Orchard Management (1+1)

TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL HORTICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Inter-cropping:

• In this, cash crops such as peas, strawberries and vegetables are grown in the vacant space between the rows of trees (Plate 5.1) during the early juvenile phase, until the trees come into bearing.
• Sometimes short duration fruit crops are raised as inter crops, which are also referred as ‘fillers`.
  

Plate 5.1:Raj mash as inter-crop in orchard

Suitable inter-crops for different crops are:

Banana : Green gram, cowpea, cauliflower, cabbage, yam, elephant foot, onion, Black gram, turmeric, brinjal, colocasia, dioscorea, chilies, lady’s finger

Ber : Green gram, moth, cluster bean, cowpea, cumin, chilies

Citrus : Beans, carrot, tomatoes, berseem, onion, potato, chilies, pulses, cucurbits,lady’s finger, gram, peas, tomato, cabbage

Date palm: Citrus medica, guava, sapota

Grape : Vegetables relevant to area

Guava : Cauliflower, peach, Frenchbean, cowpea, clusterbean, blackgram,

Greengram, Lady’s finger, onion, turmeric, garlic, cabbage, chillies, Papaya

Litchi : Turmeric, ginger, pointed gourd, sweet potato, tomato, radish, cabbage,turnip, brinjal, cucurbits, green gram, black gram, cowpea

Mango : Phalsa, papaya, guava, banana, peach, strawberry, pineapple

Papaya : Cabbage, cauliflower, chilies, radish, tomato

Pomegranate: Berseem, Lucerne, cowpea, green pea, cucurbit, cabbage,cauliflower, bean, peas, tomato, carrot, onion, potato, brinjal

Sapota : Banana, papaya, pineapple, broad bean, tomato, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, spider lily.

Principles of inter-cropping

To evaluate the effects of annual inter-cropped crops in fruit orchards on the productivity and sustainability of integrated fruit systems by enhancing the efficiency of both abiotic and biotic factors.

• Intercrops should occupy a secondary place in the orchard, primary consideration being given to the perennial fruit trees.
• The crops that may grow tall and have a tendency towards excessive growth should be discouraged.
• At least 120cm radius must be left from the base of the growing fruit trees for taking intercrops.
• Water requirements of the intercrops should as far as possible coincides with the requirement of fruit trees.
• Such intercrops should be selected that do not exhaust the nutrients and moisture from the soil, so essential for the growth of fruit trees.
• Perennial or exhaustive crops should be discouraged as an intercrop in the orchard.
• This may have devitalizing effect on the growing trees. For example, sugarcane, pigeonpea, maize, jowarshould invariably be excluded from an intercropping programme in the orchard.

Advantages:

1. Generates supplementary income during the initial juvenile years of orchard plantings.
2. Increases organic matter.
3. Increases soil nutrient status by fixing atmospheric N to soil by leguminous crops.
4. Reduces weed growth.
5. Improves soil structure.

Criteria for the selection of an intercrop: Main crops should always be given proper care in order to avoid root restriction, damage and infection, undue exhaustion of the soil, perpetuation of virus, fungal and nematode infection. Intercrops should therefore, receive secondary importance and fulfil following criteria.

• Should not be tall growing and spreading type.
• Should not be exhaustive.
• Should not function as alternate host for common pest and diseases.
• Water requirement schedule should match or phenology of crop should match so that operation could be synchronized.
• Should match for climatic requirements with main plantings.
• Separate provision for nutrients should be made for inter-crop to avoid competition.
• Intercrops should be preferably legumes or shallow rooted vegetables.

Types of inter-cropping:

• Parallel cropping: Cultivation of such crops which have different natural habit and zero competition. (Black gram/Green gram + maize)
• Companion cropping: Such inter cropping where the production of both intercrops is equal to that of its solid planting. (Mustard/Potato/Onion + Sugarcane)
• Multiple cropping/Multitier/Multilevel cropping: It is one of the cropping systems, wherein two or more crops are grown in succession within a year.
• Synergistic cropping: The yields of both crops are higher than of their pure crops on unit area basis. (Sugarcane + Potato)
  

Cover crops:

• The crops, which are raised between the tree rows during rainy season for protecting the soil from erosion, are referred as cover crops (Plate 5.2). These may or may not be turned into the soil.
• Leguminous crops like green gram, black gram, cowpeas, cluster bean, soya been during kharif season should be used.
• Pea, fenugreek, broad bean during rabi season can be preferred, as these add N to the soil by fixing atmospheric-N in their nodules.

Plate 5.2: White clover (Trifolium repense) provides year round orchard cover in temperate and sub-tropics regions.

Advantages:

1. Increase water retaining capacity and biological complexes of soil.
2. Increase organic matter in soil.
3. Improve soil condition.
4. Improve soil fertility.
5. Check soil erosion and thus also nutrient losses from soil.

Minimum tillage.

The inter-space between the trees is maintained without any soil working. The method is particularly followed in uneven topography. In this method, sod, weeds, cover crops and any other vegetation are controlled by the use of herbicide in spring. The method is extremely useful in controlling weeds and moisture conservation. Besides, nutrients are slowly released from dead materials.

Multi-storyed cropping:

Multi-storied cropping systeminvolves the growing of crops of different height, rooting pattern, and duration simultaneously on the same piece of land. This is most common in coconut based cropping system in Kerala (Figure 5.1) to meet diversified needs of farming community for fodder, food and fuel, besides increasing net return per unit area, e.g. coconut+ pepper + pineapple + grass. Taller trees, which has greater requirement for solar light, are able to trap more solar lightwhen grown as top story and those having requirement of lower light are raised as ground story. In this system, annual and perennial crops are grown side by side in different tiers by exploiting soil and vertical space more efficiently. Inter-cropping and mixed cropping with compatible crops in coconut plantations has been found to give increased returns to the farmers, without affecting yield of the main crop.

Figure 5.1: Coconut based multi-story cropping system