Plant Propogation and Nursery Management

Syllabus

Propagation: Need and potentialities for plant multiplication, sexual and asexual methods of propagation, advantages and disadvantages. Seed dormancy (scarification & stratification) internal and external factors, nursery techniques, apomixes – mono-embrony, polyembrony, chimera & bud sport. Propagation Structures: Mist chamber, humidifiers, greenhouses, glasshouses, cold frames, hot beds, poly-houses, nursery (tools and implements), use of growth regulators in seed and vegetative propagation, methods and techniques of cutting, layering, grafting and budding physiological & bio chemical basis of rooting, factors influencing rooting of cuttings and layering, graft incompatibility. Anatomical studies of bud union, selection and maintenance of mother trees, collection of scion wood stick, scion-stock relationship, and their influences, bud wood certification, techniques of propagation through specialized organs, corm, runners, suckers. Micrografting, hardening of plants in nurseries. Nursery registration act. Insect/pest/disease control in nursery.
Practical: Media for propagation of plants in nursery beds, pot and mist chamber. Preparation of nursery beds and sowing of seeds. Raising of rootstock. Seed treatments for breaking dormancy and inducing vigorous seedling growth. Preparation of plant material for potting. Hardening plants in the nursery. Practicing different types of cuttings, layering, graftings and buddings including opacity and grafting, etc. Use of mist chamber in propagation and hardening of plants. Preparation of plant growth regulators for seed germination and vegetative propagation. Visit to a tissue culture laboratory. Digging, labeling and packing of fruit plants. Maintenance of nursery records. Use of different types of nursery tools and implements for general nursery and virus tested plant material in the nursery. Cost of establishment of a mist chamber, greenhouse, glasshouse, polyhouse and their