Mandal et al, 2016
K (kg ha-1)	502	444.17	Mandal et al, 2016
Ca (cmol(p+) kg-1)	11.43	10.31	Chandel et al., 2017
Mg (cmol(p+) kg-1)	0.43	0.41	Chandel et al., 2017
SO4– S (mg kg-1)	96.91	39.04	Chandel et al., 2017
Zn (mg kg-1)	2.99	2.31	Manimegalai & Sukanya, 2014
Fe (mg kg-1)	24.97	27.19	Manimegalai & Sukanya, 2014
Cu (mg kg-1)	4.32	3.62	Manimegalai & Sukanya, 2014
Mn (mg kg-1)	6.55	7.71	Manimegalai & Sukanya, 2014
SMC (µg g-1)	459.89	377.13	Chandel et al., 2017, Manimegalai & Sukanya, 2014

Advantage / Disadvantages of Protected Cultivation

Protected cultivation evokes high relativity to increase the crop growth because of its ideal condition for the growth for vegetables and flowers. It imparts disease free and genetic superior plants continuously with the limited utilization of inputs VIZ – water, agrochemicals and other sources.

Some modern technologies such as hydroponics, aeroponics and nutrients film techniques are well grown and most demanded with the accelerated rate in the modern era of protected cultivation. However, hurdles of technology transfer with insufficient man power. It releases various toxic gases which disturbs the ecological balance. If by chance if a small undetected area is infected the whole population would severely infected hence, proper caring is required for the recovery of the population. Sometimes, the caring becomes more costly than in the open condition. The major drawback of the protected cultivation for the developing country is location specific and the right quality of polythene sheets at right time is unavailable.

Conclusion

The disturbed and accumulated soils are increasing in area around the globe and they exhibit a great diversity in their physico-chemical properties. This great diversity needs to examine their properties in details and proper management practices may be suggested for optimum uses on sustainable bases. The foregoing results suggested that relatively more healthy and productive soil was observed in the polyhouse conditions as compared to open conditions. Soil health was found to be affected by the management practices adopted by the farmer and the extent of fertilizer use over a period of time. In addition, further investigations are necessary to see the change in the soil health index with change in the age of polyhouses.

References

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